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VON SCHWEIKERT AUDIO
VON SCHWEIKERT AUDIO
W WO OR RL LD D- -C CL LA AS SS S S SP PE EA AK KE ER R S SY YS ST TE EM MS S F FO OR R A AU UD DIIO O A AN ND D H HO OM ME E T TH HE EA AT TE ER R
VR-5 ANNIVERSARY
NNIVERSARY
VR-5 A
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
INSTRUCTION MANUAL
Released October 2007
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TABLE OF CONTENTS IMPORTANT NOTES........................................................................................................PAGE 3 BREAK-IN..........................................................................................................................PAGE 3 INITIAL SETUP.................................................................................................................PAGE 4 WIRING..................................................................
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IMPORTANT NOTES: Please read the following instructions regarding setup, as imaging and bass response must be optimized to your particular room. Since every listening room will have different dimensional ratios and reflective/absorptive coefficients, each setup will be different. A thorough break-in must be conducted in order to realize the full benefits of the VR’s transparency and imaging accuracy, and several experiments with placement must be undertaken. In situations where these instr
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SETUP 1. Please do not install the spikes until the proper placement has been determined. If you try to move the speakers around with the spikes installed, you can damage your floor and/or rip out the spikes, so please be careful and install the spikes only when you are confident that the speakers have been placed in the proper position. You will be moving the speakers several times in order to listen to different aspects of the optimization and the spikes will only make the movement more
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the best image focus and widest sound stage. However, since your taste may vary, you may well prefer the extra depth achieved with no toe in; i.e., the speakers parallel to the side walls. ON SHORT WALL: Placing the speakers on the short wall and sitting far back in the long end of the room may give you a concert hall experience if your room is large. Long reverberation times due to long distances from boundaries can impart a grand sense of scale with classical music, although smaller roo
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CARPETED FLOORS: Install the spikes after break in – this is easily accomplished with two people, one tipping the speaker back while the other installs the spikes. Be careful not to let the M/T unit fall off the woofer module! If one person installs the spikes, remove the M/T modules before attempting to install the spikes. Make sure that you level the speakers so they don’t rock, and use the locking nuts to make sure the spikes won’t vibrate loose. You will be amazed at the improvement t
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and capacitors generate a high impedance to bass frequencies -- it’s like pouring water on the side of a hill: the water will never travel uphill against gravity! WOOFER MODULE BINDING POSTS: The WBT Platinum Signature binding posts supplied on the VR-5 Anniversary are the finest quality available and can accept raw wire, spade lugs, pins, and banana plugs. Use a contact enhancing fluid once a month on all RCA plugs and binding posts for best results. Contact cleaner/treatments increas
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HORIZONTAL BI-AMPING: If two different stereo amps are available, one amp can drive the woofers and the other amp, perhaps of lower power, can drive the M/T’s. This works well with large solid state amps driving the woofers, with a smaller tube amp driving the upper end. We have heard of systems with 200 watts per channel on the woofers, with 20-30 watts per channel of tube power driving the M/T sections. This may seem like an imbalance, but since the most power is needed to drive the woofe
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crossover circuit, which achieves the desired phase-consistent sound field over a wide listening area. If you must situate the speakers close together, with a close listening position for near field applications (such as in a recording studio), you may not need to toe the speakers in towards you, but you will need to sit with your ears on the tweeter’s vertical axis for flattest frequency response. The treble response and depth of field will be differentiated when you compare zero toe in w
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pink noise “ball.” If your former speakers were placed close together to achieve center fill, try spreading the VR-5’s further apart. Their wide dispersion enables a larger sound stage. *Note: if the speakers can not be separated more than a few feet due to room considerations, as in a video application, it may be necessary to toe the speakers outwards in order to gain a wide sound stage and reduce the tendency towards monophonic image focus. TOE-IN When placing the speakers further apart
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BASS RESPONSE TUNING BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Since enclosed rooms will affect the bass response due to standing wave formation, a woofer tuning feature has been designed into the VR series of speakers. Deep bass in the 20-40Hz range is highly desirable in a reference speaker design, since hall reverberation at low frequencies is a sonic clue to both depth and hall size. Classical music simply sounds anemic and artificial without deep bass. In addition, the wide dynamic range found in pop
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of the front wall, rear wall, side walls, and the floor. These reflections both reinforce and cancel the original direct wave, depending on the wave length vs. the path length. If the path length is an even multiple of the direct wave at any one given frequency, the reflection will reinforce the first wave since it will be mathematically additive and will cause a peak in the response at this frequency. However, if the path length is such that the reflected wave is out of phase with the main
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B). If the frequency range between 20-30Hz sounds too powerful in your particular room, simply place a large handful of the Dacron in each vent tube; this will lower the efficiency of the vent tuning. If the bass is still too loud, place another handful in each vent. If the low frequency range has come into proper balance, stop there. If you change locations, you can always remove the balls of Dacron by reaching into the vent. BASS RESPONSE TUNING FOR TUBE AMPLIFIERS: Since tube ampli
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TROUBLE SHOOTING Your VR dealer should have the necessary resources to investigate any problems you may experience when setting up a world class reference system. However, if you find that you need specialized help, either in acoustical or electronic interactions not well understood by your dealer, please don’t hesitate to contact the factory by emailing your request to: albert@vonschweikert.com. A qualified engineer will assist you with any problems you are experiencing in achieving wor
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which are the boundary surfaces halfway between the listener and the speaker cabinets. This includes the ceiling, walls, and floor. Hard plaster ceilings will reflect treble energy back down towards the listener, and should be treated with acoustic tiles (the soft and porous type) or damping pads made from foam or fiberglass. The walls can have a decorator rug, drapes, or diffusers at the first reflection point, and the floor can use carpeting. We have used artificial plants and trees to di
