Topic: VSA VR4 speakers

[goose]

or how they'd sound with Chad Johnson and Ben Roethlisberger Fatheads wrapped around them

[Nick Culbreth]

Those are speakers are fugly.

[Brian Skalinder]

I kinda like 'em.  But then again, no one's ever accused me of having any sort of aesthetic sense whatsoever.

[Nick's Picks]

you can always resock them white, red, black..etc.

[ducati]

Ha, proving that beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder...  I like the color!  But, like Brian, I have never been accused of having any aesthetic taste...  And in fact am color-deficient, so what I see is invariably not what you see.  But really, I think they look nice.

I found the description humerous: "I have listened to them for maybe 15 hours total. These are the speakers I have used as a benchmark because they are the best I have heard."

The guy's personal benchmark, but only listened to for 15 hours?  Pu-leeeeze.  Regardless, they look to be in good shape.

This weekend I had a listen to two speakers in this general price range: Totem Forest and Reference 3A Veena.  Different interpretations of the music, but both valid.  I believe both are in the 3K new range.  Veena was warm and cozy, a smoky jazz club...  Forest was punchy and hit with a bigger hammer.  I'll have to demo vs. VR4JR in the coming months.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Another local pair of VR4s just popped up and I just sent an email.  They look like gen 1 VR4's.  What's the scoop on the gen 1's?

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?spkrfull&1143866956

[it-goes-to-eleven]

I'm going for it.  Jumping in the shower and hitting the road.  He is buying the barney VR4's btw and expressed significant concern about his wife killing him over the color. He says he's been shocked by the interest in the vr4's.

He's offered to sell me the kimber's and the speakers for $2100.  So that's about $750 for the cables. I am not up to speed on cables so any comments on those would be appreciated.

[L Ron Hoover]

2100   They'd be worth that alone even if they were hot pink.

[scervin]

I'm going for it.  Jumping in the shower and hitting the road.  He is buying the barney VR4's btw and expressed significant concern about his wife killing him over the color. He says he's been shocked by the interest in the vr4's.

He's offered to sell me the kimber's and the speakers for $2100.  So that's about $750 for the cables. I am not up to speed on cables so any comments on those would be appreciated.

Just saw these and was going to PM you.  Those are right around the corner from me!  Now just have them sent in and upgraded 

[pfife]

Nice score Freelunch.  I'd love to hear them ho's sometime soon bud!  I've wanted a pair of VR4s for a while...

[pjdavep]

He's offered to sell me the kimber's and the speakers for $2100.  So that's about $750 for the cables. I am not up to speed on cables so any comments on those would be appreciated.

Kimber's 8TC is great cable for the money!  It looks like you have two biwire/shotgun runs of 14'...meaning two runs of 14' to each speaker (and 4 runs total), correct?  His ad doesn't state implicitly.  The good thing about the 8TC with your setup is that you can wire the top cabinet directly, as the VSA's should be wired for best sound.  And 14' should give you plenty of room for moving them things around.  Worst case is that you resell the 8TC and if you do, you could probably get your $750 back pretty easily.

Later,
   pjdavep

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Hey guys..  Thanks for all the help as my questions have come up!  And thanks for keeping an eye peeled, Scervin.

I just got back and they're in the truck, waiting to be unloaded..  He is picking up the blue VR4's tonight.  His wife doesn't know about the color yet!!  They are not a match for their home decor. If he doesn't soon perish, he should be a good source of feedback on the upgrade.  He bought some crazy new cables for the new speakers but he won't get those for a couple weeks.

Really nice guy.  His wife recently freaked about cable mess and so he just put together a nice enclosure for his stereo and tv.  His old cables were too stiff to route into the enclosure, hence the kimbers.  He was going to let me borrow the old cables to decide between them. I can't recall the mfgr but they were extremely magnetic.  Ultimately, I decided to pass since I knew I wouldn't be able to give them a decent and timely eval with the speakers being so new to my system, etc.

The kimbers are currently terminated for a single amp system.  So I would have to re-term in order to go bi-amp.

Can't wait to get them setup..

[pfife]

+T for toys

[ducati]

8TC is a classic cable.  Right up there with AudioQuest Type 4+ in my favorite bang-for-the-buck category.  Good stuff, you won't need to upgrade for awhile, maybe never.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

The bass on these is insane!   I am not used to it at all.  Definitely hearing stuff in my recordings that I didn't know was there.

They are on wood floors and are temporarily setup on cork/rubber squares. Suggestions on how to optimally support them would be appreciated. I don't think I want to spike them into the floor at this time..

The previous owner had the top cabinets resting on some foam isolators (which he kept). Suggestions on what to run there would also be appreciated.