Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Speaker Systems for Music and Film
VR-3.5
Instructions
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for investing in a Virtual Reality speaker system designed by Von Schweikert Audio. Used properly, the VR-3.5 will give you many wonderful years of exciting musical reproduction, closer to the emotional truth of the composer, performer, and producer’s intent. In order to fully benefit from the VR-3.5's powerful magic, please read the following instructions thoroughly. Although the VR series may appear to be conventional speakers, they have been designed to work with the listening room. Being a Room Interactive design, there are certain setup procedures which must be followed. The VR series is engineered to replicate the recording microphone’s signal in reverse, allowing the original soundfield to be recreated in your home. This technology is proprietary and will allow the full emotional content of the original performance to be heard by listeners anywhere in the room. Please see our White Paper for more technical information on the design. As with all high tech designs, there must be a commitment from the user to fully utilize this product. The following instructions will enable you to achieve world-class sound.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please read the following instructions regarding setup, as imaging and bass response must be optimized to your particular room. Since there is no standard listening room dimensions or reflective/absorptive standards, each setup will be different. A thorough break-in must be conducted in order to realize the full benefits of the VRs transparency and imaging accuracy, and several experiments with placement must be undertaken. In situations where these instructions are not followed, you may not achieve the ultimate sound the VR-3.5 can offer. Although the VR series retail at very reasonable price points, they are capable of world class performance, far exceeding conventional designs. However, optimum performance is only attainable by using the following instructions!
SHIPPING DAMAGE
Please unpack the VRs on a rug, making sure to avoid scratching your hands or the finish on the staples. Please note that the spikes are wrapped up in a cardboard package.
Do not install spikes at this time however, since you will be moving the speakers around extensively while determining the correct place in the room for final installation.
When unpacking the VRs, please note any hidden shipping damage. If you find damage, please notify the freight company who will then send an inspector. Do not discard the boxes or otherwise alter the contents, as the inspector will want to see the damage as you found it. Since Von Schweikert Audio has no control over the shipping companies or their damage claim policies, it is imperative that you follow the instructions from the freight company agent explicitly. Additionally, please retain all packing materials for later use in the event of a move.
BREAK-IN
The VRs use proprietary drivers custom made for this system. Raw drivers are broken in for roughly 100 hours at considerable volume to reach suspension behavior’s steady state prior to actual loudspeaker development. By contrast, production units receive 12 to 24 hours of break-in. Since the fluidity and dynamic range of the speaker
930 Armorlite Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069 |
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Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Speaker Systems for Music and Film
depends on free movement, you may notice a slight brightness or mechanical heaviness to the sound for the first 20 hours. The sound engineered into the VRs will take approximately 80-100 hours to achieve, so we recommend that you not make critical judgements of their sound until break-in is accomplished. Complete break-in occurs after 400 hours. Break-in is best done by playing loud music or a break-in disc for several days straight. We suggest placing the speakers face to face, with one speaker system wired out of phase. Quilts may be placed over the speakers to reduce the radiated sound. This trick will cancel a lot of the sound that may disturb others. However, please make sure that you are not driving the amplifier into clipping or distorting the speakerC it is difficult to hear distortion when quilts are used.
Note that it may take several months or longer to break the speakers in if only quiet music is played at background levels.
Classical music played quietly does not contain enough bass or dynamics (in most cases) to do a proper job, so we suggest using a CD player on repeat, using a loud rock album or break-in CD as the source. Please make sure that the amplifier does not go into clipping, though, as the heat generated may damage the drivers over a period of time. (Clipping sounds like buzzing or harshness). If the sound is clean, however, you can put up to 200 watts of music power (peaks) into the VR-3.5's over a long period of time without any damage.
INITIAL SETUP
Please do not install the spikes until the proper placement has been determined. You will be moving the speakers several times in order to listen to different aspects of the optimization, and the spikes will only make the movement more difficult. Since the spikes tighten the bass dramatically, and also increase the image focus, do not worry unduly about these two parameters until later in the setup process. Without the spikes, the bass may be too thick and the image will not be as tightly focused, but these effects will be eliminated after break-in, correct placement, and use of the spikes. Also, turn off the rear ambience drivers by rotating their volume controls counter-clockwise until the setup is complete. Please refer to the section regarding the REAR AMBIENCE DRIVER.
