Are the Von Schweikert VR-4JRs really all that?

Speaker preference is pretty subjective and I believe Teajay's advice is sound.

I've had a pair of VR4Jrs (dark cherry) for about a year now and they have over 800 hours on them. I fell in love with the demo pair which had only about 150 hours on them and were not biwired and I've found that once they reach 400-500 hours they get noticeably better which is difficult to believe, but true. I have been upgrading speakers and demo-ing (Vandersteen, Vienna Acoustics, JMLab, Maggies, Sonus Faber, and a few others) for over a decade and the VR4Jrs have stopped my upgrade fever. Period. For me, they are keepers. I truly have no need for anything different or 'better'. To my ears - which are quite critical - everything I've heard at well over twice the price are not nearly as satisfying, involving or musical. They will reveal whatever changes you make upstream - and that may be a good or bad thing depending on your related equipment.

They do need to be mass loaded with 45-50 lbs of lead shot in the bass unit as well as bi-wired, and using the spikes is essential. Positioning them in your room , as with any speaker, will fine tune them to reach their full potential in your environment. With those conditions met they are remarkable satisfying.

That little voice you talked about can be a persistant demon. I've heard it often. But when you get equipment that draws you in and is truly satisfying the voice goes away. It really does. If you find your mind wandering as you're listening, you're not there. My mind never wanders when I'm listening to the VR4Jrs.

They are some of the best that are available -Theyre efficient, have tremendous dynamic range and image like crazy - they are an excellent value used, with prices around 35% off retail - They will go deeper than most with a smooth liquid midrange, all in a smaller designed enclosure -Fit and finish is excellent- V/S technology has enabled them to make better sounding speakers than those they made only a few short years ago- The first example of these newer designs was the vr4jr, then (soon)- the SR ,then the vr5 for next year - All should be excellent choices MHO

Good points guys, thanks.
As far as home audition goes that is in essence what I would be doing. I can get a good enough price on the VR4JRs (new) that if they don't work out I can turn them around and at least break even.
Associated components will be:
DK Desigh VS.1 Hybrid intergrated
&
Shanling T200
I really like the Maggie sound but.... 1 - don't have the room for them. 2 - don't want to use a subwoofer.

I think the reason I've been sooooo impressed with the VR4JRs is:
1 - They don't have ANY weakness. They've done everything right or close to it.... so far.
2 - Nice compact design (perfect for my needs) yet pretty much a full range producer (tough to find at it's size)
3 - Right in my price range
4 - Neutral to warm sounding speaker.
5 - beautiful Dark Cherry Finish.

If anybody has something in mind that I should check out, (remember compact - full range) please let me know and I will find them.

beemer, you say you don't but chinese. what are you using for a computer?your tennis shoes? your clothes?
you will be surprised how much "chinese" you buy!

I know I'll be in the minority here but I personally do not think they are "all that". I did an extensive audition and found the bass, while deep and quite powerful, to lack pitch definition and speed. It was noticably "unnatural" sounding in the set up I heard. I also found the upper midrange a bit hard sounding. Overall, this is, in my view, one of those hifi speakers for listening to sounds but not a musical speaker. I'm not saying its bad, just not as good as some other stuff out there. For example, in the same price range the Harbeth Super HL 5 is much more musical and far superior to the VR4jr. Just one man's view, of course if you like the sound then that will be that--go for it.