[mhconley]

It has been a LONG time since I have posted here on AudioCircle.  I am posting because we are buying a new home and I plan to finally purchase my first pair of VSA speakers...

I am looking at Unifield 3, VR4 GenIII HSE or VR-35.  I plan to buy used and/or NOS.  All are in the $3,500 to $5,500 range with the VR4 GenIII HSE at the lower end and the Unifield 3s at the high end.  I have heard the Unifield 3 and VR-35 both at RMAF; I have never heard the VR4 GenIII HSE.  (I was absolutely mesmerized by the Unifield 3s.)  I plan to place the speakers on the long wall in an 11' x 18' living room with a 12' ceiling.

My electronics are DIY 1000ASP ICEpower monoblocks, YS Audio Experience Balanced A2 preamplifier, PS Audio GCPH phono preamp, PS Audio Digital Link III DAC and an Opera Consonance LP-2.0 turntable with a Grado Reference Sonata MI cartridge.  I listen to everything from classical to jazz to female vocals to modern country to 70's AOR bands to 80's first wave to 90's grunge to metal.  Some favorite albums are Supertramp Crime of the Century, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, Adele 21, 3 Doors Down Seventeen Days, Natalie Merchant Tigerlily, and Alison Kraus and Union Station Live.

My current speakers are Fritzspeakers Carbon 7 towers.

Which of these VSA speakers would you recommend and why?

Thanks in advance...
Martin

[JackD201]

Hi Martin,

The HSEs are very warm and full sounding. The imaging is also great. The Unis as you know have this special clarity and extension up top that seems to go on forever. If you listen at moderate levels, I would recommend the Unifield 3. If you like to party hard, go for the HSEs. They simply move more air. Subs with Unifield 3s are also an option though. Both speakers can play anything well IME. I owned HSEs for 3 years (They were my first VSA speakers) and Unifield 3s for 6. The Unis have been my bedroom speakers until this week. They've been sold. I plan to order the UNifield 3 Mk2 but this time in Gloss Black. I'm thinking of having the stands chromed just to make 'em prettier. 

[mdconnelly]

I've got a pair of the VR-35s.  I previously had them in a room not unlike the one you describe.  On the long wall with the ability to place them essentially against the wall, they sounded amazing.  Huge soundstage -- wide and deep - with exceptional balance top to bottom.  If you've only got 11' of room depth to work with, you probably don't want the speakers sticking out 3-4' into the room - at least that was the case in my room.  I'd give the VR-35s a hard look because of their ability to be placed against the wall. 

[roxito]

I have not heard your particular model of speaker, but I heard a pair of Fritz bookshelf speakers at the Caifornia Audio Show a few months ago. They had very deep strong bass for such small speakers.I mean it was simply unbelievable and very memorable. My friend (mastering engineer & musician) and I were stunned to hear the subwoofer grade bass w/o a sub. So we asked him to play "Another brick in the Wall" (pink floyd) which I had brought along. We were using it as a reference to compare systems that impressed us at the show. Very quickly we found ourselves thoroughly disappointed by the overall performance. It was a mess compared to how it sounded at most other rooms. It felt like the speaker was a collection of premium parts, but not well integrated & tuned to be a coherrent musical unit. I purchased the Unifield 2 recently from VSA, and my experience has been very good.

[mhconley]

I am picking up a pair of one owner VR-4 GenIII HSE speakers tomorrow.  Can't wait to get them home and hooked up.  Will be trying them out in several different positions to see which works the best.

Martin

[mhconley]

So I got my "new" VR-4 GenIII HSE speakers home and set-up my system.  I began wiring all the connections and found I did not have enough connectors to wire the speakers.    I have the wire but am 2 pairs short on connectors.  I ordered connectors and hope to have the system up and running next weekend...

Here is a picture...


I am going to use the Master Set approach to place the speakers.  I'll likely move the speakers to the long wall but need to take down the Christmas tree first.

Anxiously awaiting spades...

Martin

[roscoeiii]

So I got my "new" VR-4 GenIII HSE speakers home and set-up my system.  I began wiring all the connections and found I did not have enough connectors to wire the speakers.    I have the wire but am 2 pairs short on connectors.  I ordered connectors and hope to have the system up and running next weekend...


