VR-35

rlw3 · « **Reply #20 on:** 30 Jul 2011, 07:07 pm »

Got mine in October of last year from Albert. Changed rooms,added treatment to walls, wasn't crazy about what i was getting from the mids up. i have a cj act 2.2 pre and sim w7 amp and was worried that the synergy was off. i was thinking about a new amp when i started switching some jps lab interconnects for my synergistic research tesla accelorators. my deficiencies have greatly improved. so my advice is to remember you may have to tweak with some new wires after the 35s are broken in

ceedee · « **Reply #21 on:** 30 Jul 2011, 08:45 pm »

Hello Rune,

Yes, I was the first who recieved the VR 35 Export Deluxe, a year ago now.

I was very exited to have this primeur to unpack and setup. Albert send me the mesurements for the caps and feet which I had custom made out of marble. They fit exact and looked very elegant. I connected the VR 35 to my favorite Kronzilla amplifier and the EERA Tentation was my source. The connections were done by VSA Master's this time.

Pressed the buton and there was music just from the start. Well we were used to this with all other speakers from Albert. But this was an other experience. Normaly we had to pull the speakers in the room to get a real soundstage but now we had them close to the wall. I put in my favorite piece of Church Organ and the room was filled very 'spacy and airy'. As Albert told me, close to the wall you create a 'wall of sound' and so they did. We had them play for more than 200 hours to get burned in and the music 'growed' every day.
I took them to the Munich Show last year as World Primeur. They were setup in a booth located in a huge hall but sounded very natural. The first evening while I was tuning the system the night-guard came to me thinking there was someone playing the Bösendorfer grandpiano which was just beside our booth. He was very surprized the pianosound came from the VR 35.

The best performence I heard from the VR 35 was at the RMAF in Denver last year. In a 'simple hotelroom' we setup the VR 35 and connected them to the new Kronzilla SXI mk II sourced again by the EERA Tentation. After one day the system was that musical people stopped by several times enjoying the recordings I brought. To bad a show is always to short. When the system playes at best we have to breakup and leave. Any way, a lot of enthusiasts now know about the VR 35 and Albert and his crew are quite buzzy building them. They work for more than 8 hours a day so you don't have to wait long after ordering.

Happy listening, any Q's, just ask.

Cor

rlw3 · « **Reply #22 on:** 30 Jul 2011, 09:57 pm »

my synergistic research speaker cables have 4 spades for the speaker's twin sets of posts. i changed the normal hookup to all four spades to the upper posts only with some aluminum tin foil which had been folded and twisted as jumpers to the lower posts. Got a nice pickup in mid presence-don't know if i lost any bass yet. a fun and free tweek....

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #23 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 04:33 pm »

Quote from: JackD201 on 30 Jul 2011, 06:53 pm

A friend ordered a pair from us so we should be setting it up in a month or so. It will be my first time to hear them too so I'll keep you guys posted.

Great,looking forward to your impressions

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #24 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 04:49 pm »

Quote from: rlw3 on 30 Jul 2011, 07:07 pm

Got mine in October of last year from Albert. Changed rooms,added treatment to walls, wasn't crazy about what i was getting from the mids up. i have a cj act 2.2 pre and sim w7 amp and was worried that the synergy was off. i was thinking about a new amp when i started switching some jps lab interconnects for my synergistic research tesla accelorators. my deficiencies have greatly improved. so my advice is to remember you may have to tweak with some new wires after the 35s are broken in

Thanks for sharing!
Yes,I think its important to understand that a transparent speaker often needs work with the surrounding gear and cables.
I have Audio Note kits as DAC and preamplifier,and this also gives me lot of possibilities around tweaking with different caps and resistors.
I have only a little worry about the VR-35,and that is that the impulse response and coherence between the 10" bass and front-array aren't as fast and coherent as my VR-2,which are incredible at that.I do play some drums and bass,and I'm very interested in the interplay between bassist and drummer in very complex music,so that area is very important to me.
I just love the VR-2!! ,and in my room actually one of the most "musical" and easy VSA speaker I've owned to work with from all I've tried! They are easy to place and easy to get good overall musical balance,easy to drive with my Consonance M800SE(push-pull EL34 around 75w in ultralinear),and also gives very nice result with my DIY class-D Hypex.CI Audio uses some tweaked Hypex modules,I've owned the D-200,and I considered it a tad better than my DIY stuff,but still pretty close.

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #25 on:** 31 Jul 2011, 04:55 pm »

Cor,thanks a lot for sharing your experience with the VR-35!
Have you tried any transistor amplifiers on them that you like?
I'm going to try biamping with my 200w into 8 ohm Hypex class-D amp on the bass and different tube-amplifiers on the top.I had very good results doing that on the VR4Jr and VR4HSE.Never tried it on the VR5Anniversary.

ceedee · « **Reply #26 on:** 1 Aug 2011, 07:53 am »

Hello Rune,

Yes, we had the Anthem Statement P 5 as biamp connected to the VR 35.
Very powerfull, fast and detailed bass. We use the Anthem equipment for surround situations but also for two chanel solutions when tubes are not involved. Class D is also very powerfull but less musical as we feel.

