Hello Fellow Audiophiles,
Happy New Year to you all! I trust that you have all had wonderful holidays and perhaps some great listening experiences as well. If any of you have gotten some new stereo gear, congratulations! Last month, several of our long-term customers ordered our big guns, with two customers opting for VR-9SE Mk2's, one going for the finally-in-production VR-100XS, and yes, we are in the home stretch of our ground breaking uber speaker, the VR-111XS (six tower system). This pair was built with much input from our esteemed customer who wanted something that could approach symphonic levels in his small concert hall. As he also owns VR-9SE Mk2 (for rear ambience) with VR-11SE Mk2 for his mains, he wanted a substantial improvement in every area, thus was born the 111 model.
As this thread is about VSA's new models for 2014, I'll make several posts that will enable our Audio Circle members a glimpse of what's coming out. As usual, it will be a few months until the photos are released on our website, so here's a short list in advance.
VR-111XS :
With a total system weight of almost 5,000 lbs (spread out over six cabinets), the VR-111XS utilizes 44 pcs of custom-built drivers by Excel (Norway): 8 pcs magnesium dome tweeters with 4 pcs Heil Air Motion Transformer super tweeters, 8 pcs 5" Neo-motor magnesium midrange drivers, 16 pcs 7" magnesium mid-woofers, and 8 pcs powered 12" magnesium subwoofers in separate towers with 8 pcs 1,000-watt CIAudio custom-built amplifiers driving the subs. Yes, you read that correctly: each of the woofers has its own amplifier to provide control over the directivity beam designed into the subwoofer array. Each woofer has four voice coils to enable servo control, implemented via back-emf sensors to ensure correct timing with the mid woofers. These are operated in push-pull mode, loaded in sealed cabinets (12 cubic feet tapered labyrinths) for lowest propagation delay and highest transient speed.
The phase coherent crossover circuits are housed in separate cabinets for isolation, with each of the five frequency range boards separated from each other both physically and magnetically. All parts are "floating" on their isolated boards and are custom-built for this model by Deulund, Jensen, Mundorf, V-Cap, and Goertz. All internal wiring is to be the new ULTRA from Delphi. Cabinet build quality might be considered to be excessive: our well known "active" Triple-Wall composite of concrete, HDF, hard rubber, and aerospace adhesives with 4" thickness (minimum) and approaching 6" in critical areas such as the front baffles. Our tests conducted at JPL indicates that this cabinet design is 80% less "noisy" than 1" aluminum. We will soon have a Youtube video showing a comparison of our cabinet measurements vs the competition, using a unique method developed by my consultant at JPL. You will be able to see a live measurement as performed on each cabinet, with oscilloscope graphs showing the level of attenuation achieved by each method. Needless to say, this will be fascinating.
We predict 96dB sensitivity at 8 ohms, with distortion below 0.8% and response from 8Hz to 80kHz, reaching a volume level that should be close to a live orchestra with a similar sense of ease and dimensionality at any volume level.
VR-66:
Projected to retail at $50,000/pr, this new model will feature many of the design elements of the VR-100XS in a smaller package.
UniField Model 2.5 Signature:
At $20,000/pr this will be the new reference standard in mini monitors. It's a three way featuring all magnesium drivers, including a coaxial midrange and tweeter.
VR-35 Mk2:
The new $10,000 version will offer a painted finish in either black or white, with removable grill cover. Although white painted speakers have never been popular in the US, the white finish is "all the rage" in Europe, while black is the most popular in Asia (our main market) and the US. As a high gloss finish would add substantial cost, we have found a matte satin finish with a very slight texture to add dimension. The texture is composed of thousands of "micro dots" per square inch and looks somewhat like a high end powder-coat on metal. Some observers compare it to a 'velvet' look and we admit it is very attractive. Finally, you'll be able to visually inspect the drivers.
There are minor changes to the crossover boards to provide a little more clarity and also upgraded cabinet damping.
VR-33 Mk2:
The new paint finish is optional at $4,500/pr (with the old price of $3,750 still current for the fabric wrapped version).
In an upcoming post we will list our new home theater models consisting of new center channels, surrounds, and subs.
Happy Listening,
Albert
