Hello Fellow Audiophiles and VSA owners,
I am pleased to present this Press Release with full information about our room at the upcoming RMAF show in Denver. Von Schweikert Audio will be showing the new VR-55 Aktive with Constellation Audio and Master-Built Audio in Room # 549. Constellation Audio will be demonstrating their Centaur power amplifier (250-watts per channel @$27,000 USD) and their Virgo preamp ($32,000 USD), driving the Von Schweikert VR-55 model ($35,000-$42,000) using Master-Built NASA-grade wiring looms throughout. Signature Series power cords ($6,200), interconnects ($3,600), and bi-wire speaker cables ($7,500) will be used. This advanced wiring loom is made from matched Single Crystal lab-grade copper with NASA-grade shielding and ISO9000 specifications. The music source will be the YFS Ref3, the best sounding source we have yet experienced, which is configured to drive our EMM Labs DAC2X in DSD. Although we will be using hi-rez files most of the time in both PCM and DSD, we will be playing some Sony Redbook 16-bit recordings which can also sound quite good. We wish to thank YFS and EMM Labs for their gracious support of our room.
Sonic Goal of VR-55:
Most audiophiles are looking for a mid-sized speaker that costs less than a new Ferrari. They are looking for a beautiful speaker which will fit into any type of decor, but most importantly, they want a speaker that will give them goosebumps every time they listen to their favorite music. For the past 15 years, the VR-5 has been our model that fit those requirements. We know that hundreds of you own our previous versions of the VR-5, so this upgrade will come as quite a surprise. As stated in our previous Press Release, the VR-55 now follows the form of the VR-44 shown on our website. The single cabinet can be built to a higher degree of resonance damping, and the pyramid shape and sloping front baffle permits mechanical Time Alignment for phase coherence along with a minimum baffle area around each driver for a wider dispersion pattern. Naturally, the cabinet uses our Pat. Pend. Triple-Wall Laminate design, which was so aptly described and photographed by Robert Harley, Editor of The Absolute Sound, during his tour of our Design Studio and engineering laboratory here in Riverside, California. He listened to an A/B comparison of our Triple-Wall Laminate versus a solid panel of 1601 aircraft-grade aluminum and was shocked at the comparison. Read his article on the TAS website (and to appear next month in their print edition) to discover his opinion.
New Drivers:
The VR-55 has undergone several radical changes during the development process, and although we previously announced that it would be using the existing drivers from the well-respected VR-5 Anniversary series, we have just received an all-new transducer set from Germany that has been in development for two years. As there was a question of whether the new drivers would be available, we played it safe by having a fall back plan, which was to use the Anniversary drivers. However, within the last month, we have approved the new drivers which are now finally in production. This is exciting news, as these drivers are quite different from the original ones in many ways - especially in sonic terms.
New Tweeters:
The company who has built tweeters for us since 2001 has a new model that employs a doped Beryllium dome with Wide Surround, driven with a ring of Neodymium magnets. This tweeter has approximately 40% less measured distortion that our original Dual Ring silk dome unit. Since this tweeter has a measured response that extends higher in frequency than our previous tweeters, the airiness and harmonic structure of the music is greatly improved. We are amazed that this new dome tweeter sounds similar to the OEM ribbon tweeter found in our VR-100XS, which was awarded Best Sound Of The Show by Robert Harley, Editor of The Absolute Sound magazine, at the Newport Beach Show last June.
To provide more sound stage depth, we have engineered an all-new Ambience Retrieval System which now utilizes the ribbon tweeter which is also found on the rear of the VR-100XS. To alter the depth perception and adjust the high frequencies for any type of room condition, an Effects Level control is provided. As the front and rear tweeters now have matching sonic characteristics and transient responses, the harmonic integration and sonic tapestry of the music is greatly improved over the original VR-5 series. This is good news for fans of orchestral or other acoustic music, as the depth and "air" of the world's great concert halls can be heard to a greater degree with the new ribbon Ambience unit.