See: www.anthemav.com

Enjoy.

Cor

BigSwede · « **Reply #27 on:** 1 Aug 2011, 05:06 pm »

Quote from: Jaco Pastorius on 31 Jul 2011, 04:49 pm

I have only a little worry about the VR-35,and that is that the impulse response and coherence between the 10" bass and front-array aren't as fast and coherent as my VR-2,which are incredible at that.I do play some drums and bass,and I'm very interested in the interplay between bassist and drummer in very complex music,so that area is very important to me.
I just love the VR-2!! ,and in my room actually one of the most "musical" and easy VSA speaker I've owned to work with from all I've tried! They are easy to place and easy to get good overall musical balance,easy to drive with my Consonance M800SE(push-pull EL34 around 75w in ultralinear),and also gives very nice result with my DIY class-D Hypex.CI Audio uses some tweaked Hypex modules,I've owned the D-200,and I considered it a tad better than my DIY stuff,but still pretty close.

I went from VR-2s to VR-33s. I can't say I've noticed any slop in the bass. I suspect the low crossover point of 80 hz has something to do with that. I haven't done any comparison listening between the VR-2s and the VR-33s yet, but I plan to soon now that the 33s are nearly broken in. I'll try to pay attention to that aspect and report back. Might not be until the weekend, though.

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #28 on:** 3 Aug 2011, 08:44 am »

Thanks for the tip on Anthem amps Cor! I'll keep it in mind if I'm not satisfied with the match with the amps I allready have.

BigSwede,I would very much like to hear your impression on differences between the VR2 and VR33!
I do think as you say that low 80Hz is a good crossover point,so if the front 6" go FLAT down to 80Hz they will have very much important mid to upper bass information.I agree that with lower bass our ears can't detect so well,and the wave-lenght of a 80Hz tone is probably so long that we can't excactly hear it if its lagging a little bit behind in impulse response.As Albert says those low frequencies just wrap around the cabinet.
I don't know what crossover-frequencies VR9 and VR11 have on the back-mounted 15",but I guess the front Seas "mid"basses on those go a little lower than the 80Hz on the VR-33.

JackD201 · « **Reply #29 on:** 3 Aug 2011, 08:55 am »

Actually 9s and 11s work best, you guessed it, crossed over between 50 and 80Hz.

Most transient and localization information happens above 80Hz so I really don't foresee any problems. A non VSA speaker that is a good example of coherence with a rear firing woofer is the Verity Parsifal. I believe it crosses over at similar frequencies.

Cheers!

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #30 on:** 4 Aug 2011, 09:33 am »

Thanks for the input Jack! ,now I worry less

I also do think that the low 80Hz crossover might make it very well suited for biamping,with a very powerfull transistor amp on the 10" and a very musical tube amp for the front-array

I had very good result doing that on the VR4Jr and VR4genIII HSE,but I do think that because their higher 150-200Hz crossover I also easier could detect that the signal was "chopped up" and fed through 2 different amplifiers.I heard that 1 amplifier was more coherent,but I usually still prefered to live with the compromise of biamping because I cant seem to live without good tubeamps from mids and up and I also like to play very loud at times with a powerful and controlled feeling in the bass-area. Another great thing about biamping when being able to adjust volume in the amp with the higher sensitivity and gain,is that we can finetune the overall balance of the sound to the room,equipment and personal TASTE

Those 4 ohms bass-cabinets of Albert also seems like they are a tough loud to most tubeamps I've tried on them,I even felt the VR5Anni was quite a tough load for my Consonance M800 75w EL34 push-pull monoblocks. I think it mostly have to do with that most tubeamps aren't that happy to work with low impedances.The VR-2 seems different.Off-corse I can't tear down the house with only 75 tube watts on them,but they still are easy to drive for the tubeamps I've tried on them.I think the VR-2 has something like 7 ohm minimum and overall quite even impedance.
I also owned expensive Papworth tube monoblocks,rated at 200w into 8 ohm,and those powerhouses did a great job in kicking life into the bass-cabinet of the VR4genIII,but they were blown away by my 75w Consonance from upper-bass and up in plain realism and natural sound.
This hobby is full of compromices !

BigSwede · « **Reply #31 on:** 8 Aug 2011, 03:36 pm »

Quote from: Jaco Pastorius on 3 Aug 2011, 08:44 am

BigSwede,I would very much like to hear your impression on differences between the VR2 and VR33!

I finally had a chance to do some listening last night (work has been crazy busy).

I listened to the VR-2s for the first time since the VR-33s arrived, and was reminded again why I love that speaker. The clean detail and full range in such a small speaker is amazing.

That said, the VR-33 is more. More of everything... bigger soundstage, more subterranean bass power. Simply a much more immersing experience that I missed when listening to the 2s.

The 2s were actually a skosh brighter than the 33s, but I could never say that the 33s were missing anything on the top end.

As far as your bass question, I couldn't detect any holes or slop in the 33s response, although it sounded a bit different than the 2s. They sounded a bit quieter and deeper in a few spots than the 2s, although I theorize that is more likely due to the 2s straining a bit to produce really deep bass. I put on some rock music, and the 33s ability to put out a solid foundation is remarkable. Again, more.

