What to buy for $5000 or so

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Originally Posted by Geoffcin

And they are scary good. I'm running them stacked with my Magnepan 3.6r, and supplemented with two Velodyne FSR15 servo subs. While not yet absolute audio nirvana, there's a sense of authority that just the maggies alone didn't give me.

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I Spent the last 2 hours reading about these Jr's. They trully sound amazing. I am going to call and speak to Albert Von Schweikert tomorrow and just let him wrap up the close on this sale. I am impressed by what has been published re: these speakers.

Are the B&K Reference a good match for these, or would you reccomend others you consider better quality for the money?

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

I Spent the last 2 hours reading about these Jr's. They trully sound amazing. I am going to call and speak to Albert Von Schweikert tomorrow and just let him wrap up the close on this sale. I am impressed by what has been published re: these speakers.

Are the B&K Reference a good match for these, or would you reccomend others you consider better quality for the money?

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Of owning the VR4jr. Just ask Topseed. I'm pretty sure that the B&K amp is going to be a good choice for any HT you would be thinking of.

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Originally Posted by Geoffcin

Of owning the VR4jr. Just ask Topseed. I'm pretty sure that the B&K amp is going to be a good choice for any HT you would be thinking of.

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Thanks

Merry Christmas

I have been reading about varius cables to connect all this. Any Reccomendations?

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

I Spent the last 2 hours reading about these Jr's. They trully sound amazing. I am going to call and speak to Albert Von Schweikert tomorrow and just let him wrap up the close on this sale. I am impressed by what has been published re: these speakers.

Are the B&K Reference a good match for these, or would you reccomend others you consider better quality for the money?

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Yes, the Jr's are really that much better than the VR2's.

B&K would be a fine amp although as a former B&K owner, I've found there are more transparent offerings available. FWIW, Albert uses VAC tubes and Spectron digital switching amps when voicing his speakers. Both provide a certain sweetness and air to the sound that will be lacking with most ss amps. You might consider this when choosing amps. Have you considered Bel Canto, PS Audio, or ARC's new switching amp? Look around, there are a lot options available to you.

Good luck

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Originally Posted by topspeed

Yes, the Jr's are really that much better than the VR2's.

B&K would be a fine amp although as a former B&K owner, I've found there are more transparent offerings available. FWIW, Albert uses VAC tubes and Spectron digital switching amps when voicing his speakers. Both provide a certain sweetness and air to the sound that will be lacking with most ss amps. You might consider this when choosing amps. Have you considered Bel Canto, PS Audio, or ARC's new switching amp? Look around, there are a lot options available to you.

Good luck

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Ok Guys, I am going to buy the Von Schweikert System 30. Now I need an amp pre-amp package to go with them. Let's try to put together these two pieces in the $5000 range. This will keep me right at 10,000 for the complete package.

What do you know about this amp.
Sunfire Cinema Grand Series II
I found it on sale for $1795

I'm not a fan of Sunfire amps. I heard the CG pushing a couple of speakers including Dynaudio Evidence Tempations and it was just not musical at all. Blechh.

In addition to the brands mentioned, I'd consider Cary, Parasound, and Audio Refinement among others. The VSA's are one of the more forgiving speakers out there but their performance does scale upward with the equipment. One things for sure, you're going to have one helluva rig when your done! :D

Tell me you're not buying speakers you have not heard yet? Everything gets good reviews and has some great techno-babble - but 95% of it isn't great. Von Sweikert is pretty reputable but still - Listen foirst or make sure there is a return policy - lots of good stuff too that simply may not be to your taste.

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Originally Posted by RGA

Tell me you're not buying speakers you have not heard yet? Everything gets good reviews and has some great techno-babble - but 95% of it isn't great. Von Sweikert is pretty reputable but still - Listen foirst or make sure there is a return policy - lots of good stuff too that simply may not be to your taste.

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This guy is not talking about speakers that are based on "techno-babble" but on tech that has been designed by one of the formost speaker designers of our time. The VR4jr quality is not just pretty reputable. I was willing to buy them totally unheard, and even though I didn't, I woudn't loose a moments sleep if I did.

Well, I just finished buying the Von Schweikert speakers. I ended up going with The package that has the Jr's. Thank you to everyone for all your help in this process. Now I need to decide on the front end equipment.

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

Well, I just finished buying the Von Schweikert speakers. I ended up going with The package that has the Jr's. Thank you to everyone for all your help in this process. Now I need to decide on the front end equipment.

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Your in for an amazing audio experiance.

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

Well, I just finished buying the Von Schweikert speakers. I ended up going with The package that has the Jr's. Thank you to everyone for all your help in this process. Now I need to decide on the front end equipment.

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Good choice. I am quite confident that you will be quite happy with the Jrs. They are very nice speakers indeed.

