Back at the beginning of October last year I posted my findings about 'BI-Wiring' my VR-2's and what a great improvement it made to the sound, I even included some pictures along with the text.
However, I have now moved on to further 'tweaking' my VR-2's and wanted to share with you where I now stand with regards to what I have done to them and how it has affected the speakers performance.
When I first purchased the Von's I was told that the cavity at the bottom of each speaker can be used for either dry-sand of lead-shot.
I decided to go down the lead-shot route and I was also told that I should not fill the cavity all the way up as it made the speaker to heavy to move/walk if one was using spikes as it would apply to much weight to one corner and possibly end up breaking the plinth.
So I complied and filled the cavity up maybe l little over half.
It worked out well and I was happy for a long while.
Until the present, and now wanting to get more out of the Von's and thinking about it, I decided to do three different Mods/tweaks to the VR-2's.
I need to explain that my listening room has a wood floor with a crawl space underneath.
To cope with the less then solid floor, I decided to start with calming down the top of the speaker to allow the tweeter to work its magic without the cabinet resinating or vibrating.
The first mod I did was to select some nice fabric material and make a bag/pouch almost the size of the top of the cabinet.
I then purchased 25 lbs of lead-shot then divided it in half and filled 4 Ziploc Baggies to insert into each of the 2 pouches.
WOW, what an incredible improvement it made!
Now the tweeter sounds so much cleaner and clearer.
The prior distortion/coloration/blurriness has been lifted!!!
I was very nicely surprised.
In fact given the flooring issue, I thought it might be even better if I increased the lead-shot in the pouch by another 10 lbs.
Again, not as much of an improvement but still noticeable.
My second tweak was to fill the bottom cavity all the way up with lead-shot.
I had previously found the super-sweet-spot for the speaker location in the room, so the extra weight was of no concern.
Again, WOW!
But this time it was the bass that went deeper and had more focus and clarity.
The bottom end tightened up like there was no tomorrow!
All I can say is "BIG" difference sonically.
Finally to put it all together, I purchased some "Out Riggers" out of Eugene, Oregon. Paul is the owner and is very helpful and answered all my questions so I could purchase the right product for my needs.
Check out their website. And again, all so very reasonable.
I got them a little bit wider so it would give more stability to the tall and slender speakers.
After tightening the knobs at each corner the speaker became rock solid and put everything on a whole another plain.
I swear they are not the same pair of speakers I started out with.
It has make that much improvement.
Check out the pictures and see the tweaks I have done and all for not a lot of money either.
I can very strongly encourage you to try at least one of my tweaks, if not do all 3 of them and be
totally blown away.
