Von Schweikert Audio VR-4SR Mk2 Instruction Manual
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Released October 2007
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IMPORTANT NOTES........................................................................................................PAGE 2
BREAK-IN..........................................................................................................................PAGE 2
INITIAL SETUP.................................................................................................................PAGE 3
WIRING..............................................................................................................................PAGE 4
BI-AMPING........................................................................................................................PAGE 6
PLACEMENT.....................................................................................................................PAGE 6
PINK NOISE TEST FOR FOCUS......................................................................................PAGE 7
REAR AMBIENCE DRIVER.............................................................................................PAGE 8
WOOFER TUNING/BASS RESPONSE ADJUSTMENTS...............................................PAGE 9
TUNING WOOFERS FOR TUBE AMPS..........................................................................PAGE 11
LACK OF BASS................................................................................................................ PAGE 12
TROUBLE SHOOTING.....................................................................................................PAGE 12
ROOM PROBLEMS AND TREATMENT........................................................................PAGE 13
CARE FOR THE FINISH...................................................................................................PAGE 13
INTRODUCTION
Thank you for investing in a Virtual Reality speaker system designed by Von Schweikert Audio. Used
properly, the VR-4SR Mk2 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-4SR Mk2'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 are engineered to replicate the recording microphone’s signal in
reverse, allowing the original sound-field 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 NOTES:
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Please read the following instructions regarding setup, as imaging and bass response must be
optimized to your particular room. Since every listening room will have different dimensional ratios
and reflective/absorptive coefficients, each setup will be different. A thorough break-in must be
conducted in order to realize the full benefits of the VR’s 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-4SR Mk2 can offer; optimum
performance is only attainable by using the following instructions!
When unpacking the VR's, 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 VR-4SR Mk2’s use proprietary drivers custom made for this system; stiff suspensions were
designed to control the cone motion and will require several hundred hours before the suspensions
become compliant. Since the crossover networks were designed using “aged” transducers with 300
hours of music played at 93dB (fairly loud), you will need to play the speakers for 300 hours before
the transducers and crossovers “work” together properly. Since the fluidity and dynamic range of the
speaker depends on free movement, you may notice a slight “brightness” in the midrange/treble area
and mechanical “heaviness” in the bass for the first 100 hours. The sound engineered into the VR's
will take approximately 100-300 hours to achieve, so we recommend that you not make a critical
judgment of their sound until break-in is accomplished.
Break-in is best done by playing loud rock or jazz music 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
speaker, since sustained high volume playback at clipping will burn the speaker’s voice coils. Make
sure that you set the volume level before putting one of the speakers out-of-phase and installing the
quilts. Note that low powered amplifiers will burn the voice coils much faster than high powered
amps due to the onset of early clipping in low powered amplifiers. Use caution when breaking in your
new speakers; clipping is easy to hear and sounds metallic, harsh, or “buzzy.” If you get to this point,
you’ll need to turn down the volume a couple of notches to avoid burning the voice coils. If you
choose not to break in the speakers before setting them up, 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 as the source. If you have a “clean”
amplifier with 100-200 watts of power, you will be able to play the VR-4SR Mk2's loudly over a long
period of time without damaging the voice coils.
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SETUP
1. Please do not install the spikes until the proper placement has been determined. If you try to
move the speakers around with the spikes installed, you can damage your floor and/or rip out the
spikes, so please be careful and install the spikes only when you are confident that the speakers have
been placed in the proper position. 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 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 that’s not a concern at this time.
2. Turn off the rear ambience drivers by rotating their volume controls counter-clockwise until the
setup is complete. You need to achieve correct image focus before setting the level of the rear
ambience tweeter, please refer to the section regarding the REAR AMBIENCE DRIVER on page 8.
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. You can see that these two considerations are in direct conflict, so some compromise must be
made initially for either loud bass or an open sound stage. During optimization, you will be balancing
these two considerations, as both are necessary for realistic sound reproduction.
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 VR's have very wide dispersion,
there will be no hole in the middle effect. Place the speakers about 2-5ft 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 VR's 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 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’t 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. Most acoustic experts recommend toe in, as this will give you
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the best image focus and widest sound stage. However, since your taste may vary, you may well prefer
the extra depth achieved with no toe in; i.e., the speakers parallel to the side walls.
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 the sound stage focus. 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 Echo Busters, RPG, ASC, 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 that he
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 distance 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, see your dealer.
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. Installing a small rug in between the speakers and the listening chair will normally correct
this problem.
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.
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