Anyone here using von Schweikert speakers?

That was the thing we disagreed upon. Not direct sales but VSA went with a firm I didn't get along with for marketing and distribution. That arrangement dissolved after a short period of time.

Today only the Vortex line is factory direct, the grand kids of your Continentals :) The rest are dealer only but as with practically everybody else, VSA can serve people without dealerships in their area directly.
 
MDP said:
That's good, cause we don't allow wars here !

As for VA speakers, I auditioned a pair out in California with an all Pass Labs setup and absolutely loved them.
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Could you share where? Am interested in Pass and would be also interested in their pairing with VSA.
 
es347, I rightfully had an axe to grind. I owned TWO pair of them. Anyone who hasn't owned, listened to them, or dealt with the company, may not have as much to say. There aren't too many dealers, it's sort of difficult to purchase speakers on promises, and difficult to rectify problems when you have 500lbs of speakers 3,000 miles away from the dealer.My bad judgement after listening to a friends 20 year old pair and expecting the newer models to justify the cost increase. You might take note of my many praises of my numerous Magico speaker purchases. A real company with an excellent dealer network and support. I feel when you are spending a sizable amount of money, dealer support is crucial. Additionally, it's not all rainbows and unicorns in this hobby. Occasionally, people have issues with dealers and manufacturers. I feel it's a service to share any issues we have with each other to avoid anyone else having the same unpleasant experience…..
 
I remember your travails Penthouse-D. I even revisited them just now. Like the problems you had with a square room, how you had your wires literally crossed no thanks to your dealer, placement and suckout issues. Anyway, I'm just glad you're happy with where you are now. Clearly your after sales experience was very different from ours and that's too bad. If you were in my area of responsibility I would definitely have had you sorted out.
 
Took a while but I finally got a reply right from Albert about my old Clearfield speakers. He suggested not recapping but to just enjoy them as they are, which I had already heard from other reliable source.

Albert suggested if I like the sound, the best thing is to purchase a pair of VR22s. Great idea but since they are only sold direct without the possibility do demo without shipping costs, it will be a lost sale for VR. Shame because the price to performance ratio of the VR22s is very good and half the cost of what my Continentals were back in the 90s.

I'm happy to have gotten a response tho.
 
Albert certainly can't be described as the world's best businessman but he's a fine fellow and passionate about speaker design..
 
es347 said:
Albert certainly can't be described as the world's best businessman but he's a fine fellow and passionate about speaker design..
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Agreed. I really never even expected a reply to a question about re-capping 25 y/o speaker crossovers.
 
Thanks JackD. I don't remember having my "wires crossed". I did explain the dimensions of the room before both purchases. I've had absolutely no voicing issues with any of the Magicos I've ever owned. I'm glad I've moved on and I'm extremely happy with the system I'm currently running..
 
Greetings

I am new to this site. Just thought I would chime in re the Von Schweikert's.

I have owned an early pair of VR4 Mk I's for about five years and really dig these speakers a lot. I driving them with Pass Labs amps.

I am planning to move up the the VR 5's sometime this year. Highly recommended! Have spoken to Albert several times. He is very helpful and always happy to help. I had some old stock feet for it that were not suitable and after a ten minute discussion with Albert, he sent me 8 heavy - duty stainless cones free. Great customer service albeit, as mentioned earlier, a little light on the dealer network. Especially here in Canada. Only one dealer in Ontario...crazy!
 
Owned a pair of VR-4SR - a purchase that has to rank as the worst decision I have ever made in regards the purchase to stereo kit. Screechy, harsh and just a very poor sounding speaker. Schweikert's advice was to put a set of tube amps on the midrange/tweeter assembly - didn't cure the problem.

The failing was that Albert installed a $34 Scan Speak tweeter - and a $2 Chinese no-name driver for the "ambiance" tweeter - and the ambiance was about like that of a sheet metal factory. Just horrible - eventually disconnected that thing. A very lumpy, shrill and overall terrible sounding speaker.

BUT I have heard that if you bought one that had the "good parts" in it the thing sounded acceptable. I got one that had the crap parts - and that for $7k. Evidently the cabinets are made in China and the speaker is assembled "here".

Do be careful - what you hear at a show with a VSA speaker is MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU WILL HEAR FROM THE VERSION YOU PURCHASE. Actual driver compliment seems to vary from moment to moment.

Very poor speaker made by a rather sketchy fellow - evidently Schweikert got started by slinging mass market stereo gear out of Federated - where he worked along side Robert Harley (TAS Editor). His time at "Cal Tech"? Apparently that too is rather flimsy - I can find no record of him as a student. NONE. Though he may have worked at cleaning labs in the evening. Who knows?

Do be careful with Schweikert - I haven't heard all of his gear but the one I did buy was really a defective POS. Dumped it at a 50% loss in six months - never could get it to play music that didn't drive you from the room.

I would be rather skeptical in regards any claims made by or about Albert.
 
Valkyrie, I feel your pain. I've owned 2 pair. VR4srMk3 and VR5 Anni's. All components are available at Madisound.com. Complete nonsense from Albert. A legend in his own mind. Complete do-it-yourselfer. It's no mystery why there is no dealer network..
 