I hope this helps.

es347 · « **Reply #32 on:** 8 Aug 2011, 04:04 pm »

BigSwede = happy camper

BigSwede · « **Reply #33 on:** 8 Aug 2011, 04:27 pm »

Quote from: BigSwede on 8 Aug 2011, 03:36 pm

As far as your bass question, I couldn't detect any holes or slop in the 33s response, although it sounded a bit different than the 2s. They sounded a bit quieter and deeper in a few spots than the 2s, although I theorize that is more likely due to the 2s straining a bit to produce really deep bass. I put on some rock music, and the 33s ability to put out a solid foundation is remarkable. Again, more.

I should also mention that I have not had a chance to experiment much with positioning of the VR-33s with respect to the wall. At present, I have them about 8" from the plaster wall in my living room. It is possible that my bass impressions would change once I settle on a position. Though they sound pretty darn good where they are.

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #34 on:** 9 Aug 2011, 05:57 pm »

BigSwede,thanks for the comparison of the 2 speakers!

Yes,I think I know very well what you mean by more.Probably a little bit like when I had the VR4Jr and VR5Anniversary side by side.The VR5Anni had quite a bit more of all the good stuff!

Seems like I will get my VR-35 in about a week and a half.
Will get back with some insane bragging that they surely are the worlds best loudspeaker,EVER!!

zugisland · « **Reply #35 on:** 10 Aug 2011, 05:18 am »

HAd my silver clad VR-35's for a week now and have finally gotten aorund to listening to some mulit channel..movies in my home theate r setup with them.
As far as stereo..i was initially underwelmed until I played with them a bit and moved them closer to the back wall...Once that occured the magic began to happen...The sound stage is so wide and high it almost seems like a gimic...I have a 60 in plasma between them along with my eqipment rack and the sound just eveserates all that gear as if it doesnt even exist. Vocals are as if I am sitting down in a theater and looking up onto a stage as the singer performs. Bass is full and deep with out being overwhelming. Blues , Acoustic and Vocal music shine ...Originally there was a bit of grunge in hard complex rock passages when multi guitarshit hard but that is clearing up as the drivers break in too..I honestly had nice Dali Helicon 800s before this experiment with he VR 35.s ..I also heard in showroomd the B&W diamonds, the Paradigm Reference 6s, The new Monitor gx300 and pl300...The new Totem earths..and quad's too...I really have not heard anything like the unique sound coming from the Vr 35s..and the uniquenss is quite good now..I am driving them with the new Bryston 7bsst2 mono blocks which pack qquite a punch. When i apply power via volume the Vr35's really kick in !..will give more impressions as I break in ...Vic

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #36 on:** 10 Aug 2011, 08:57 am »

Good stuff Vic

I do like big sound !

Enjoy them

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #37 on:** 24 Aug 2011, 12:34 pm »

Got my VR-35 on friday,and,Albert you are a genius!!

It is still early,so my enthusiasm might fade a little over time,but so far these speakers really are the music-machines I hoped they would be!
They have met and surpassed all my expectations. I think I must wait some to see more of the whole picture,but the main impression so far is that they are so incredible musically engaging on ALL my recordings!! In many ways that is all I need to say,that is what really matters to me,all the incredible music that has been recorded through the years

The VR-35 just have an incredible balance in my view,I cant hear no weak spots,offcourse that doesn't mean its perfect,I dont know what that would mean anyways,maybe VR-11 in a BIIIG room?Or for me perfection would mean actually hiring the band to perform in my room,real instruments in the room,and we know that kind of complete information is not found on any recording,not one perfect microphone excist,so the perfect is lost allready at that point.
The main thing about VR-35,they just get out off the way and let the music come through

In fact I might not even give them the right conditions either since there is a opening next to one of the speakers,they are not on spikes yet,and I have not done any work with the rest of my set-up,no voicing with changing tubes,cables aso.Just plugged them in and moved them 2 times,at the moment 5" from the backwall.
And allready they give me big musical experiences !!

es347 · « **Reply #38 on:** 24 Aug 2011, 12:53 pm »

Albert is da man! Have fun Jaco

Jaco Pastorius · « **Reply #39 on:** 24 Aug 2011, 01:46 pm »

Quote from: es347 on 24 Aug 2011, 12:53 pm

Albert is da man! Have fun Jaco

He sure is Gavin!
Have fun you too with another of Alberts masterpieces,the VR5Annies !

BTW,I hope I don't offend anyone by using one of my favourite musicians name as username ? !
I played Pastorius "Birthday concert" from 1981 earlier today,and WOW!! ,the closest thing I've been to actually being there! The bass presence,definition,and dynamics of the VR-35 is some of the coolest stuff I've ever heard !! In many ways it combines some of the best features from other favourite stuff I've owned like Klipschhorn,Altec VOT A5/A7 ,Horning Alkibiades,Audio Note E with alnico drivers,dipole-bass aso. I have much of the same feeling with the VR-35 as I had with the VR5Annies!