[underdog64]

Someone on this circle just mentioned they had their VR4jrs upgraded to mrk IV? What is different from the mrk III to the mrk IV?

[Chrisandalex1]

Apparently Albert came up with an entire new crossover as well as new drivers.

Don't know the exact specifics, but I am sure Albert will chime in and explain.

[underdog64]

I'd probable get my mrk 3s upgraded then to mrk 4s but last time in (2011) for what I shipped them for I could have flown them coach class! 

[Chrisandalex1]

Yeah, tell me about it.  I live in Cabo San Lucas, MX

I had to have boxes made for the journey.

[Chrisandalex1]

Someone on this circle just mentioned they had their VR4jrs upgraded to mrk IV? What is different from the mrk III to the mrk IV?

Albert just texted this to me.

"The new VR-4JR Mk4 uses the same drivers as the last VR-4SR. We decided to make the JR equal to the larger SR to provide maximum value. That's a $16,000 value!"

[respected_net]

What is the cost of upgrading from MK2 to MK4?  Thanks.

[JackD201]

I still have SR Mk3s with a VisiUN Mk3 and they were already a great value then. I'd love to see what they've done with the new Jr. 

I was very sad when the Jr Mk3 didn't go to market. The Jr was our best seller. Right size and right price for the typical dens here in our country. I hope the same will be the case for the new generation.

[Chrisandalex1]

So after a couple of days of listening, I am pleased to report that I am literally blown away with the performance of the new VR4jr mkIV's.  They are a long way from being settled, but truly amazing value. 

[respected_net]

Hi, Chrisandalex1:
What version of vr-4jr did you upgrade from?  and what was the cost?  Is the cost of upgrade the same for all previous versions?  I have mk2 and curious to know how much sound improvement mk4 makes.  Thanks.

[len]

So after a couple of days of listening, I am pleased to report that I am literally blown away with the performance of the new VR4jr mkIV's.  They are a long way from being settled, but truly amazing value.

I really appreciate your enthusiasm, but "blown away" really doesn't convey very much. 

Perhaps you can tell us what the state of them was before the upgrade; were they originals?  What are you driving them with?  What kind of music are you listening to?  What are the source media?  What differences do you hear after the modification?  Are they the same speakers, only better--or are they different speakers?

These are not idle questions as I have a pair of original 4JRs* which I think are great in my listening space.  I have recently upgraded my front end and would like to take my speakers to the next level.  So it's an upgrade or new speakers (probably buying used).  But if I do the upgrade it would be the first time I have ever bought speakers without auditioning them.  And an upgrade would mean coast to coast to coast shipping.  So anything specific you can tell us about the upgrade would be much appreciated.

*I first heard them in 2004 when AVS introduced them at a HiFi Show at the Hilton in New York.  They were remarkable in a relatively large, for them, (and very crowded) room.

[underdog64]

This begs the question.why is VSA keeping the details of the mrk IV upgrade so hush -hush? You would think with as many owners out there that own the older  versions (I,II,III) would want to know about this upgrade being offered RIGHT away?

[Chrisandalex1]

This begs the question.why is VSA keeping the details of the mrk IV upgrade so hush -hush? You would think with as many owners out there that own the older  versions (I,II,III) would want to know about this upgrade being offered RIGHT away?

I don't think they were planning to do this.  Albert and Lee were just playing, and Albert says he was feeling generous with his time and money.  I am sure they will come up with something as an option, but the typical upgrade cost is apparently impossible for them to offer. 

I will say this, my VR4jr's were  the original model, and I was happy with them.  In this round, I upgraded my entire system, and spent in excess of $50,000 in the process, so it is not fair for me to speak of the performance as just the speakers.  But, if I were to try this, I would say that they have incredible presence.  The staging is amazing and fairly wide.  At one point I actually had to get up and check if my center channel was on for some reason.  I know this is stupid, but really it tricked me. 

I have played everything from 24bit Classical recordings to live HD recording of Phish shows in the last couple of days and I just keep wanting to hear more.  I had Emile from Audio by E, that make the SilenZio Media Server, come down and spend three days doing the setup and configuration of the system.  He spent considerable time playing with speaker and sub placement.  It has been fun listening to the different results.

I would also say this, I have played these pretty loud for extended time as well.  They appeared to handle it well.  I did not hear any fatigue, nor did I find them to struggle in any way. 

Clearly, I am not a professional reviewer of equipment, but all in all, I am very happy.

