Hello, all!
Since I can follow simple instructions, here I am to introduce myself. This seemed to be the place with the best collective knowledge base for Von Schweikert speakers.
I am a new owner of a pair of older (I believe, original and unmolested) Von Schweikert VR4's. I believe they are the first gen because the upper mid/hi box is rectangular, correct? I purchased them from a retired electrical engineer that has been buying, fixing, and selling higher end hifi gear for 30+ years as a side business. According to him, he bought these 15+ years ago, and they needed no repairs / maintenance at all. He ran them in his 'main' room for a while, but the WAF became a concern. I get the feeling he was really hoping I would buy the Emerald Physics units he had instead. I got them for $1100, which I gather is a fair deal.
The first thing I figured out is I don't have enough amp for them. They replaced a pair of Paradigm 9seMK3's that I had bi-amped on a Rotel RB-976 amp. That would easily get earsplittingly loud. When I tried to run the VR4's with 2 mono channels, the amp was shutting off before I could even get to moderate listening levels. (I believe the impedance is too low in parallel to drive them?). After re-wiring them to a bi-amp configuration, they sound fine, but I had the turn the gains to 80% just to get decent volume from them. My presumption is that they are just pretty power hungry. The Rotel should be doing about 75-80 WPC to each of the left / right, and mid / bass units. Too little?
The same guy offered to sell me a Rogue Audio Stereo 90 tube amp, with some kind of upgraded motherboard & tubes (upgraged to Stereo 100, I think he said?). He was asking $1200, and said it would be perfect to power the mid / high cabinets. Then I could bridge the Rotel to give 150WPC to the bass cabinets alone.
Does this sound like a recipe for Success?
I really loved the wound of the speakers when I listened to them in his garage. I also understand that placement is super important with these speakers, so once I re-arrange my room to have them closer to the corners, I imagine I'll get better response too.
Thoughts? Opinions?
Thanks!
