Questions on Totem Hawks & Von Schweikert VR2

Walkman,

The Hawks are world class speakers that when treated right, can do things most speakers on this planet only wish they could do. With that being said, the Hawks are not the most versitile speakers on the planet and are very picky with room and electronics. The Sim gear is a decent match with the Hawks and your room size is about right for this speaker.

With that said, the VS VR-2 is technically a far lesser product although it can be the better tool for the job in many instances. It is much easier on room placement and equipment matching and can mask up some of those nasty recordings that run fairly rampid with your musical tastes..

For your listening tastes, I would look at NEAT acoustics or vintage Polk Audio SDA's.

Thans Rumadian and Robm321. I appreciate the posts. It seems like I've narrowed down my selection to two recommended speakers, and yet there are always more...the more input, the better, so thanks again. - steve

Rumadian,

That's funny I would have it the other way around. The VR2 placement is very picky given that it uses the room and rear ambiance tweater. It all has to come together in the sweet spot at the right time to get the benefit of the VR2. Maybe that's why you you didn't hear what they were capable of. The Hawks, in my experience, were much more forgiving with room placement.

Can you explain what is "technically far less superior" about the VR2's? Do you mean crossover wise, or designwise?

Yeah, Robm321, I had also read several posts here and elsewhere that the VR2s were kinda fussy in terms of placement, relative to other speakers...I found it interesting to read from Rumadian that he felt the VR2s were "much easier on placement," as that was one of my major concerns with the VR2s (e.g. distance from rear wall). - steve

Robm231,

I hope you accept my apologies as my original response came across too strong and I simply did not take any time to give thorough thought before posting.

Having owned the VR-2 and the VR-1, I have much respect for what Von Schweikert has done with these products! You are spot on, the Vr-2 is not an easy speaker to get right in room, as that rear tweeter can cause some freaky reflections. While positioning the vr-2 can be a challenge for even an experienced audiophile, matching the vr-2 with electronics can be easily done – and might I add, affordably so! This is a major strength to the vr-2’s credit and is a good reason why the speaker is as popular as it is. You do not have to spend a mint to get a lot.

The Hawk by contrast, while more friendly with room positioning (although still requiring a very large space to really breathe)… is much more demanding with electronics. With the VR-2, you can easily match the speaker with inexpensive tube’s (Antique Sound Labs, vintage Dynakits, Rogue)… the Hawks really do need gear from the likes of Lamm, Bat (vk-60 or similar). This is a fairly significant step up in electronics and many people do not like the idea of such a disproportionate investment in their system.

As for technical superiority. The Hawk uses a 5.5 inch Scan-Speak Revelator… a driver that costs over 200 by its lonesome, not to mention a fantastic modified MB Quart tweeter that too, is very expensive. The ‘crossover’ is simply a cap and a resistor (if I remember correctly). Very simple. The internal wiring *silver* and over all cab volume is executed near perfection. This was brilliant design mixed with… honestly… luck. Just so you know, the manufacturers cost on the Hawk is only a few hundred less than the msrp of the vr-2.

Now, with all of that being said.. is the Hawk always the better choice? The answer is; of course not. But it is a speaker that is very mis-understood and very easy to get wrong...and a lot of people (dealers included) simply do not realize it.