The heaps of praise on the Unifield 3 notwithstanding, it is my opinion that it is the VR-5 that is the sweetspot of Von Schweikert Audio's range. Truly full range, 94dB Sensitive, plays loud and soft with deftness yet balls to the wall dynamics when called for.
Basically VR-9s less the super tweeters and the 15" powered Diamond subwoofers, QTL instead of Sealed, it delivers the same voice lacking only the added width, breadth and depth, the depiction of space which their big brothers, the 9 and the 11 do with so much ease it feels almost like cheating.
To me that voice is a beautiful one. I ended up jumping from them, a $25,000/pr loudspeaker to four times that with my customized one-off VR-9s. The funny thing is it wasn't because I was not satisfied. On the contrary it was I had so much faith in the platform, I just had to see how far Albert could push it, and then some, with my request for even more bespoke goodies inside.
Before I parted with them however, I listened to them extensively with my Lamm LL2 Deluxe, ML1.1s, Accuphase DP-78 and all VSA cabling. I can't remember how many times I said to myself that in fact, I could very well live with this set up. Not surprising as such a set up indeed would likely be the "pot of gold" underneath many an audio lover's long rainbow.
I think that I have crossed the point of diminishing returns a long time ago. The price paid in not just money but study, experimentation and elbow grease. The VR-5 however will always be special to me because it served as a marker, a waypoint. The point where Albert and his speakers went from good with good value as represented by the lineage of the VR-4 in Vortex, Gen *, jr, and SR guises but showed what he could do within size and space constraints, gloves off. The result is a loudspeaker that to my ears competes very, very favorably with speakers the same size even double their price. When I say that, I am biting my lip in my effort to be more conservative and less zealous.
Why it got so little press remains a mystery to me. The word of mouth however tells quite a tale.
Basically VR-9s less the super tweeters and the 15" powered Diamond subwoofers, QTL instead of Sealed, it delivers the same voice lacking only the added width, breadth and depth, the depiction of space which their big brothers, the 9 and the 11 do with so much ease it feels almost like cheating.
To me that voice is a beautiful one. I ended up jumping from them, a $25,000/pr loudspeaker to four times that with my customized one-off VR-9s. The funny thing is it wasn't because I was not satisfied. On the contrary it was I had so much faith in the platform, I just had to see how far Albert could push it, and then some, with my request for even more bespoke goodies inside.
Before I parted with them however, I listened to them extensively with my Lamm LL2 Deluxe, ML1.1s, Accuphase DP-78 and all VSA cabling. I can't remember how many times I said to myself that in fact, I could very well live with this set up. Not surprising as such a set up indeed would likely be the "pot of gold" underneath many an audio lover's long rainbow.
I think that I have crossed the point of diminishing returns a long time ago. The price paid in not just money but study, experimentation and elbow grease. The VR-5 however will always be special to me because it served as a marker, a waypoint. The point where Albert and his speakers went from good with good value as represented by the lineage of the VR-4 in Vortex, Gen *, jr, and SR guises but showed what he could do within size and space constraints, gloves off. The result is a loudspeaker that to my ears competes very, very favorably with speakers the same size even double their price. When I say that, I am biting my lip in my effort to be more conservative and less zealous.
Why it got so little press remains a mystery to me. The word of mouth however tells quite a tale.
