VON SCHWEIKERT VR-1 OR PARADIGM STUDIO 20 V3

I've owned the VR-1s for a couple months now, and they've been terrific. My path is a little different than S7horton's, as my previous speakers were Epos ELS-3s. The Epos were as good as their reputation, but the VR-1s give me more of everything; better bass, smoother mids and highs, wider, deeper soundstage, just more music. I'm using a tube preamp, and my main source is vinyl, but I saw much improvement with my CDs and streaming digital too. My stands are not expensive, but are sand filled to provide a solid base.

I too wasn't able to audition the VR-1s before I bought them, but I found a used pair and figured my risk was small. They turned out to be a great choice for me.

David

First of, I'd like to thank you all for your thoughts. I guess it's a risk that I'm gonna have to take if I'd like to try the VR-1's. I just don't know if they would better the 20v3's with Rotel electronics, namely RSP-1066 controller and RMB-1095 power amp.

I've heard both and like both speakers, but they have very different sounds. The VR-1 is efficient, lean, and detailed. The Paradigm has a more full, yet balanced sound. So for the Rotel equipment, I would lean more toward the Paradigms. If you had a warm amp, such as a Dynaco ST-70 or something similar, or if you had a low-powered (10-20W) amp, then the VR-1 would be at the top of my list.

It depends partly on the sound that you want and partly (as stated previously) on the associated electronics.

Michael

I owned a pair of the VR-1s after selling Studio 60s V2. This all started when I moved system into a small room and needed to reduce speaker size. There were a few standmounts in between the 60s during my search for a speaker for a small room. The VR-1s directly replaced a pair of NHT SB3s. I thought the VR-1s had an exceptional soundstage but were a tad thin sounding. Electronics at the time were a NAD C541i cd player with Roksan Kandy III integrated. Anyway, long story short, I ended up with a pair of Meadowlark Kestrel Hot Rods in place of the standmounted speakers. They don't take up any more space, probably less actually, than speakers on stands and satisfy my tastes so much better. Good luck.

I agree with S7HORTEN, I own the paradigm 20 v2, that I use as a back channel for home theatre. I also use a Rotel RSP 1066 and the 1095 amp. My brother in-law has the VR-1 which I had the opportunity to use for about 3 months. However I just used them in my 2 channel set-up which is Classe 301 amp, Joule Electra tube pre, and audio research cd-2. I also used multiple types of wires over the months that I had them. I was very impressed at first for about a week with the VR-1, and they sounded very good on jazz like acoustic alchemy. If I only played that I would be satisfied, but ultimately I connected the Paradigms up and switched back and forth for over a month. Paradigms were much more pleasing every time. Better bass, soundstaging, fuller, and overall much bigger sounding. I like von schweikert speakers and also own the vr-4 gen 3 but I feel they also do not compare to my other full range speakers. Sorry I did not compare using the Rotel equipment,but I can't help but feel the results would be similar.