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Von Schweikert VR4JR & Tube Amp???

So...without boring you with too much details, I've been FORCED to move my rig into a small dedicated room in my basement. I currently have the above speakers, Marantz SA8260 SACD/CD, Marantz PM7200 (95wpc), Kimber Silver Streak, Audioquest Montblanc & CV-6. My room is only about 12x10 and it's in a corner of my finished basement so, I have two walls that are poured concrete behind the paneling. Obviously, the sound sucks. Since the room is fully enclosed and mine alone, I literally had to surround the room with R-15 Insulation covered with heavy felt moving-blankets and built some baffling in the corners. Ceiling is typical foam drop-ceiling tiles. Floor is carpeted. After some experimentation with speaker placement, I have ACCEPTABLE sound accross most frequencies except the bass (too boomy). Now here's the question: I'm hoping to make the following hardware changes as final adjustments since I might be here for awhile: Replace the PM7200 with a Primaluna Prologue 2 or Manley Stringray and the Audioquest cables with Kimber 8TC. I don't have the experience with or the ability to audition the considered new gear but, what do you wise and insightful folks think???
pawlowski6132
fishwater
178 posts
 
I have been curious about the DK VS-1, I read somewhere on this site that it sounds great with the Jr's but can't recall if it was a dealer's claims or not.
blindjim
3,092 posts
 
Permit me to chime in here thuogh all may be settled at this time... I've a pair of the JR's. All BAT gear, vk5i, and vk500. I currently love the sound I'm getting though I've still a ways to go... acousticaly speaking, myself.

#1 thing I did to improve things along the lines of bass and overall sound was repositioning the speakers.. for the umpteenth time... my carpet looks like a shooting range if you get close to it... John at Cardass told me the following: and it coincides withthe info posted at their website... Draw a rectangle (with some masking tape or the like), one of two ways... either 5 feet from the side walls, and eight feet from the rear wall, or three feet from the side walls, and five feet from the rear walls. #2 Then strike the diagonal from the corner of the room to the corner of the rectangle. Setting the JR'S along that line with the bass driver dead center on it and parallel to the other speaker. Big, Big, help. that procedure addresses 'two' room nodes. My speakers were off a just a couple inches from that diagonal line to begin with... Far better now! Far better. Though not only do they need to be right on that line... but 'EXACTLY' the same distnace from the rear wall... remember, '..time and phase, coherent." My room is only 13.75 ft. wide. (the units are 7.5 ft. apart with no toe in)... and could possibly move further into the room but as they do they get closer together... so only a few more inches perhaps... The above sure helped me and agian I was only about 2 inches away or so... It all got more coherent, and more resolution in the bass, gaining quality to the notes with more discernability... way more differeniation and way less boomyness and one note sounds with smoe bass notes almost non existent... It ain't the 'fix all' but it is/was immense ehlp.. and I haven't loaded them with shot or dacron either. Just spiked with oversized spikes, and home made biwires/shotgun cables. replacing the spkr. cables is probably next on the list... so what was said about the Kimber's & AQ is good to know... Good luck.
maril555
619 posts
 
Blindjim,
I have VR4 JR's as well and have experimented with placement, tube traps and acoustic room correction ( PARC ) long enough and still bass is not controlled enough.
Could you please clarify? When you say : "Then strike the diagonal from the corner of the room to the corner of the rectangle. Setting the JR'S along that line with the bass driver dead center on it and parallel to the other speaker"
First of all:
You only giving coordinates for the 2 out of 4 corners of the triangle.
Second:
Do you draw the line from the room corner to the corner of the rectangle, which rectangle corner should it be?, the closest to the room corner?, or the farthest?
Thanks.
maril555
619 posts
 
Correction:
Where it says "You only giving coordinates for the 2 out of 4 corners of the triangle.", I really meant "rectangle"
robm321
932 posts
 
All great responses.

I was able to overcome room problems and tuning the JR's. Beleive me the manual and setting up the global axis nextwork to integrate with the room is a must to get what these speakers can do. I think some people don't realize that and change speakers. The bass, rear ambiance driver and toe in all have to come together. Then you will get the transparency that the speakers are capable of.

Room treatment is a must also. More than some other speakers, because the JR's are designed to include the room as part of the soundstage. Although other speakers obviously take this into consideration as well, my experience with the JR's are that they can sound horrible in a bright room (more than some speakers) and like your case boomy, but if you take the patience setting up the speakers as explained in the manual and treat your room. You will come to fruision as I have (in my case 2 years), but it took that long because I didn't "get" the whole integration thing and treated them like typical speakers.

Hope this helps,
Rob
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