Finish Quality of Von Schweikert VR4jr's

Robm321
Could not agree more. I want best sound for my money. I don’t want to spend extra 2K for furniture grade veneers etc..., some might, I don’t. I unlike many others on this forum don’t think the quality of the veneer or thickness of the varnish will affect the sound of my speakers. Besides, I have no problem with my speaker’s surface finish, and in my experience (6 months of auditioning before settling on my speaker choice) they smoke most ‘furniture grade’ speakers I have compared them too, even ones approaching double the cost . It seems to me that Von schweikert is more interested in the sound quality. If you want prissy, pretty speakers to justify spending more than a few grand or in order to impress your friends be prepared to spend some primo dollars for the sound and looks. Its funny, Vandersteen makes some ‘butt ugly’ looking speakers (IMO), big sock over drivers and cheap looking veneer but they too sound F%%^ing amazing, don’t see anyone slamming them, and at 15+ grand for the 5A… yikes, one would expect fricken hand polished Argentinian teak or some other exotic wood at that price point As far as the folks complaining about the finish on their VR4jr, what the heck do you do to scuff/damage up your speakers? I have had mine for 4 months and moved them around lots, moved them from my old house to my new one, moved around to 3 different rooms while decorating in my new house and adjusted this and that to optimize their final positioning and they still look mint! They are in a far from dedicated audio room too with kids and pets. I still have folks over that say the African hazelwood finish on my speakers is amazing looking. I don’t know the history of Von schweikert too well but they sure must have pissed off quite a few people, given all the negativity and nit-picking against them around here. Its hilarious. Instead of encouraging manufactures and praising them we slam them at every opportunity. I guess the old adage of ‘success breeds contempt’ is alive and well.

Comparing the Wilson Sophia, sonus faber, Avalon full range speakers…... to the VR4jr is a very poor analogy. All those speakers are approaching 10K+, of course they will have amazing finish. Lets compare some 3-5K speakers to the Vons and see what we come up with? Again, for 4K perhaps the veneer on the 4Jr could be a bit thicker...who cares?
As far as the ‘prestige’ factor… This is a hobby… listening and enjoying music, not to stroke my ego or impress my friends. As far as not being assembled in America...I wish people could get over that… most audio is not. Next you’ll be banning the 50+ audio manufactures located in Canada and the UK.

Lets keep things in perspective.

Good listening

The difference in price between birch veneer and cherry veneer is about $0.10 per square foot. So, we're talking about $5.00 more for the better veneer. Going from 1 coat of lacquer to 4 is about $10.00 in material and about 1 hour of labor for a light sanding after the first and third coats. In the US were talking $50 more in material and labor. In China you can divide that by for for a total cost of $12.50. So, if the abinet shop, in China, doubles that charges VSA $25. VSA doubles that and charges the distributer $50. Finally the retailer doubles and charges the customer $100 more. I would be more than happy to pay the extra $100 for the more durable and better looking finish.

I agree that the jr's are great sounding speakers for the money.

BTW - I purchased a pair of 4jr's, matching center and dipole surrounds for a friend and only paid $4800 cash. He let me break in the jr's for about 3 months; I enjoyed my time with them.

Personally I don't consider $4000 units like the VSA or Gallo III's a "bargain speaker" just because there are suckers out there paying wildly inflated prices for Watt/Puppies, Talons, JM Labs, Martin Logans, etc. It's like telling the motorcycle cop that you weren't really speeding at 80mph because other people were passing you at 90mph.

$4000 in China would hire a fast and good cabinet maker for 6 months! Look here at reviews of a five speaker set that is made in China and sold on Ebay for $249, that's right $249 for 2 floorstanders, 2 rears and a center channel - and they're making money! :

http://reviews.cnet.com/Fluance_SX-HTB/4505-7868_7-21114465.html

I'm not suggesting that these are in the same league as VSA's but it shows the cost structure of manufacturing in China - shockingly little.

So the DIFFERENCE in cost between an ultra-high quality finish and a mediocre finish when we're talking "Sprayed In China" is totally insignificant compared to the final price here. So it's just plain silly to provide a product with an inferior lacquer. Dealers' demo units start to look past their primes very quickly, which translates into lost sales.

Used JR's are showing up pretty frequently with resale prices fairly low (for some reason). Some sellers have priced them under $2000 already, and at that price I wouldn't complain. But hey, if you still object, there's always Fluance!

I couldnt agree more, finish quality is different than build quality. And it was also a good point that the veneering and finishing has no effect what so ever on the sound of the loudspeaker. I have auditioned many beautiful looking speakers which sounded horrible, and most people have. Maybe I am not giving the vr4s the respect they are due, most likely because i have never heard them before. By the way, does anyone know where they source their drivers from? Im just curious? As far as comparing 3-5k speakers I am positive that many companies will have better build quality than the vr4s, especially the british and even some american ( meadowlark, joseph, aerial..), but they might not match the performance of the vr4jr, even though its a matter of taste, not just pure performance numbers. Somehow i cannot get by the fact that picking a better veneer can cost so much more, wouldnt all the people who are constantly scared of scratching and blemishing your speakers opt to pay a couple hundred more for an better finish? And if anyone disagrees just think of the resale value, even if there is one scratch on a loudspeaker it needs and 8/10 on audiogon, and that makes the seller lose money. Fine loudspeakers hold their value, not saying that VSaudios higher end loudspeakers arent nicely finished, but i doubt they are up to standards of the best, of which i mentioned before.

I beg to differ. My Hyperion 938s are extremely well finished, shiny mirror black and quite resistant to scratches. Sound is personal but I believe 90% who have heard the Hyperions up close and personal must agree that they are musical champs. Heck, the drivers are of patented pedigree and completely built inhouse.

Roy