[fplanner2000]

Violet- FWIW we did a V-cap bypass upgrade to the mids, tweets and super-tweets of my 7's last year.  Albert provided the guidance and I had a local crossover/speaker guy do the actual work, with me assisting.  First one took about 4 hours, as I recall, 2nd one 45 minutes.  The upgrade has been wonderful - more air, clarity and openness, as well as much greater resolution at lower listening levels.  I would ask Albert if this might be viable for your speakers.

[violetmachan]

hello fplanner
good to hear your are still a passive man! ie ...in speakers terms only and you have still retained your vr 7se with the upgrade......must say a very good passive speaker system with an excellent sound stage and a large foot print.

I must say a lot of the initial problems with my speakers were initial usage with a solidstage mark levinson reference system,followed by a long waiting period for my preamps to come to production which finally arrived in august of this year.I currently use the tenor 2 piece hybrid preamps and the tenor 350M hybrid monoblocks.....which I must say does control the speakers so well.....i dare not make any changes for listening to music.

Strange, my weak link was always said to be my room...." a very lively,much lived in living space".......seems to be working very well with my current setup with no major issues.I do plan to change the layout of my setup...i.e. clean all the racks for the frontwall and move the to the leftside wall and retain only speakers a little closer to each other and monoblocks .

Fplanner, I am sure the mind does play tricks with sound recall!.......for some reason the sound of the vr 9se in manny/alberts place in west corvina still seems to linger as the benchmark sound!!.......I am sure my setup even with its subjective drawbacks and so called esoteric flaws......at times betters the west corvina sound.

I must taunt albert about building a passive vr 9se for me when I have won the lottery.......or build a front ported passive speakers system with builtin 5 band crossover controllor or a 10band inco-operated equalizer...so that you can tweak the sound to what you call music in your living space.
I have had the mark 2 upgrade level one along with the latested new midrange driver  installed in july 2010 ( same as the one in the upgrade for the mark2 vr9se and 11`s) by myself and a telephone link with albert.....who has been very helpful.The other option would be ideal to have the complete upgrade with new crossovers,new wires, synthetic granite lamination for the enclosures......sad that I live in UK and carting the speaker back to alberts factory for the latter is a pain.

I am sure the beast is the tenor combo ( if you get the chance.......must say one of the best I have heard and own......which I do not plan to change for a longtime to come)...... which seems to have really tamed the vr 7se.

hope you stay on the darkside....i.e.....passive side of speakers.....especially if you have good quality amplication
cheers
passive violet

[fplanner2000]

Violet-  Sounds like you've got a musical nirvana there!  Congratulations. 

I'm using 2 VAC 300.1 amps in mono configuration, along with VAC's best preamp and a Velodyne DD-15+ sub when appropriate.  Front end is an APL NWO-M w/lots of 32-bit DACs, dual-tube Class A output stage, etc.  (which quite literally made my Esoteric G-OS rubidium clock unnecessary). The sound produced is probably 20-25% better than it was last year at this time when I had a group of VSA owners, friends and other interested people over to hear my system during RMAF. 

Would a pair of VAC 450 Statement amps improve my system?  Undoubtedly.  Instead I got a new AWD 8-cylinder BMW.... What could I POSSIBLY have been thinking??  (at least its got a great stereo system... ).  Take care.

[DEV]

Violet-  Sounds like you've got a musical nirvana there!  Congratulations. 

I'm using 2 VAC 300.1 amps in mono configuration, along with VAC's best preamp and a Velodyne DD-15+ sub when appropriate.  Front end is an APL NWO-M w/lots of 32-bit DACs, dual-tube Class A output stage, etc.  (which quite literally made my Esoteric G-OS rubidium clock unnecessary). The sound produced is probably 20-25% better than it was last year at this time when I had a group of VSA owners, friends and other interested people over to hear my system during RMAF. 

Would a pair of VAC 450 Statement amps improve my system?  Undoubtedly.  Instead I got a new AWD 8-cylinder BMW.... What could I POSSIBLY have been thinking??  (at least its got a great stereo system... ).  Take care.

Hi fplanner, your remark above in relation to the 450's and BMW had me laughing  because I bought my new MB AMG 8-cylinder only months earlier. I'm sure in due time we will see a pair in your set-up 

Here's a couple of pics in the mean time to tie you over 

[JackD201]

Dang David we have the same brand TT, arm, carts and now car too? This is getting creepy!

C63 AMG for me. The budget AMG 

[DEV]

Dang David we have the same brand TT, arm, carts and now car too? This is getting creepy!

C63 AMG for me. The budget AMG 

What can I say we both have exceptional taste     

Amazing car, I actually almost recently bought the Black Series limited version and then my wife said where are you going to put it. I said well dear in your spot  I'll put in another car lift  She said  just how many vehicles can you drive. Darn I just have a soft spot for audio and fine cars. 

[JackD201]

@DEV  you only need one CD player and costs just a bit more than a car lift   

@Passive Violet  - Hey Doc, you done with the system placement reconfiguration? We want pics. Hope your back is ok!

[DEV]

2nd try to up load pics......correction on isolation kit.....track audio

Well es47.......it's nice to have a green ......response!!!

will update fine details with time.......hope to have a deeper shade of green
Cheers
Violetmachan

Congrats!    Gorgeous pces of gear you have there   

Now all you need is a larger space to really let them shine   

[DEV]

@DEV  you only need one CD player and costs just a bit more than a car lift   

CD player still has me  only being red book  just doesn't seem right. If I was able to touch, feel first hand along with listening such would most defiantly assist. So far talking to others I know providing what little info. I have I get this  type of responce.   

[JackD201]

Gotcha. I was thinking about this earlier today (it is Sunday) though from a convenience rather than feature set standpoint. I tried ripping CDs directly onto my iMac and I wasn't satisfied with the rips. I compared them with rips done by a friend using an external drive that was vibration isolated and the difference was not subtle. Now I was thinking I've got to get one of those, and spend countless hours sticking CDs in and out. Not very convenient thought there. Kinda discouraging actually especially for someone that still listens to vinyl more. My software is in a small adjoining room a dozen steps away from the source racks and is alphabetically arranged by genre. Finding stuff isn't hard at all. It kinda made me not miss that digital input. In fact I realized I don't miss it because I've still got the DP-78 to do SACD and 24/192 duty even if I don't have a single 24/192 file only a handful of 24/96s.

[fplanner2000]

OK, so I don't have the VAC 450's (yet).... A few more vehicle details - my 550ix w/M package is AWD, 4 doors, twin turbo V-8 w/paddle shifters and does 0-60 in 4.6 seconds.  In automatic. And gets 24 mpg w/an 8-speed transmission. Y A W N......
BTW, my APL NWO-M cd/sacd player will be tweaked a bit by Alex tomorrow in Cali.  He insists it will result in even better performance, so we will see.

Interestingly, I didn't hear any speakers at RMAF that even approached my 7's, to my ears.  Good job Albert!

[es347]

FP, I said the same thing about my VR5 Annies/MAC system.  There were only a handful of rooms that I felt produced good sound.  After hearing all the rooms that had the Wilson Sashas confirmed my opinion regarding Wilson speakers...a hot, fatiguing high end.  One room that impressed me was the Totem room...their $9K speaker driven by a Rogers integrated.  Really good sound for the buck.