Rank Stereophile, & why no Von Schweikert reviews

I used to own VR 4.5's and they were rubbish. nice and bright with little controlled bass. great hi fi, but not for listening to music.

Vienna mahlers are night and day better - even when I had tube amps

hope they are better these days

I think this thread really shows the problem, people that are passionate about audio have a great deal of familiarity and are passionate (love and hate) about VSA. Any magazine committed to informing readers about hi fi equipment should have something to say about such a well known line of speakers that run from $1K to $150K and generate so much interest. If the reviewers had any real interest in providing value to readers (their real clients are the advertisers), then VSA would have coverage. B&W has it figured out a great self sustaining process, how to market and grease the right skids to get the reviews and covers they need to support a large dealer network. Come out with a new twist once in while to keep customers upgrading and you've got a recipe for success.

The purpose of Stereophile is not to deliver news and reviews to the audience but to deliver an audience to the advertisers.
$10 grand a page to advertise versus $10/year to subscribe. Pretty obvious, I'd say.

Albert has sunk a few companies that he has been involved with.I,personally,can't forget the VR-5s he demoed at CES 98.When I bought my pair only the drivers were the same.Cabinet bracing,special damping material and custom wiring/capacitors were not part of the speaker.I guess that you can't include these components and sell them for $12.5K.As I understand it ,the vr-6s loaned to us (Lloyd Walker/AHT) would have run 24K to produce.
I think it fraudulant to produce a "special" speaker for the SHOWS to make people want your product.Then tell them that it's the same,when it really isn't.I can't say how many pairs were bought after that show,but of the people that I know who did take the plunge,many sold them trying to figure out why they couldn't get that sound.I even went so far as to assemble the same components-quite an outlay in cash.If what I heard had not been so-movibg,I wouldn't have spent the cash.
Consider me a little gun-shy concerning VSA products.

Has anyone else noticed that this forum seems to be regularly peppered with queries comparing Von Schweickert to something else? Makes me a bit wary if this is a marketing ploy.