Hi Jeff,
I was a B&W fan too way back when. In college I had 604s, CDM1s and CDM2s and just recently bought my daughters a pair of 2nd hand DM303s for their iPods. I was auditioning N801s when I ran across a pair of VSA VR-4 Gen 2s at a friends place. I was smitten. I tried to order a pair of Gen IIIs from the former distributor but got the run around for two months. He kept trying to push Dynaudios on me. It turns out he was no longer representing VSA. I ended up buying factory direct. So many friends liked them and wanted to buy them so I ended up importing them with Keith and Richie.
Richie's dad was a B&W diehard having owned every pre nautilus iteration of the 801 since their inception. Just as he was considering making the jump to the N800 Signature, he after pooh pooh - ing his son about importing this "never heard of before" VSA brand, finally decided to visit us at the Philippine Audio Show at least as a sign of support. He didn't push through with his N800S and is now a happy camper with VR-4 SR Mk.2s. The son inherited the 801 Matrix IIIs. No big deal since of the three partners he's the one who entered into the venture purely for business and was never an audio addict unlike his father. aka he of 25,000 CDs fame. It has become a running gag that Richie isn't getting high on his own supply. He promises to do so however when his stint in Jakarta is over and he heads back home.
Match up wise, I'd guess that the 9s go up against the Nautilus whose form I absolutely love but whose requirement of 8 independent channels of amplification I could never get past. That and the fact that there's no place to audition one even if the interest and intent was dead solid. The 5 Anniversary is a perfect foil for the 800s both S and D, The SRs IMO trump the 801 but sadly I haven't heard the 801D. No orders. We kinda took away their market. The trend over here is a shift to tube amplification. The VSAs are much easier to drive and thus allow a greater flexibility in the choice of upstream components. Specs say 20 minimum but personally I'd say 50 tube watts to get the party started. For the B&Ws look at 150 wpc and up. That was a major reason for us grabbing market share but more important is what's below. Read on if I haven't already bored you to death.
On to the sound. The FST driver for me has a phase-y character to it. This property enhances the sense of space in a way and it actually endears itself to many a Bowers and Wilkins lover. It can be warm and engaging as a result too. That is until I learned just what phase-y sounded like as opposed to accurate depiction of space. This got drilled into me after hundreds of hours working on post production for TV and film. I've found that VRs by design handle the phase aspect of sound reproduction better than any other loudspeaker I have heard. The effect is a sense of timing, solidity and a more realistic recreation of the movement of air during the recording as opposed to the FST's more post processed reverbishness. Darn my spell checker is going nuts at my mangling of the english language.
While SRs are not immune to phase-y-ness and such traits to were apparent with their own kevlar impregnated drivers, I found that the phase problems were the product of cable interactions and not the drivers themselves. When I switched from AP Oval 8s to Verbatims the overshoot on EFF and ESS sounds largely disappeared. To this day it is a mystery to me why that should have happened. I tried several other cables too with varying results. SRs liked Audience Au24s too and actually fared better with lower model AP. Too much of a good thing perhaps? Maybe.
Down below, I personally find the bass of VRs tighter more linear and more tuneful. One needs VERY powerful amps to keep the 801s and 800s under control and still the VRs retain the edge while still go down lower. At this point we're covering upwards of 90% of audio content. All that's keeping the B&Ws in the fight is their tubes and their new diamond tweeters. That is if ultra clear is what you like. The 5s have no problem whatsoever keeping up, The Vifa unit on the SRs may be down a bit in perceived extension compared to a D tweeter and maybe a bit rolled vs the S' standard tweeter.
VSA is not a very large company and most of the time the speakers are sold out. The lack of review units has been an issue as to why there aren't very many reviews. The larger units are impossible for reviewers to move into basements and 2nd floors by themselves. That's another reason for the lack of reviews.
These are my experiences and opinions only of course and since I'm a dealer, I'm honor bound to urge you to try and audition a pair wherever so you can experience them for yourself instead of having to take my or anybody else's word on it . Happy Hunting!!!!
A