[-E-]

I think you nailed it with your description the second go-around, Chris.

But you did change your entire system...  the un-upgraded speakers would still sound very good in there.  You just went next-level.

[JackD201]

With the 111s almost done and the 55s with a wait list you lucked out on the timing. Albert's been one happy guy lately!

Any pics?

[Chrisandalex1]

With the 111s almost done and the 55s with a wait list you lucked out on the timing. Albert's been one happy guy lately!

Any pics?

I will try to post some pics tonight.

Albert sent me a text and said I was lucky.  He liked them so much that he wanted to keep them for a couple of more weeks to listen to them.  However, I had tech's scheduled to fly in from the US to do all the setup and their schedules couldn't be changed. 

The V-10 subs are equally impressive.  They used the same amps as they put on the 15's.  It is way more power than the 10's could ever handle, and I need to make sure to be careful to not let the dials be messed with, but holy cow are they great.  They just blend beautifully when in 2 channel, and push hard when watching movies.  Love them.  For a 10" sub they move a lot of air.  I am really glad I got two of them.

My poor dogs are freaked out by them a bit.

[Chrisandalex1]

[Chrisandalex1]

[Albert Von Schweikert]

Hello Fellow VR-4JR owners,

As you know, I have a very fond place in my heart for the VR-4 platform.  The first speaker my crew and I designed at Cal Tech was the Vortex Screen, and we spent literally thousands of hours in the lab and computer basement to come up with the original design.  We did this as a hobby, as we all had jobs in aerospace or engineering consulting.  After several professional mastering engineers bought them, including Robert Harley, we decided to build them in earnest.  As the "wide screen" appearance of the Vortex system seemed to hamper wives enthusiasm for the cosmetic appearance, we turned the speaker sideways (to make it look thinner) and renamed it the VR-4, for Virtual Reality in four dimensions: amplitude, phase, time, and space.  Our journey began in 1976 with that first model we built as a student project, but the VR-4 was later named "One Of The Best Twenty-Five Speakers Of All Time" by Audio Review magazine two years ago.  What an interesting journey it has been!

ORIGINATION OF VR-4JR
Over the years, the large size of the original VR-4 became a hindrance to wide acceptance, so we built a smaller version, known as the VR-4JR (euphemistically called "Just Right" instead of "Junior)."  For many reasons, this became one of the most popular speakers in high end audio, with thousands of pairs sold over a period of five years.  The cabinets were built in a very cost effective manner in China, while Vifa of Denmark opened up a Chinese assembly plant where the Danish parts were shipped for final assembly.  We were one of Vifa-China's first high-volume customers and I had designed all of the drivers in conjunction with the Danish engineers.  Vifa/Scanspeak also designed the Dual Ring tweeter for our VR-4SR platform, so between SEAS of Norway (aluminum woofer cones), Vifa-China (doped paper pulp) and Vifa-Denmark (all engineering and lab origination), along with Scanspeak-Denmark and Audax-France (Aerogel midrange cones), we had been using premium drivers intermixed between the JR and SR platforms.

VR-4JR Mk2
Two years after the introduction of the JR model in 2003, the Mk2 came out with stiffened woofer cones coated with aluminum and a re-tuned labyrinth to permit tighter bass and increase midrange clarity.  After another year of production, the Chinese cabinet shop had taken on several more clients and became seriously back-ordered, which affected our production in a serious way.   A year later, the Chinese factory actually copied some of our technology and so after the clones appeared, we stopped production while we attempted to sort out the legal and financial issues.

VR-4JRMk3
While it appeared that we would not be offering a new version of the JR model that had any ties to China, we continued to design and test upgrades.  The Mk3 was an upgrade for my own personal pair of VR-4JR Mk2's and consisted of custom-designed Scanspeak- Denmark drivers.  The Mk3 was a really good sounding design, getting another 25-40% more transparency and clarity from the JR platform.   These were never built in mass production, as the cost of building these cabinets was prohibitive in the US.  Most of the models sold were done as upgrades for existing JR owners and the total cost of the upgrade was practically the raw cost of the parts and labor.  Our accountant told me that I was "giving the upgrades away" to our existing customer base, but that is how I decided to keep our customers happy and not switch brands.  It worked and we eventually received hundreds of orders for the Mk3 upgrade.  Alas, two of the key drivers for the Mk3 upgrade became discontinued since Scanspeak had been working on the development of better cone materials and lower distortion "motors" (voice coil, pole piece, top plate, and magnet).  After a few months of testing and listening, we realized that the new drivers were not only better, they were in a different league than the originals. 

