Selling my Von Schweikert VR7 HSE speakers. Very rare on the used market. Rated 8/10. Foam is like new. Driven with tube amps. Easy to drive.
Local Seattle sale is preferred. You can come demo them. I have the shipping boxes.
$4750 OBO SOLD!
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/review-von-schweikert-audio-vr7-hse-speakerThis is a new replacement for the VR-6 that was awarded "Product Of The Year" by Audioland magazine, Hong Kong, in December 1998. The VR-6 also won "Best Sound Of The Show, 2nd Place" at the Stereophile Show in San Francisco, 1997, and has appeared on the front cover of leading magazines in Germany and Holland. As many magazine reviewers, leading audiophiles, and famous musicians use the VR-6 as their reference speaker, calling it "one of the best speakers in the world," the VR-7 has to be something special. And that it is: using the world’s finest engineering and component parts, the VR-7 is a sonic powerhouse and although expensive, the 7’s are a bargain due to their incredible realism, stunning cosmetics, and heroic build quality.
Cabinet
The Italian-designed cabinet is a graceful 52" tower with a swept-back top and swept-back side cheeks that are carved from solid hardwoods. The cabinets are damped by multi-composition walls using constrained layer laminations, with a 2.5" thick front baffle and 1.5" thick side walls. Internal damping/sound-proofing includes a 1" thick internal wall coating composed of felt and rubber layers. This exclusive combination of engineering and materials allows the VR-7 to be the most neutral sounding speaker available, without resonance or coloration. The VR-7 can easily take it’s place in the most elegant of rooms, and sonically, it simply disappears, generating a holographic image that has to be heard to be believed.
Woofer System
In order to reproduce the high impact and punchy bass of today’s recordings, combined with ultra-detailed midbass clarity, the VR-7 utilizes twin magnesium metal-coned 200mm Superduty woofers. The magnesium cone is the lightest yet stiffest cone available, enabling incredible volume levels to be attained at very low frequencies without distortion or coloration. In addition, the metal cones allow heat to be radiated from the voice coil, lowering the distortion and compression found in other cone materials. Furthermore, the motor system uses a patented method of eliminating "fringe" distortion caused by the movement of the voice coil in the fixed magnetic field. These design features and resulting sonic excellence is unsurpassed by any other woofer we know of, at any price.
The transmission-line tuning system uses heavy stuffing to eliminate cavity resonance and midbass boom, while the bottom octave is reproduced with tremendous authority by the rear-firing 4" vent with 7" flare to reduce wind noise distortion. This combination of design elements enables the VR-7 to have the finest sounding bass reproduction of any speaker we know of.
Midrange System
In order to move the large volume of air necessary for maximum dynamic range, the driver selected is a cast frame 6.5" unit hand-made in France. To reproduce the vital midrange with high detail and low coloration, the driver utilizes a very stiff but light cone made from a composite of carbon fiber, Kevlar, and cellulose acetate pulp. This aerogel cone has extremely high internal damping, enabling a very high level of transparency to be achieved surpassing that of any other driver we have ever tested. To eliminate coloration, the backwave is absorbed by an infinite transmission line using Gradient Density absorption, created by 10" thick edge-on layers of foam rubber and felt wedges.
Treble System
To reproduce the high level of detail required to match the aerogel midrange driver and magnesium coned woofers, a very highly engineered Scanspeak dome tweeter was selected. This silk dome with proprietary coating enables very high clarity without distortion or harshness found in metal dome tweeters. To further enable high volume levels without distortion, Ferrofluid is used along with a special underhung motor system which eliminates "fringe" distortion caused by the voice coil leaving the magnetic gap at high excursion levels. To eliminate the coloration found in conventional dome tweeters, this Scanspeak unit was designed with the transmission line principle, using a rear vented chamber to absorb the backwave. These engineering features allows the VR-7 to have the best of both worlds: very high detail retrieval combined with utterly sweet musicality.
Ambience Retrieval System
In order to generate a deep soundstage combined with holographic imaging for more than one person, a rear firing ambience driver is utilized. This driver is a 1" silk dome tweeter using a special ambience recovery circuit and Dimension control. This allows the ambience effects to be controlled for every acoustic situation or can be switched off if desired.
Crossover Design
To enable a linear phase reproduction combined with ruler flat frequency response, both first order and fourth order acoustic slopes are utilized. This combination of crossover slopes enables the highest level of transparency by eliminating many crossover elements, but also protects the drivers from distortion caused by undesirable out-of-band frequencies. Only the finest components were selected, including Hovland capacitors, Solen air-core inductors, and Eagle metal film resistors. All wiring is custom designed and is furnished by Analysis Plus for the twin woofers and Robert Lee Audio for the midrange and treble. The woofer circuit board is physically separated from the midrange and treble boards, enabling bi-wiring. All crossover parts can withstand 1500 watts before distortion or saturation, eliminating compression of dynamic range. In addition, the circuit boards use 9AWG copper buss-bars (instead of thin plated traces) and are hand wired point-to-point for added transparency and freedom from distortion.
Vr-7 Specifications
System Type: Dynamic-driver four way system using transmission line loading.
Size: 52" high, 13" wide, and 19" deep. Wall construction uses heavily braced 1.5" MDF. Internal damping consists of 1" rubber and felt layers on all walls, with veneered exterior. Front baffle is 2.5" thick and is attached to front of cabinet with rubber damping layer.
Weight: 120 lbs ea.
Driver Complement: 2-200mm magnesium metal-coned woofers, 1-6.5" aerogel cone midrange driver, 2- 1" silk fabric dome tweeters, one rear firing.
Crossover: Acoustic first and fourth order, at 200Hz and 3kHz.
Ambience Driver: 1" silk fabric dome with Dimensional volume control to compensate for room acoustics and soundstage depth.
Frequency Response: 22-20kHz, +/- 1.5 dB, 18Hz-25kHz –6dB.
Impedance: 6 ohms avg. (4 ohms 20Hz-200Hz; 8 ohms 200Hz-20kHz).
Recommended Power: 10 watts up to 500 watts (peak power for 50ms).
Sensitivity: 92dB @ 1w/1m using 2.83v.
Warranty: Five years Parts and Labor, excluding burned voice coils due to amp clipping.
Finishes: Standard finish is blond maple. Available at extra cost with 4 week lead time are light
natural cherry, dark red cherry, medium walnut, birds eye maple, and piano black.
Pictures soon