Enjoy your new toys! :-)

---Dave

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Originally Posted by Geoffcin

This guy is not talking about speakers that are based on "techno-babble" but on tech that has been designed by one of the formost speaker designers of our time. The VR4jr quality is not just pretty reputable. I was willing to buy them totally unheard, and even though I didn't, I woudn't loose a moments sleep if I did.

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Man I still disagree - there is no speaker I would buy based off of reviews or technical ramblings especially not for the kind of money that we're talking about. The fact that you or this poster ends up liking them - I have heard lots of great stuff over the years and impressive technological "advancements" that simply don't sound good.

Maybe I missed it, I'm surprised no one mentioned it - but after spending (many)thousands on my system I now buy everything used. First class brand names are readily available at typically 50% of new. The elctronics tends to last many years past the almost inevitable upgrade bug that will bite you at some time.

Names like Mark levinson, Cary, Conrad Johson, Krell etc, etc, that are stratospherically priced become worth considering at half price. If you live in a big city the odds are good that something you want is within driving distance so you can inspect or even listen before you spend your money. If you don't like the item resell it. Typically your only loss is the shipping costs.

Several good audio gear clasified sites exist, they are easy to find.

Your own hearing will vary. So will the room acoustics and the electronic "matching" of the equipment. Some things just blend together better than others and there is no formula for that. So what do you do if you cannot get the stuff home to try out first? Look at the different types of quality speakers in the price range you want and try to listen to them on the same or at least similar type of equipment. By same type I mean don't use tube amps to audition speakers when you will use a SS amp at home. Also try to not fall into the "this amp has a little more power, say 100 WPC or so, and only costs a little more than yours, say 5k or so, but it is comparable" trap. Try to get them to use electronics that match the type, power and quality of what you have at home. At least try and get close. I had a friend who listened to some speakers on a 20k+ esoteric tube system that sounded great. Not so good on his yamaha reciever though.
That said I would say a small list is not a bad starting point. At 5k or so I would definately try the B&W N803, Magnapan 3.6/r, Audionote, Klipshorn and a few others. It seems that I am hearing some issues lately about build quality and the Logans. Too bad I really liked them. There are many others as well. remember that music/tv listenning is a long term thing. And if you cannot sit there a few hours comfortably and without any strain then you should to change something so that you can.
Take care and I hope you get what you want out of it. Music is a world unto itself.

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their help. Just to let you know my purchase has been completed. I ended up getting the B&K 200.7 series 2 and the B&K ref 50 Series 2. I will let you know how it all sounds when it arrives.
Thanks Again
Chris

OK, so this ended up being a little more than I set out to spend, but I came in just under $10,000. CAN"T WAIT TO SET IT UP :)

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

Again, I would like to thank everyone for their help. Just to let you know my purchase has been completed. I ended up getting the B&K 200.7 series 2 and the B&K ref 50 Series 2. I will let you know how it all sounds when it arrives.
Thanks Again
Chris

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It should sound incredible.

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Originally Posted by ChrisR

OK, so this ended up being a little more than I set out to spend, but I came in just under $10,000. CAN"T WAIT TO SET IT UP :)

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That should be an astounding rig, Chris! I'm sure you'll be happy :D.

A quick word of advice: Now that you've got all your new toys, make sure you take the time to properly position them in the room and pay attention to the room interaction. Also, load the chambers in the Jr's after you've got them placed correctly ;). Your back will thank you.

I would get Dynaudio Contour S3.4s . I have Contour 3.0s (discontinued). No need for Sub with these, just a good power amp.

I would approach your problem as to which system to procure the same way I would aquire any item I needed or wanted. The $5000 candy store game being played here is not the most logical or economical way to satisfy your needs. The $5000 figure should be the maximum to be spent on the problem, not the "must spend" amount.

I would start by determining what speakers best fit the your needs for the unusal room you have.
Then I would determine where to obtain them at the lowest cost. First choice would be used or vintage equipment and ebay, auctions, friends, garage sales etc would be perferable to purchasing new.

I would then determine the power requirements to feed these speakers and follow the same procurment proceedure, that is the lowest cost . I would follow this plan until I had the system I needed. The cost may be much less than anticipated especially if you can consider using vintage equipment. Speakers and amps have not really changed much in the last few years comparied to cd changers for instance.

I realize that if you are into having the newest and latest, a bragging type system, this plan will not work. Buying the lastest and newest is great for the stores and manufacturers but in a few years will leave you with older, depreciated, out of date equipment, at a high cost. The nature of technology is planned obsolesence.

Remember, with technology, the second mouse gets the cheese.

Spending that $1700 for a 286 computer in 1995 sure hurt when I put it to the garbage as even the schools did not want it a few years later. I have a nice older 5 cd changer that will not play burned cds and not MP 3 of coarse.

The money saved can find a home I am sure!!

Charlie