Mk4 DRIVERS
The pulp/plastic/aluminum oxide composite coatings of the Mk2 and Mk3 drivers were replaced with pure aluminum-coned woofers, woven carbon fiber midranges, and Dual Ring Radiator treble drivers.  The Mk4 drivers have approximately 3 times less distortion and the crossover design has been upgraded to a far higher level to take advantage of the latest driver technology.  As with the Mk3 upgrade, the Mk4 upgrade also features our Triple Wall noise reducing cabinet lining, along with Delphi Aerospace Single Crystal Wire called Master-Built.  This is the same wiring as used inside our VR-55 and higher models.  I know that wire is not a super popular item with some audiophiles, as it is often difficult to comprehend "why" the price of wire can get ridiculous.  This Master-Built cabling is easy for anyone to hear; even non-audiophiles can hear a big difference, so we've been using it throughout our product line.  In fact, we use Master-Built for every demo we conduct and that is one of our secrets to winning the "Best Of Show" awards that are now becoming routine.

VR-4JRMk4
About a year ago, I decided to further upgrade my JR Mk3's to a higher level, which is now called the Mk4.  We weren't sure that we could find a cabinet maker in the US that would enable us to keep the price as low as originally envisioned, but on-going discussions with cabinet factories in Eastern Europe seem promising and naturally, to ensure that this combination of ingredients would be popular before sinking $250,000 into the new project, we wanted to offer 100 sets of upgrades to our existing customer base for beta testing. 

One of the first beta testers on this forum has prompted me to publish this information, declaring that this model has far exceeded his expectations.  We at VSA can confirm his findings, as on a side-by-side comparison with a very expensive two piece stacking speaker system, the VR-4JR Mk4 has proven itself to many visitors to our Design Studio.  At this point, only a handful of audiophiles have had a chance to experience the new model at our Studio, but the acceptance has been overwhelming.  To us, it's not as much of a surprise, as we have been working with the VR-4SR components prior to the JR's release back in 2003.

PRICING
I always questioned the motto of one of my first engineering professors, who spoke of "there's no free lunch" on a project that we all had worked on.  Naturally, over the years, I came to learn that it's easy to design something with no budgetary concerns, but when price is factored in, you can't quite stay in business selling parts and labor for less than the raw cost of these parts.  If you're wondering if this is leading up to an expensive price tag, you're right on the money. (Couldn't resist that one).  Based on the cost of the parts and labor, the Mk4 upgrade should be priced in the neighborhood of $5,000/pr.  After all, this model will replace the now-discontinued VR-4SR platform, which last sold for $16,000/pr.

Please contact us if you have the slightest interest in this upgrade, as we can lower the cost if at least 20 customers purchase the upgrade at one time, since a quantity purchase of the drivers will reduce our costs.  For more information about the process, please call us at our Design Studio at (951) 682-0706.

Thanks for taking the time to learn about this new upgrade; I do tend to be quite wordy but I wanted to answer the many questions that have been sent to our website and Audio Circle inboxes about this new project.  Be watching for the new VR-4 Mk4 release (with an all-new cabinet design) in late Fall of this year if you are interested and don't own a pair of the JR's you'll need for the upgrade.

Happy Listening,

AVS

[gammajo]

Having heard and being very impressed with the VR4 Jr's and then owning both the VR4 Sr's and VR5 Anni MK2's, and awaiting my pair of new 55's I know your new design will be a hit!
All these VSA speakers mentioned share a uniquely musical quality when compared to live music, that other manufactors find elusive, and when they even approach some aspects of it, charge at  a much higher price point.
I have learned through experience that many upgrades I have done on other equipment resulted in only very subtle improvements but when the VSA teams says an upgrade is a significant improvement it definitely is, can be heard within minutes, is true to the best characteristics of the original,  and puts a smile on the face of the beneficiary. If I owned VR4 Jr's I would go for the upgrade in a New York minute.

[Chrisandalex1]

Albert, they are worth every penny.  It is 6:45 am right now, and I am just getting in a nice 30 minute session before heading off to work.  I can't get enough.  They sound so beautiful and just keep surprising me with incredible depth and staging. 

My wife just came out of her room and told me to turn it down, that I am going to wake the neighbors, but I don't care.  I am having way too much fun.

Thanks VSA, another very happy customer.