Von Schweikerts or Coincidents or ?

Von Schweikert uses the latest in speaker technology
The VR-7's use the revaltor tweeter.. One of the most expensive and best sounding around. Mids are Aerogel whiich are also among the best.
The Xover upgrade you talk about also involves silver wire..
As far as changing models... Whats wrong with improving an existing speaker system? His upgrades are cost effective and allows the buyer to take advantage of the new technologies. Why would anyone complain about that?
The VR5 and VR7 are his first speakers with VSA. He also supported ALL his other speakers from the old company.
Thats great customer support..
Seems you have an ax to grind with VSA.. nothing else you presented is worthwhile.
mike

If your looking to marry good sonics with visual appeal to please th wife I would suggest Vienna Acoustics or Sonus Faber

Rhyno, you make several good points that I agree with, it's your bias the thing I disagree with. To each his own most of the time, but in our little audiophile world I find that, based on my first hand experience, your bias against Mr. Von Upgrade is plainly wrong.
You say: <<< i have no loyalty to mfgs. only good products >>>. Neither do I, and that's a good point. Those who are true audiophiles are to be commended in our hobby, not the ones who give financial success and their brand name being a status symbol the utmost importance. But, for some reason, you refuse to admit that Von Schweikert falls right into this category, of the true audiophile who spends his time improving his speakers rather than marketing them.
You also say:<<< [...] none of these high-end mfgs feel the need to bombard the mkt with model after model and upgrade after upgrade. continuous models and upgrades, my friends, is the way to run a software company--not a loudspeaker company >>>. Unlike a software company, these upgraded speakers do NOT invalidate previous models, and they are all supported by VSA. Unless you want the latest, you can live quite happily with the previous model, so what's the matter ? When VSA will start making turntables a la Rockport, I would, however, expect fewer speaker models, but right now the guy does what he knows best, speakers.
You say: <<< a 2-way for $8k will beat a 4-way for $8k most every time >>>, yeah, unless the 2 way one is worth 4 k and is being sold for 8k.
You say: <<< to get the quality of a merlin x-over in a 4-way, expect to spend $25k & up >>>. Right, but how about making a speaker that could compete with speakers costing 25k and up, then selling it for 10k ? (VR-5)
You also say: <<< want bass? buy some used entecs and be done with it. full range speakers rarely can do full range properly. >>> True, but that invalidates the advantage of using a simple crossover in the first place, because you add the sub's crossover, don't you? A speaker made out of top quality parts as a full range in the first place, using a top notch design, is better than a 2-way with an added sub (plus its own crossover), don't you agree?

Rhyno, I generally enjoy your posts, and your dedication is to be commended. To bad that you fail to see or admit that Albert is one of us, meaning a true audiophile, a very gifted one on top of that, making some really, really good speakers.
Thanks for reading!

to integrate subs, use nothing more than a GOOD cap in series w/ your amps inputs, matched to your amps input impedance. this will give 2db per octave, and sound 100x better than a sub's internal (or a marchand / bryston external) x-over. this is the only way to integrate a sub properly (assuming you know your subs rolloff slope).
i've done this w/ merlin vsm-ms, and to my knowledge i am one of the only people to integrate subs w/ merlins and make a $10k speaker investment trump anything under $15k (soundlabs are at that point).

my point is if you have a limited budget, full range speakers are DAMN expensive to do right, or you could do what i described above.

btw: i never said albert made "bad" speakers. i've heard better (at the price, i liked celestion better for a 4-way). his are ok (better than krell, wilson, thiel). but i do what i will given his business practice: i vote w/ my $$ and buy elsewhere. frankly i wouldn't consider his products for that very reason; i am not alone, just alone on this post.

one more thing: no speaker is a lifetime purchase. if you own AVS, good luck w/ a resale value (hint: yes, everyone DOES want to own the latest thing).

rhyno

Rhyno, thanks for the valuable tip on the crossovers. However, until I get a 2-way for a second system this doesn't apply to my already good primary system using full range speakers, but don't you think more 2-way spk users (Merlin's) deserve to get more out of their speakers, since you personally stated you're among the very few using this? You ought to post the tip on AA.
You said: <<< at the price, i liked celestion better for a 4-way >>>, great, we're different people sporting different tastes, and that makes the hobby great. I personally prefer the 2-way Sonus Faber to the 2-way Merlin at the same price, and so what? But please note that SF's top speaker is a full range one, and so will be Merlin's when they come out with their statement product.
You also said: <<< i vote w/ my $$ and buy elsewhere. frankly i wouldn't consider his products for that very reason >>>, and I did precisely this (voted w/ my $$$) by buying from Albert, because I didn't see his struggle to keep up with the latest spk technologies, but at the same time offering upgrades and support for older spk as being bad business practice. Making 4 speakers in a lifetime cannot possibly shake hands with keeping up with the technology. So I still fail to see where the problem is.
Low resale value for VSA speakers? Where? When? No VR-7 has ever been offered for sale on the 2nd hand market to my knowledge. The older models are, indeed, great values as 2nd hand purchases, but that's good, isn't it?
As a side note, I see that you sold your Joule Electra preamp. What's next? A CTC Blowtorch?
Regards,

romandoc