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Von Schweikert VR4/Amp combos that work?

I'm interested to hear from VR4 Gen III or VR4 SE owners who are satisfied with their present amplifiers and why. I am using a Bryston 14B SST with a First Sound Presence Deluxe II preamp, and EMC 1-UP CDP. While the system sounds very good, I feel the sweet spot is small. This small sweet spot is contary to what I have read regarding the VR4 SE's and I'd like to know if you other Von Schweikert speaker owners have amps in your systems that give you a larger sweet spot. I spent considerable time setting and positioning the speakers until I found the location that afforded the best soundstaging and sweet spot without definite "Left/Right" channel distinction and I'm wondering what might be done differently. Thanks in advance for your input.
tvad
jtinn
1,123 posts
 
I have heard them with Ayre, Sim, TacT and Spectron and they were all quite good. Although it appears as your amplifier is the weak link in your system, I am a bit surprised as to your comments regarding the "sweet spot".

If you care to email me your phone number, I would be happy to walk you through my version of how the speakers should be setup and placed.
sedona
144 posts
 
I had the Vr4 Gen III with a Bel Canto 200.2 and it sounded fabulous.
rcprince
2,830 posts
 
The late Valerie Kurlycheck (aka Anna Logg) used a BAT VK 75SE with her VR4 Gen IIs; the sound was outstanding. She also had an older BEL 1001 that sounded good with them as well, but the BAT was something special.
tvad OP
9,467 posts
 
Very interesting. It would seem the VR4's work well with a wide variety of amps, which makes me think it's the speaker set-up rather than the Bryston amplifier that's the cause of the small sweet spot.
rcprince
2,830 posts
 
Tvad, that's probably a good observation. The Von Schweikerts are wide-dispersion speakers, they should be quite spacious-sounding with a large sweet spot, although perhaps not as pin-point in the imaging as some other types of speakers. Do you have them firing straight ahead instead of toed in? I think they work better that way.
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