reasonably price Von Schweikerts discontinued?

[ptoomey]

Hey,
I posted in another thread about my hopes to buy a new pair of VR1s later this year. So, I am on Von Schweikert's site and notice that the VR1s are listed as discontinued. In addition, so are the VR2s. So, now the lowest price pair of speakers I can find on their site is $5700. I emailed to see if this was correct. They confirmed the bad news. So, now I have no idea what speaker to pair with the Jolida 302 integrated tube I plan on buying. For me, the Von Schweikert was the perfect balance of sound and aesthetics. I am now left searching for a pretty efficient, sweet sounding, and beautiful speaker to compete with the Von Schweikert VR1.

Patrick

[JJohnson]

I auditioned VR-1s about a year ago and was favorably impressed. They come up quite often used on Audiogon for $500 - $600.
If you are only considering new speakers, check out the Usher S-520. I ulitmately purchased these and have been quite happy, especially at the $400 new retail price.
Good luck and happy hunting. That is half the fun.
Jeff

[topspeed]

JJohnson beat me to it. Audiogon.com is your friend and I'll second the Usher's, a speaker that is very similar in sound to VSA's.

Albert is really pissing me off these days. I used to shill for VSA because I thought they offered a remarkable speaker for the price. About a year ago, their prices did a moon shot and assumed goofy names like Vanquish, Valiant, et. al. as the new "V" line of speakers (whatever the Hell that is). However, he left the VR1 alone.

So much for giant killing performance at reasonable prices.

I think the exorbitant cost of living in San Diego has skewed Albert's value system.

Good luck and keep checking audiogon.