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EQUIPMENT REVIEW - Von Schweikert Audio VR-44 Aktive
was able to play a good deal of orchestral music and
the performance of the VR-44 Aktive was completely
convincing. I not only enjoyed a wonderful consistency
of orchestral string play, I was also moved to the point
of forgetting about technicalities and the deployment
of the drivers.
Beethoven’s 6 th Symphony, the “Pastoral,” is a good
illustration of what I mean. As performed by the period
orchestra Tafelmusik with Bruno Weil conducting
[Analekta CD], this recording, with my deHavilland
electronics back in, produced the most beautiful
string sound I’ve ever heard from any system. The first
movement had violins that were beautifully lyric and
delicate, demonstrating with a fine and audible clarity
the inner details of period instrument performance.
There were harmonics and micro-dynamics galore
and an overall sweetness like the real thing. The cellos
and basses put down a warm, lush foundation so that
the woodwinds could pipe purely and horns provide
a jaunty punctuation. And when the score called for
a blending of strings with woodwinds, it sounded
seamless, orchestral swellings into tuttis very natural
and grand. Within the soundstage, there was an
extraordinary feeling of space and an illusion of the
expanse of the entire orchestra. But it was in listening
to the third to fourth movements, the Allegro-Lustiges-
Gewitter, that I became thoroughly convinced that the
VR-44s and the integration of their complement of
drivers were very special. In this movement, about the
approach and sudden arrival of a rainstorm over the
land, a dancelike accelerando in strings gave way to
punctuated swellings alternating between strings and
woodwinds that were then joined by brass and horns
in a fanlike and grandiose crescendo. Then cellos,
contrabasses, and rattling, rumbling timpani came in
a succession of triple forte mallet strikes. The musical
effect was as though I were standing on the shore of
an inlet, beguiled by the increasing amplitudes of an
incoming tide and, across the skies, the spectacular
arrival of an accompanying storm suddenly conjoined
with pitching waters to converge violently at my feet.
Awesome!
Because I had the advantage of an extraordinarily
long review period, due, in great measure, to Albert
Von Schweikert’s generosity in accommodating
my spring sabbatical teaching at the University of
Florence, I was able to enjoy the VR-44s for some
months and explore every question they called to
mind, admiring their precision and versatility with a
variety of contemporary and vintage tube electronics,
interrogating what I initially felt to be shortcomings,
and coming to a decided opinion about them. The
VSA VR-44s acquitted themselves completely well
and take a legitimate place in the brave new world
of contemporary high-performance speakers. I found
Albert Von Schweikert’s approach to creating such a
speaker inventive and elegant, employing an ingenious
triple-wall method to dampen his cabinets, combining
it with the latest in Scandinavian driver technology,
adding the genius of power to the woofers, integrating
them with a unique crossover design that preserves
phase relationships and maintains signal purity across
the full bandwidth, and governing it all with lessons
learned from nearly forty years in the trade. To tell the
truth, I felt as though the speakers schooled me, and
I’d had to adapt my default methods of setup and even
improve my system (with addition of the Audience
aR6-TSS line conditioner) in order to take advantage
of all the VR-44 Aktive speakers had to offer. I ended
up loving them and they are now my new reference,
lending to my listening a bold, expressive beauty and
the capacity for delicate shadings of nuance, bringing
together a complex acoustic design with an aura of
magic that I will not give up.
93 Guide to High-Performance Loudspeakers www.theabsolutesound.com
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