Von Schweikert VR-4jr owners, your thoughts?


Hi, I was just wondering if there were any new VR-4jr owners here? And what do you think of them?
Are they worth the asking price... and more?
What are their strengths? Weaknesses?
And what are you driving them with?
Thanks for any input you may have.
Regards,
geoh
geoh
Well Stephen,

Mine are breaking in still and still trying to find the right placement (only downside to VS speakers but who cares) - the detail and soundstage and... are absolutely amazing. I could hear noises I thought were coming from outside and I hit pause to look. The noise stopped. It was actually the musicians in the symphony moving thier chairs, taking a breath before playing, etc and it was almost scary.

I still can't believe this is available for $4k. I just bought 100lbs of lead shot to put in it today that should improve them even more. I talked to Kevin and he said for the show that you went to they used 50lbs of lead shot for each speaker and they highly recommend doing that. Just an FYI when you get yours. It should make a big improvement.
Mine are on the way, they just shipped yesterday from California.
I have owned VR 1's, liked them, then moved up to VR 2's.
Had the VR 2's for over a year, sold em here, and now I am moving up to the VR 4JR's.
In my opinion, Albert Von Schweikert is one of the worlds premier speaker designers, and knows what music sounds like.
The man studied under Richard Heyser at Cal Tech, and at ESS under Oskar Heil.
He is a far cry from some of the "wood butchers" masquerading as speaker designers now days.
I cant wait for mine to arrive, I have waited a long time for my Vr4 JR'S .
I had to wait for my VR2's almost a month, but the wait was worth it.
Kevin at the factory told me that the extensive testing program just flat takes time, and I am ok with that.
I am sure that the wait will be worth it.
I've had my VR4jrs for about 3 weeks now and they have about 250 hours on them. They are an outstanding speaker for the money - even at 2-3x the price. Very involving!! They blew away the more expensive JMLab Electra 926 and 936s, and Vandersteen 3As, my former Vienna Acoustic Mozarts and their bigger brother the Beethoven, as well as Dali Concidence series. The VR4jrs are so much more musical and live-sounding. Absolutely outclasses the others in every way. Especially the JMLabs which although very revealing and make nice sounds, they do not make the music that the VR4jrs, or any of the VSA speakers do. Both my wife and I even prefer them over the JMLab Utopias.
I'm running them with a Rogue 99 Magnum preamp, Bryston 4BST amp and Rega Jupiter CD. Tried an Edge M8 amp for a week and the 4jrs sounded amazingly clear and transparent, significantly better than the Bryston although the latter is no slouch at all. So the speakers just seem to get better with each upstream upgrade.

Mine arrived with a defective rear ambience pot. VRS authorized a return of the upper box immediately by freight - I shipped the speaker to them in CA on a Tuesday from CO and I had it back in my living room by that Friday. Amazingly FAST and responsive service. I cannot recommend VAS products or their service highly enough. One minor quibble is about the spikes. Four of the eight of them bent when I loaded 40lbs of lead weight into each of the bass modules. Kevin of VSA says that there appears to be some inconsistency in the quality of the spike material used but they are shipping me some different spikes at no cost.
These will probably be the speakers that finally stop my in my upgrade journey - they are that good. Real Keepers.
Lots of good info jgiacalo.

Just wanted to second that the spikes do suck. You can bend them with your hands. I had to get some stronger ones aftermarket.
I was told that the JR had a more distant perspective, whereas the 4SE has a more forward sound. Does anyone know if this is true, because some of the comments I'm reading on this site do not seem to indicate the JR is distant. I personally prefer some presence in the midrange, opposed to laidback or recessed.