Finish Quality of Von Schweikert VR4jr's


I have had a pair of these for about 6 months. I am very happy with the sound quality, but not so thrilled with the durability of the cabinet finish. The scratch extremely easily. I have several fine scratches in the finish, and they look like crap compared to my former Thiel speakers. Those could be wiped off without fear of scratching, unlike the VR4jr's.

Gues the Made in China finish is the reason they are so inexpensive. Too bad, these will not hold value as they will look like old speakers that had a family of kids living around them.

Great sound, poor finish!
brrgrr
Yes, the Cherry veneer is way too revealing of flaws, and I think the speakers should be finished better, particularly the Cherry. My pair is African Hazelwood, and they were a handpicked pair. My finish is quite good, but I do agree there could be more coats of a better urethane.

I will admit that I admire the speakers that have topnotch woods & finishing, but I don't know that I could find a speaker of the sound & driver quality level of the VRjr for $4000 retail. Let me know if there is....
Slightly off topic, but with this many 4jr owners on the thread it's a perfect opportunity. I just picked up a brand new pair of the jr's and love them. They are just about broken in. By a bad twist of fate and an accident on my dealer's part I ended up with a non serial matched pair. In case there are other owners out there that didn't know this, the speakers come in matched pairs with matching L and R serial numbers. Once I noticed that mine weren't a matched pair, I really noticed the difference between the two speakers. Both look great on their own, but the grain on the African hazelwood is dramatically different between the two. My dealer told me that even his pair with matched serials don't match exactly between the two speakers. All you owners out there, how do yours look compared to each other?
Despite matching serials, the veneer on my pair is fairly amateur work. Not only do the L & R cabinets differ, but the top/bottom within the same channel are poorly matched.

I'm not losing any sleep over it at their price point.

With all due respect, what was written above about the pittance it would cost to produce the jrs with a 'high-quality' finish just ain't so. A couple extra coats of cheap poly will not look any more impressive and will scratch as easily as one (there are already more coats of sealer and top coat than what you might think.) The cost of some better urethane is cheap enough, but the element of cost is time. A quality several step finish cannot be applied in an hour. No possible way. You're talking days. That costs money.

One species of veneer is only a couple pennies more than another, but when you take into consideration the cost of a higher grade of veneer (one of the major problems here), sorting, waste and hiring someone who knows what they are doing to do the matching, you're talking money. I don't have specific dollar amounts here, but just a jump from 'B' to 'AA' veneer is going to triple or quadruple the cost. That ain't hay.

If VSA could magically transform a cheap finish into one of high-quality at the cost of a lousy $100 to the end user, they would do so in a heartbeat. They would be stupid to ignore a simple, cheap solution to one of the model's greatest weaknesses.

By the way, take a look some Chinese furniture next time your out shopping. None of it I've ever seen is what I would call 'furniture quality.'
Loonytunz,

I got the veneer cost from oakwoodveneer.com. My mistake was not taking into account the quality of veneer VSA is using. They are most likely using an inferior birch veneer. The finish on the jr's is lacquer according to Kevin at VSA. I spray lacquer all the time. Dry to the touch in 15 minutes; can be sanded in 30-40 minutes. I don't count drying time as other things can be done; ie you don't get paid to watch paint dry. Thinking about my estimate maybe I'm a little low. So, even if we double it were still talking about $200 added to the final retail. Remember, we're working in China where labor is dirt cheap.

From my post above, I had a pair of 4jr's in my room for about three months. I was in the market for a new pair of speakers at the same time to replace my B&W N805sigs (hated the finish - loved the sound). I ended up purchasing a pair of soliloquys. Like some of the posts above, I have to look at my speakers every day. I thought the fit and finish was better on the Soliloquys. As far as the sound goes, it was a toss up; just a matter of personal preference.
Prpixel,

Not to belabor the point, but maybe what we individually consider a 'furniture quality' finish isn't comparable?

It's quite possible they could apply a 'better' quality finish than what they currently offer for a small increase to the end user, but we'll just have to disagree that the jump from mediocre to furniture quality is too great to be accomplished for pocket change.