STARTING LOCATION
There are a number of considerations regarding initial placement, particularly involving bass response and basic imaging. In general, bass response is strengthened when the speakers are placed close to the rear or side walls, while imaging is enhanced by pulling the speakers further into the room, away from walls. With your VR loudspeakers and the following suggestions you will be able to achieve both deep and powerful bass and an open sound stage.
ROOM CONFIGURATIONS: If you have a room with fairly rectangular dimensions, you can place the speakers on either the long or short wall. If your room is cubic, you will have far better results placing the speakers diagonally. See next section.
ON LONG WALL: Placing the speakers on the long wall enables you to achieve a very large and wide sound stage. In fact, using an equilateral triangle as your starting point, you can space the speakers as far apart as the listening distance, even if this is 15 feet. Since the VRs have very wide dispersion, there will be no hole in the middle effect. Place the speakers about 1-2ft from the rear wall, with this distance being the bass optimizer. If you wish to achieve more depth, move them further into the room. If you wish more bass, place them either closer to the rear wall or closer to the side walls.
*Note: Do not use the same distance from the rear wall and side wall, as this distance will result in too much boost at this wavelength. Stagger this distance by 40-70%.
Do not toe the speakers in at first, place them parallel to the side walls. In general, the sound stage will be constrained to the distance between the speakers, so if you have the VRs only six feet apart, you will hear a small sound stage. Since there will be a lot of overlap between the left and right channels, the center image will be very
930 Armorlite Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069 |
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Ph (760)410-1650 |
Fax (760)410-1655 |
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E-mail:albertvonn@aol.com ~ Website:www.vonschweikert.com
Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Speaker Systems for Music and Film
dense and monophonic. To correct for this, separate the speakers further; 8 feet to 12 feet apart is not too much in a large room, but remember, the spread depends on the listening distance. If you have to spread the speakers well apart but can not sit far enough back due to furniture and cosmetic considerations, you may have to toe the speakers in, with the tweeters aimed directly at your ears.
ON SHORT WALL: Placing the speakers on the short wall and sitting far back in the long end of the room may give you a concert hall experience if your room is large. Long reverberation times due to long distances from boundaries can impart a grand sense of scale with classical music, although smaller rooms might curtail this effect somewhat. Also, too much boundary reflection will result in echoes that may interfere with the direct sound and blur imaging somewhat.
If you suspect this condition, clap your hands while standing at the speaker position. If you hear distinct echoes, you will have to treat the room with specialized tuning products from Michael Green, RPG, ASC tube traps, Sonex foam panels, and the like. If decorating is a consideration, try using rugs hanging on the side walls at the first reflection point, and behind the speakers, directly in the center. Your dealer can recommend tuning products he/she carries and may be able to install them. If your dealer does not offer this service, call the above mentioned tuning companies for further information.
CUBIC ROOM DIAGONAL LOCATION: Rooms with mathematically repeating dimensions (like 16 x 16 x 8', for instance) will have a midbass/lower midrange >loading effect due to the similar ratios of boundary distances. In this case, it will help to locate one speaker on each side of a corner and fire the speakers diagonally into the room. Note that you will also need to place your listening chair at a diagonal position as well, at an equilateral triangulated distance. Diagonal placement is an extreme measure but may be necessary if you wish to achieve the ultimate in accurate frequency response. Diagonal placement will prevent a portion of the standing wave energy from boosting certain frequencies, since the reflection patterns are broken up in this configuration. The distances to each side wall is critical, and experimentation will be required with placement of not only the speakers themselves, but also your seating position and wall treatment. It may be necessary to use absorptive or dispersive devices on the wall to ameliorate the wall reflections which may cause tonal imbalances or imaging confusion. See your dealer.
FLOORING: If you have a hardwood floor, (especially without carpeting), there is the possibility that vibration and resonance will be transferred to the floor, which will then act as a passive radiator. The floor resonance will sound like extra midbass is being added to the sound, and will smear the bass notes as well, since the floor will vibrate long after the woofers stop moving. On bare hardwood floors, it will be necessary to decouple the speakers with rubber decoupling feet such as Sorbothane (Audioquest), Soft Shoes (McCormack), or even rubber balls. The use of cones or spikes will result in some transmission to the wood floor and is only recommended on carpeted floors. In two story homes with wood floors on the second floor, we have noticed a tendency for the floor to absorb deep bass due to sympathetic resonance. In this case, the speaker will sound like it does not have bass, so the cure would be to either move the speakers closer to a boundary where the floor is not flexing as much or to decouple the speaker completely from the floor. That can be accomplished by making a platform from wood filled with sand, or using a granite base several inches thick. In addition to the induced resonance, there will be upper frequency reflections which will affect the midrange/tweeter balance, usually boosting the treble/upper midrange and destroying the image solidity. If you have hardwood floors, installing a thick rug in between the speakers and the listening chair will normally correct this problem.
