Anyone heard the Von Schweikert Unifield 3?

I heard a V/S speaker recently at a dealer's home. They were finished beautifully..good looking. They were either the 5 or 7's - can't remember. Anyway, the sound was unacceptable to me or to my friend who was with me at the time. There was little or no bass, no dimensionality, brittle highs, etc. We both looked at each other in amazement. There are lots of posts on Audiogon that say that this brand is questionable at best. Listen to these and others with those prices and make a decision on what you hear...not what you read.

Very strange. You may not like the sound of the VR-5 or the VR-7, since that is subjective, but to say that they have little or no bass is silly. It is like saying the Quads have no coherence or transparency.

Of course I agree with you as far as trusting your ears, and taking any opinion on these forums as a reliable guide and not absolute truth.

Stringreen,

Bob asked for comments from folks who have heard the Unifield 3. The Unifield 3 is in many ways a scaled-down version of the VR-9. It is a very neutral speaker. If the upstream components produce an anemic sound the Unifield 3 will reflect exactly that. This was clearly illustrated in a comparison of another setup vs. mine. It's not fair to blame the speaker without taking into consideration the room and the upstream components.

What I was cautioning is that there are many including me that have heard this brand and have found them lacking. When I say no bass, I mean it. The texture was wrong: they were flat sounding..no depth, no air... The ancillary equipment included fancy tubes and high priced cables. The speakers were unacceptable to both my friend and me. If you like that sound, fine, but I cautioned in my post against buying hype. Their website, specs, etc., are hard to be believe. I also remember listening to the Jr.s. They too didn't make music. There is usually a house sound to manufacturers. I am simply stating a cautionary note. By the way...I auditioned the 20,000 dollar Triangle speakers and thought the VanSchweikerts were better.

I auditioned a pair of the Unifield 3's a couple of weeks ago in my home. I'm a current user of the VR-4 SR's. I'm also very familiar with the sound of the VR-9's, since a friend of mine has a pair. I found the Unifield 3's being one of the best sounding speakers I've heard. The high's were silky smooth, with no grain. The bass is tweaked on these to deliver a nice warm, rich bass, but no subsonics. Which, as another said, is due to it's small foot print. But I found this trait worked very well with adding a subwoofer to the mix. I listened extensively to these speakers with, and without my Sub (Velodyne DD-18). I found that they mated easily with the sub without any bloating, or muddying up of the music. Because of the low efficiency of the Unifield 3's, I would say you need a big, beefy amp to drive them (which I have). And I agree that like so much other hi-end equipment, their performance is going vary depending on what they are mated with. But in the end, I really liked them, and I am in process of getting a pair.