I am going to use the Master Set approach to place the speakers.  I'll likely move the speakers to the long wall but need to take down the Christmas tree first.

Anxiously awaiting spades...

Martin

Look forward to hearing your impressions. I have really liked bi-wire speaker cables with my VR-4 Gen IIs. But you need some with lots of length where they separate due to the distance between speaker inputs on top and bottom modules.

[mhconley]

So...  The speaker wires I used with my Fritzspeakers Carbon 7's are homemade "anticables".  I have 2 pairs of 2m 12AWG solid core Teflon insulated Neotech UPOCC wire with bare ends.  I also have several lengths of Monoprice 12AWG CL2 rated speaker wire lying around.

I have ordered enough Furez SP8 spades and TST bananas to make 4 pairs of speaker wires.  They arrive tomorrow.  I have also ordered more 12AWG Neotech UPOCC wire but it takes a couple of weeks to arrive from Singapore.

The Furez connectors attach with Torx setscrews so they can be moved from wire to wire.  I plan to use the Monoprice wire until I receive the Neotech.  With either wire I will run two separate runs of wire, one to the lower cabinet and one to the upper cabinet.  I'll be powering them with my ICEpower monoblocks.

In the mean time I am also looking at tubes for the top end.  I am considering several 845 monoblocks with Raphaelite Sinovt 2A3-845 or Mr. Liang 845's being the top runners because they have volume pots which will allow me to better match them to my ICEpower monoblocks.

Until tomorrow...

Martin

[JackD201]

Looks like you're having a ball Martin 

[mhconley]

Looks like you're having a ball Martin 

I am... and the fun really started today.  I received the Furez connectors and promptly put together some speaker wires.  I used spades on my 12AWG Neotech and made a set of jumpers using the 12AWG Monoprice wire.  I ran the Neotech to the upper cabinets and jumped down to the lowers.  Finished hooking up the rest of the system and let the electronics warm-up as I ate dinner.

After dinner I sat down and started spinning LPs.  I started with Sarah McLachlan Surfacing and was immediately blown away.  These speakers are crazy good.  I know VR-4 Gen III HSE might be old news to most in this circle but today was the first time I ever heard them and they exceeded every expectation I had.  After Sarah I played Supertramp Crime of the Century (MFSL), Adele 21, Dire Straits Dire Straits, Making Movies and Brothers in Arms, and just ended up with Civil Wars Barton Hollow.

I can say these speakers have got it all...  They handled everything I threw at them with aplomb.  The subtlety was palpable on acoustic material and they had the balls when the material called for them.  I could not believe the micro-detail I was hearing.  There is a quick tinkle of a little bell in one of the Supertramp songs and today was the first time I could actually visualize the little bell.  And I fully understand the VR / Virtual Reality name.  I remember sitting in the alcove in Cor's room at the 2010 RMAF (Eera Tentation / Kronzilla / VR-35) when he was playing a track with a piano and it sounded like someone was playing a real piano around the corner.  On Sarah McLachlan's Do What You Have to Do I could hear each individual piano string and it was as if she was sitting in the room playing a real piano and singing.  Un-freaking-believable.  And this was with the speakers just placed in what I thought might be a good spot, i.e., before serious placement.

I don't think I'll ever let these go unless I somehow find myself with the scratch to pick up some VR-5's or better... I have found a speaker I can live the rest of my life with.  And I'll reiterate what I have always known - Albert is an absolute genius...

Martin

[JackD201]

Have you done the "ball of noise" speaker set-up procedure in the manual yet? Once you get the "sphere" really cool things start to happen. 

[mhconley]

Have you done the "ball of noise" speaker set-up procedure in the manual yet? Once you get the "sphere" really cool things start to happen. 

Unfortunately I did not get a manual; fortunately I just found one online.  (The internet is an amazing place.)  I'll follow the manual's very detailed placement instructions.

UPDATE - I got the "ball of sound" going.  The speakers are only 78" apart so they are toed out about 2.5".  I am sitting in the third vertex of an equilateral triangle, ambiance is nice at about 9 o'clock.  Going to spin some Zeppelin tonight.  Tomorrow I'm going to try them along the long wall in our living room.

Thanks,

Martin