Penthouse-D said:
Valkyrie, I feel your pain. I've owned 2 pair. VR4srMk3 and VR5 Anni's. All components are available at Madisound.com. Complete nonsense from Albert. A legend in his own mind. Complete do-it-yourselfer. It's no mystery why there is no dealer network..
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You guys only know half the story , he was also known as the Ferrari guy in the late 90's , interesting story that and how he ended up adding the rear ambiance tweeter . His Legend was really pushed along by PFB during that decade, they really loved the VR4 and the guy who worked with Oscar Heil ..


I heard his very expensive speaker line is good and TAS did visit his establishment recently and raved , so a Tip of the Hat to Albert . :)
 
Sounds like I should should just keep enjoying my old Clearfields for a while longer. They came back to life with the recent pre-amp re-tube.
 
I will not debate Valkyrie or Penthouse-D hating their VS. They have every right to for whatever reasons. I do feel some things need to be cleared.

The tweeters used in the first generation SR were VIFAs from the time VIFA was still under the same umbrella as Scanspeak not the VIFA today. In fact it was the very same tweeter carried over from the 4 Gen 3 HSE. Variants of this tweeter were not just found on VS speakers but were also used in Sonus Faber (Cremonas), Acoustic Energy, Onix, Meadowlark and quite a few others, the tweeter being popular at that time. 2nd Generation SRs used the Scanspeak wide surround tweeter used by among others YG Acoustics until around 2007. The 2904 family members used in the 5 Series were even more popular and used on all wood bodied Magicos, as a rear tweeter for X-1s, etc. etc. As for the Aerogel from Audax, when I had my upgrade done the 9's midrange were replaced. Both the original aerogels had different spiders from the new drivers and both of them differed from that found on madisound. The 9mk2 mid shared with the 5s and 11s also had a more massive magnet structure and came with copper instead of Al coils. First looks can be deceiving. Finally the magnesium SEAS woofers come in two variants. The single and double coil versions. Here I could be wrong but at the time only the single coil variants of SEAS Excel MGs were made available to the public. the dual coil was reserved for industrial clients. SEAS Excels are used by a wide range of customers from Joseph, Linkwitz, NOLA, just off the top of my head.

Personally I have no issues with companies that don't make their own drivers in part or in whole. If one thinks all the drivers are fully built in house, I invite them to do some more digging as you will find the fingerprints of the likes of Morel, Scanspeak, SB Acoustics, SEAS and many others on your drivers. Back in the days in question you would have found very many using Audio Excellence/Dynaudio, Davies, the same way you would find these today in the form of those already mentioned plus Accuton (lots of those!) and others. Focal, Dynaudio and very few others are the exception having no subcon driver work done by unrelated subsidiaries.

Some of the accusations are pretty extreme. I sold a lot of SRs and SR2s. I still own a pair of SR3s. I did both delivery and pre-delivery inspection to the end users personally and I never found any unit to be different from the others. Then again I operated with an unbroken chain of custody from factory to end-user. The only problem I ever had was a pair of Unifield 1s that were mishandled by the shipping company resulting in a ding in the front baffle. Could there have been switching? Anything is possible but I've never seen any mention of that from anybody that got a pair.

I appeal for intellectual honesty by being open about this and by not doing any singling out.

We all know a speaker is more than just the drivers anyway.
 
Jack Is correct about driver sourcing , some choose off the shelf , others have custom made versions and pay extra for match prs. X-over design can account for big sonic differences even with the same drive unit ...


Regards
 
puroagave said:
Jack, who designs for Albert since Kevin Malmgren left and joined Jon Tinn?
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Albert has always designed the crossovers and spec'd or chosen drivers. I personally witnessed Albert doing final crossover voicing on paper and the actual assembly revisions. The first 11 Mk2 upgrade was done on site here in Manila because they did not have an 11 to work on at the factory at the time.

I was not allowed to take close ups of the XOs and their schematics. They were shown to me however. I was allowed to help in removing the old XO. :)

albertvs4.jpg


Elevens.jpg



Kevin brought the sleek look to the VR line which prior were either cloth wrapped or standard boxy. The VR bodies of models launched since Kevin left were, if I'm not mistaken, penned by Albert (22,33) Damon (44,55,100) and the 111 I believe a colab between Albert and Swanson. The design for reinforcement of the 5A Mk2,9 Mk2,11 Mk2 bodies were ported over from the Unifield line by Albert.

On a happy note Damon is reportedly back with his Dad at VSA. Welcome back Damon!
 
JackD201 said:
Albert has always designed the crossovers and spec'd or chosen drivers. I personally witnessed Albert doing final crossover voicing on paper and the actual assembly revisions. The first 11 Mk2 upgrade was done on site here in Manila because they did not have an 11 to work on at the factory at the time.

I was not allowed to take close ups of the XOs and their schematics. They were shown to me however. I was allowed to help in removing the old XO. :)

albertvs4.jpg


Elevens.jpg



Kevin brought the sleek look to the VR line which prior were either cloth wrapped or standard boxy. The VR bodies of models launched since Kevin left were, if I'm not mistaken, penned by Albert (22,33) Damon (44,55,100) and the 111 I believe a colab between Albert and Swanson. The design for reinforcement of the 5A Mk2,9 Mk2,11 Mk2 bodies were ported over from the Unifield line by Albert.

On a happy note Damon is reportedly back with his Dad at VSA. Welcome back Damon!
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Jack , that's a lovely looking room, beautiful layout ......
 
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