I had a chance to audition the jr's against the 805sigs in my dedicated listening room, which has been tuned. Equipment included Anthem AVM20, Aragon palladium monos, xindak sacd2 and cardas golden cross cables.
Now, you have to keep in mind that there are 5 drivers in the jr's verses 2 in the 805sigs. Price is comparable when you add the B&W stands. A lot of money goes into the 805's cabinet. VS manufacturers their cabinets in China to save cost. I have had many conversations with Kevin at VS about this, so please don't email me.
Both speakers were broken in for at least 500 hours before audition with cable radio played 24/7. The 805's were on custom made mass loaded stands which were spiked to the carpet. The jr's were filled with lead shot and spiked also. Positioning was dialed in over a few days. Each speaker was bi-wired and the tails on the speaker cables were long enough to allow removal of the abilicus on the jr's.
The jr's had the better bottom end. Of course, were comparing two 7" woofers and a mid to one 6.5" woofer/mid. As far as the mids go, it was pretty close. Now, before I talk about the highs, let me say the following. A lot of people think that B&W's are bright. Having owned 5 pairs in the last 5 years (N802's, N805's, N805sigs, LM1's and DM303's) I find that this is not the case. I do find them very revealing. So, if your equipment or recording has any shortcomings, then the B&W's are going to reveal them in all their glory. I found the highs on the jr's to be very detailed, but with a slight tendency toward being etched. I played around with the ambiance tweeter, but was unable to alleviate this. The highs on the 805sigs were detailed and extended. So, the nod goes to the 805's sigs on the highs. The jr's threw a good soundstage, but the 805sigs were holographic and 3 dimensional. I had people thinking that they were listening to surround sound; the sound stage was that big and deep. You could actually hear things coming from behind you on some recordings.
Now, you must keep in mind that me listening room has been professionally tuned and there are actually 48 acoustic panels on the walls of different values.
So, which one would I choose? I think that the VR4jr's are a lot of bang for the buck. And, they make a good all around speaker for someone that enjoys music and home theater. About the only thing I could fault them sonically was the slight etching in the highs. However, the biggest disappointment was the cabinets. The finish on them looked like something you would see in K-mart. The stained birch veneer looked fake, and there was only a very thin coat of clear lacquer. Now, if your just into music, go with the 805sigs. Their soundstage is magic. However, once again I was disappointed with the cabinets. I had the black tiger maple finish and there was so many coats of lacquer on them that they looked like plastic. Why didn't they just leave the curly maple natural? The red stained birdseye, which is a faux finish, was just as bad.
The VR4jr's belonged to a friend who was kind enough to let me break them in for a few months. I purchased the 805sigs for myself. After about 6-8 months I sold them because I hated the finish. While I loved the sound of them, I just couldn't look at them everyday. I even went as far as to call B&W to ask them if thay could make me a pair in natural cherry. Their reply was that the finish differentiates them from the regular 805's and they refused.
