Have you seen the VR9SE Review?

Holenneck (btw, nice moniker), the speakers were personal purchases and not review samples. the review was not central to my direction. i purchased the 3rd retail set built of these speakers so it wasn't going to be out-of-date anytime soon.

i happen to disagree with your premise that the room should be adapted to the speakers.....even though most of us are stuck with that program. rooms are forever (at least relative to speakers) and are way more spendy than a speaker when done right. if one has the opportunity to design the perfect room first; and then find the correct speaker for it.....there is a much better chance of success. this thinking is basically my whole premise for building my room and then choosing the VR9's. also; you won't really know whether the speaker actually works correctly until the room is measured with that speaker playing in that room. if there are then 'issues' there becomes lots of finger pointing. it was much easier for me to figure out what sort of speaker i needed for my new room after hearing and measuring the Kharma Exquisites in the new room.

some rooms are designed for particular speakers; but after going thru the design process my perspective is that that approach would end up being quite frustrating in the long run but maybe easier in the short run.

i respect your right to disagree.

i went thru 9 years of quite intense efforts to adapt my existing room to my speakers. it was a success on some levels but ultimately had clear limits of how far i could go and frustrated me.

i am frustrated no longer.

like i said, you have the ability to do these things due to a larger bank account. my post wasnt addressed towards you as much as the guy who posted before me.

You personally dialed your speakers to your room and thats what it is all about.

Whats up with VS, is he selling speakers online now?

Yes I did read the entire article and I stand by my earlier comments. I certainly didn't mean any disrespect towards Mikelavigne (and I don't think he took it that way), but even he describes the article as less than a review.

One think I wish he would comment on is the after purchase supports from both Rives and VS. How did they assist him in getting the performance his system is capable of delivering?

Holenneck, I actually consider your above statements as very valid and at one time thought very similar, but I have changed my mind on Room vs. Speaker, Vs. correct in the first place vs. Tweaking vs. Etc. .. Let me say why, I have had excellent crossed over speakers in just Okay rooms in the past with pretty good but never perfect results.
Now look at these von's they are VERY complicated and have many user corrections needed no doubt, Not plug and play.. but people would think the opposite at 75,000 should be a near perfect speaker without you having to adjust a damn thing. This is wrong, and actually now I see at 75,000 I want every knob and adjustment possible in the world to sink these things in, because at that kinda money it better start to sound How you want it too and it should in the given environment whatever it might be. I commend a speaker manufacture going to the extent now to give the User full control for the most part after finding out its easier to let someone with a little knowledge and great patience tune their product to taste if you have the tools and higher cost components installed into the speaker to do so, rather than try to sell the Perfect crossover and straight drive system that is supposedly perfect archetecture and you have no right to correct something you don't like attitude. I only believe this now after several months with my new speakers I found there is no other way to this kinda nirvana and perfection within any room.. If it is done right there are far less negative effects to having some adjustments especially in Multi driver systems(which some you nearly need to be a pro engineer) with the payoff of positive and incredible tuned sound overcomes those negatives. Yes it takes TON's of time and thinking out of the box to test and adjust every incriment, but it solves things you never would have believed a speaker could do if you find these little advancements. Anyway its tuff to go back to a "This is how it is" conventional design with a couple of binding posts that only correction is, Buying a different preamp, or the latest Magical midrange sounding cable for 500 or 1000 dollars to act as tone controls, I have been thru it, and now after finding what needs to be adjusted I just enjoy the music and not the system. So now I connect completley with the Mikelavigne experience and revalations of such control over your audio once you understand the ins and outs of such a complex yet simple concept, but you will not totally understand it withoug going thru it for some time and learning the results that is all. At 75 k its better to have the options and tayloring ability than not.. I think that many of the very big systems use even better with adjustable electronic crossovers, and multi driver arrays, which is why they cost so much, are they always practical, No but what is in this hobby?

Onhwy61. Maybe you didn't notice that the article is listed under Audio Discourse not Hardware Reviews.