CARPETED FLOORS: Using the spikes after break-in and correct placement will tighten up the bass and lock in the soundstage. Make sure that you level the speakers so they do not rock, and use the locking nuts to make sure the spikes will not vibrate loose.
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WIRING |
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930 Armorlite Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069 |
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Ph (760)410-1650 |
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Von Schweikert Audio
World Class Reference Speaker Systems for Music and Film
The best sound staging and transparency from the VR-3.5 results from bi-wiring the speakers, but if a biwire set is not initially available, connect the main speaker wire to the upper midrange/tweeter inputs then run a jumper downwards to the woofer inputs. A 6" jumper wire can be connected between the upper and lower posts. However, we recommend using this only as a temporary solution, since we designed the speakers expressly to be bi-wired.
*If you connect the main cable to the woofer and then use a jumper upwards to the M/T, you will be able to hear a slight loss of clarity, since there will now be two connections in the signal path instead of just one to the high resolution tweeter.
Also, make sure that you make a very tight connection between the binding post and the spade lugs on the cables. A loose connection will be apparent as a loss of depth and sweetness. Use a contact enhancing fluid once a month on all RCA plugs and binding posts for best results. There will be attendant increases in sweetness, air, soundstage depth, and smoothness equal to an upgrade in cables, but at far less cost.
Although we have tried almost ten different brands and types of speaker cables, we can only give general recommendations due to the fact that the driving amplifier has as much to do with the type of desired wire as the speakers. Since there are hundreds, if not thousands of available amp/wire combinations, we are not in the position of having heard these combinations. However, in general, stranded wire usually has a softer, fuller sound, while solid core wire has tighter bass. You can use these traits to tune the overall sound of your system. Please use your VR dealer’s expertise when selecting wires and cables, as he has the experience with both the speakers and different amplifiers and can help you make an intelligent selection.
BI-AMPING THE VR-3.5 SERIES: If the tightest bass is desired, use a solid state amplifier on the woofer modules. If you value image float and liquid-sounding midrange/treble response, use a tube amplifier on the M/Ts. You will not need an outboard crossover, since the crossovers in the speakers will still continue to work. Although it is true that louder output can be obtained by high-pass filtering the tube amp, the loss of transparency is usually not worth it, and the clean volume obtainable without a high-pass crossover will be usually satisfying for anyone but a metal head. (Note: if you are a metal head, welcome to high-end audio!) You will need a preamp that has twin outputs, but if you have only one set, use high quality Y-jacks available from your high-end dealer. Balancing of the volume levels when using amps with different input sensitivities can be accomplished by outboard level controls available from your dealer at very modest cost. If the amplifiers have input sensitivities which are fairly close, even if they are different brands, there will be no need for level controls.
VERTICAL BI-AMPING: If two stereo amplifiers of the same brand and model are available, try using this method of wiring. One channel will drive the woofer module, while the other channel of the same amplifier will drive the upper M/Ts. This wiring may sound much better than simply switching the amp to the mono-block bridged mode.
HORIZONTAL BI-AMPING: If two different stereo amps are available, one amp can drive the woofers and the other amp, perhaps of lower power, can drive the midrange/tweeters. This works well with large solid state amps driving the woofers, with a smaller tube amp driving the upper end. We have heard of systems with 100 watts per channel on the woofers, with 20-30 watts per channel of tube power driving the midrange/tweeters. This may seem like an imbalance, but since the most power is needed to drive the woofers, it may work very well!
PLACEMENT
The VR-3.5s are Room Interactive, meaning that the VRs were designed to work in an average listening room, not an anechoic chamber. Speakers that measure very good in an anechoic chamber will usually sound too bass heavy and directional when placed in a room due to boundary effects and room gain in the bass region. The bass response of the room (boundary gain) has been factored into the VRs, along with the reflective nature of boundary surfaces such as
930 Armorlite Drive, San Marcos, CA 92069 |
4 |
|
Ph (760)410-1650 |
Fax (760)410-1655 |
|
E-mail:albertvonn@aol.com ~ Website:www.vonschweikert.com
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