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Von Schweikert Audio VR-44
Aktive
Revealing!
Over a year ago at this writing, I first heard about Von Schweikert Audio’s new VR-44 Aktive on a Von
Schweikert Audio-sponsored forum on the Audio Circle Web site, where it was announced that the VR-44
was to be veteran designer Albert Von Schweikert’s response to the hi-res revolution in speakers that has
lately garnered a lot of positive attention. These hi-res speakers boast substantial, sophisticated cabinets to control
resonance, in the main have proprietary drivers, and provide presentations that are arguably neutral with extension
into the frequency extremes. Yet, most of them, at 4-ohm nominal impedances with sensitivities in the mid-tohigh
80s, require amplification beyond the level of low-to-medium-power tube amps. Into the breach steps the
VR-44 Aktive, expressly designed for lovers of valves. Being a longtime fan and owner of Von Schweikert speakers
(a pair of VR-5 SEs has been my longstanding reference), I was thrilled with the news, but wondered if Albert Von
Schweikert, an old pro, had gone too far, sacrificing the organicism I loved for neutrality and something called “highperformance,”
building an overly complex transducer partly dependent on what I read were “powered woofers.” I
called him up, we had a long, reassuring chat, and I quickly agreed to request a review as soon as the speaker got into
production. After its promising debut at RMAF 2011, TAS editor Robert Harley assigned it to me.
After some months with it, I can confidently say that the VR-44
Aktive ($25,000) is sophisticated, oftentimes startling, and so different
from any speaker I’ve ever had in my listening room, that it challenged
the way I listened and set up my system, while also taking on the best
I had to give it in the way of music and electronics. It rewarded me
with superb sound on a completely new level than I was accustomed
to. This is an exciting speaker, powerful and yet capable of highly
nuanced playback.
A four-way, single-cabinet design, the VR-44 replaces the longstanding
VR-4—a speaker that has had a production run of over a
decade—in VSA’s lineup. While preserving the traditional VSA quasitransmission
line approach that uses chambered labyrinths for the
midrange (sealed) and woofers (ported), the VR-44 Aktive incorporates
new technology in cabinet-wall construction, boasts completely new
O.E.M. drivers, and re-introduces self-powered woofers for the first
time since the VSA dB-99 in 2004. Like the old VR-4, the VR-44 has
a cabinet both large and deep, measuring 41" tall x 13" wide at the
bottom and 9" wide at the top, with a depth of 27". Unlike the twobox
VR-4, however, the new speaker mounts all the drivers in the
same, handsomely chamfered front baffle that flares at the bottom
for the woofers and tapers neatly at the top around the midrange and
tweeter. In addition, the raked-back design of the baffle time-aligns
88 Guide to High-Performance Loudspeakers www.theabsolutesound.com
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