New Woofer Design:
The twin 220mm woofers use composite cones fabricated from ceramic inverted domes backed with an aluminum honeycomb support structure. Driven by an advanced motor system designed with Finite Element Analysis software, the new motor reduces the distortion to less than 0.5%. The transient response of these custom woofers, along with the clarity of the complete bass range, must be experienced in person to be fully appreciated. Until you have heard bass that sounds this clean, you can't understand how important the bass clarity is for overall realism and lack of coloration. Finally, a tympani roll now sounds like individual drum strokes instead of a "roar."
Passive and Aktive Versions:
There are two different version of the VR-55: the Aktive and the Passive. As the name indicates, the VR-55 Passive can be driven with your existing amplifier; it is a regular "passive" speaker. There is a three-way passive crossover network, split into Woofer section and Midrange/Tweeter sections, so this version must be bi-wired for best results. The Passive crossover consists of our Global Axis Integration Network, which is our trademarked name for a circuit that is phase coherent and has flat amplitude response throughout the frequency range. This is a steep order filter network using first, second, third, and fourth order Linkwist-Riley type filters. The actual filters are dictated by the driver acoustic phase response, frequency response, and baffle alignment; most of the circuits are stacked first and second order filters, but are not symmetrical since the driver rolloffs are not symmetrical from woofer to midrange to tweeter. There are extensive EQ filters using Zobel circuits, in addition to impedance matching circuits. Although quite complex, the "sound" of our G.A.I.N. filter set is invisible from a sonic perspective. This has been tested and proven by A/B/X methods, and was accomplished by using extremely low distortion parts from vendors such as Mundorf, Jensen, Duelund, and Clarity. Our crossover boards are hand-built with star-grounding, i.e. they are old fashioned point-to-point designs that will handle 1,500 watts before saturation or distortion!
Aktive Amplifier Version:
Since many audiophiles have discovered the sonic merits of low-power tube or Class-A transistor amplifiers, these audiophiles seek high sensitivity speaker systems. However, there is a better way to implement the necessary additional efficiency, and that is to add a "booster" amplifier to the woofers. The booster amplifier enables the lower efficiency woofers to have the impact and punch found in transistor amplifiers as we are using 600-watts per channel; please note that the booster amplifier does not affect the midrange or treble above 150HZ since the booster is not wired to the midrange or treble! Thus, there is no sonic penalty when using our Aktive version, no matter what type of amplifier you are using. We like 300B SET tube amps for the midrange and treble, but we have customers that are using push-pull tube amps and even Class-A transistor amplifiers. (Note that we have designed this technology back in 2004 for the original dB-99 and dB-100 models). The customers existing amplifier, whether 20 watts or 200 watts, can be connected to the Aktive version and the volume level of the bass can be adjusted to suit the room conditions or to adjust the bass on recordings that is either too rich or too lean. The Aktive version can also help you eliminate "boom" created by a non-ideal room, so you may find that the VR-55 Aktive is your perfect solution, no matter what type of amp you're using!
Ceramic/Kevlar Midrange:
The same German manufacturer of the new woofers has designed a new 160mm ceramic/Kevlar midrange driver using an inverted dome profile to match the tweeter's radiation pattern at the crossover point. Although all of these new drivers are composites designed to prevent ringing and distortion, their moving mass is lighter than our previous units. Ligher weight= faster transients, which enhances the clarity since there is less mass to move back and forth. Although the front surface of the inverted dome appears to be a solid ceramic material, you can easily see the Kevlar impregnation on the rear of the cone. The Kevlar threads are bonded to the rear of the cone with a rubber adhesive which also damps the cone's tendency to ring, since any material that is extremely light and stiff is going to require mechanical damping to avoid the coloration associated with hard cone drivers. If you are a fan of vocal recordings, you will fall in love with this driver on the first song you hear!
Sonic Benefits of new VR-55:
Although our original VR-5 speaker system has been one of our best selling speakers since its introduction in 2001, the VR-55 has taken this design to the highest level of engineering that is possible to achieve at this price point. For most audiophiles, the VR-55, whether Passive or Aktive, will be their final speaker system. We believe that this mid-sized speaker with its mid-sized price will appeal to just about any audiophile who is seeking the Holy Grail of audio: the reproduction of music that is so real that you will wonder - is it live or is it VR-55?
As Always, Happy Listening!
Please come visit me personally in room 549 and hear our new VR-55. I invite your comments!
