VR-4 MKIII HSE room size question

GentleBender · « **on:** 31 Jan 2015, 09:20 pm »

Just sliding down this slope of HiFi and was wondering if the VR-4 MKIII HSE would make a good choice for a 12' x 13' x 9' room with zero acoustic treatment. My wallet hopes not...

Charles Calkins · « **Reply #1 on:** 1 Feb 2015, 01:23 am »

The room might be a little bit small. I have the same speakers in a room that is 24Lx16W with an 8ft. ceiling. I can't imagine your speakers would work in a smaller room. But HEY!!! try it!! if you like what you hear ENJOY!!!

Cheers
Charlie

GentleBender · « **Reply #2 on:** 1 Feb 2015, 12:18 pm »

Thanks. I needed to HEAR that. Was pretty sure they would be, but they are so good that I wanted to be sure. There is someone here that has them for sale at $2500. Thanks for talking me off the ledge.

mhconley · « **Reply #3 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 02:16 pm »

You must be in Tampa / St. Pete???

I purchased an identical pair of VR-4 MKIII HSE (black over walnut) around this time last year from Sweet Home Audio in Clearwater on consignment and have them in smaller room than yours. It's a small dining room that opens on one end to a smallish size living room. Still the speakers are just 80" apart and 96" from tweeter to ear. My room is untreated and they sound utterly fantastic.

Just this weekend I started putting up 6 2'x4' panels I had up in my previous listening room. I am putting 3 horizontally on the wall between the speakers, 2 in a corner off the right side of my listening chair and one high on a wall behind me. The left side of the room opens at an angle to the living room and doesn't need treatment.

I say get 'em and be prepared to be amazed. They are fantastic speakers.

Martin

GentleBender · « **Reply #4 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 03:36 pm »

Would 110 watts be enough to drive them well? My listening position is only about six feet from the speakers, if pulled out three feet.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #5 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 04:02 pm »

In such a small room, 110W would be ample. Von Schweikert VR4s are not hard to drive,

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #6 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 04:56 pm »

I had a pair of these in a 16 x 25 room a few years ago. 12X13 seems a bit small to me.

I didn't keep them very long. I thought they were pretty good speakers, just not great.

Shakey

roscoeiii · « **Reply #7 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 06:28 pm »

Is this room a long term home for the speakers? If so, you might want a better size speaker for that room. Or, do something to help the VR4s fit the room. I used a DSPeaker Dual Core to tame the room interactions with my VR4s against the long wall of a 12 x 18 room.

GentleBender · « **Reply #8 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 06:56 pm »

This would be the long term home in the foreseeable future. I'm going to try and hold off, continue to stalk Audiogon and others laying in wait for the perfect speaker. Save up and order either something from Klaus or Salk Audio. I have been drooling over the Salk Audio Songtower RT, but think I will replace my industrial Audio Technica for a VPI first. I hate that the RCA cables are permanently attached, but it is built like a tank. Speakers or source? Hmmm...

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #9 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 07:17 pm »

For that size room you should probably rule out most floor standing speakers. Think monitors.

Shakey

GentleBender · « **Reply #10 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 07:46 pm »

Noooooooooooo…..

Just kidding. The problem I have with monitors is the lack of low end punch. I'm into a bit of everything, metal and rap are just two of them. A sub could be added to get that, but the complication of blending them together and the added price has kept me away. It seems if you want down low, the costs go up significantly. I need something that can handle Vivaldi, Otis, Hendrix, Beck, Beastie Boys along with Metallica and Megadeth and some other way out there stuff. I want something that can handle the double bass of the kick drum and make me feel it without turning into a muddy stew of boom. I know very little of this subject and have received so much from this forum. Please feel free to educate me.

roscoeiii · « **Reply #11 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 08:02 pm »

If you want punch in that room, it can be done with floorstanders , but not easily. Again, I'd do something like a DSPeaker Dual Core to help with that room's influence.

GentleBender · « **Reply #12 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 09:10 pm »

The DSPeaker Dual Core looks intriguing. At this time everything I play is vinyl. If I ran the turntable into the phono stage then out to the DSPeaker Dual Core then to amp, would that work? Would it work well? I'm not sure if it would create delays, But since I don't know what I'm talking about…

roscoeiii · « **Reply #13 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 09:31 pm »

I have used the DSPeaker with almost exclusively vinyl. The A/D/A conversion is quite good. Be on the lookout for mine to be on sale soon. I stepped way up to a DEQX HDP-4 to perform the function of the DSPeaker (and more!). Should be here any day.

GentleBender · « **Reply #14 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 09:46 pm »

What is the setup like? I'm assuming mic and laptop...

roscoeiii · « **Reply #15 on:** 2 Feb 2015, 10:13 pm »

No laptop needed. There is a mic included. It plays some signals through the speakers, and then automatically corrects the bass to correct for room responses below a frequency of your choosing (up to 500HZ). It won't be able to bring up dips too much (physically impossible due to room effects and the demands that bringing up those dips would place on an amp), but it will flatten out the bass response considerably and help greatly with room-related issues.

Here's a review that covers the features pretty well:

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/dspeaker-anti-mode-20-dualcore-digital-signal-processor/

GentleBender · « **Reply #16 on:** 3 Feb 2015, 10:45 am »

Wow! Quite the step up, congrats on your new piece. Waiting is the hardest part for me. I'm waiting on my Odyssey gear from Klaus and it is killing me. Please post your thoughts when you get your DEQS. I know it will take some time to break in, but when you're ready let me know what you want for the DSPeaker.

BigSwede · « **Reply #17 on:** 3 Feb 2015, 02:00 pm »

Quote from: Shakeydeal on 2 Feb 2015, 07:17 pm

For that size room you should probably rule out most floor standing speakers. Think monitors.

Shakey

Maybe you should look at the VR-22/33, which are designed to be close to the back wall.

Shakeydeal · « **Reply #18 on:** 3 Feb 2015, 04:14 pm »

That's a good suggestion.

Shakey

ASMAN · « **Reply #19 on:** 3 Feb 2015, 05:29 pm »

I would recommend the VR-22 as I have had mine for about two years. An excellent speaker.
I have mine about 12 inches from the wall to the rear of the speaker.
I was still having bass management issues and I didn't want to spend a ton on room treatments and all the trial and error associated with them.
I sprung for the DSpeaker unit a year ago and it has worked wonders.
Bass is tight and more controlled. I can actually hear more of the music that was buried beneath bass overload.
My listening area is 13 x 15 ft of a 23' long room. It has some real standing wave issues. The DSpeaker unit worked well.
My only knock is it claims to have 3 possible inputs but it is really one RCA and one balanced (you can only use either or, not both simultaneously) and another type of input a couple of which I can't use.
I have to manually switch the RCA cables if I want to use the OPPO BDP-95 and my MMF7 turntable. Kind of a pain in the ass.
Maybe someone else could chime in and advise how to use both at the same time.

Marlin