How very kind of you to say! Thank you...

Hello Joe. You've been in the camp for a while too, so I guess you can see WHY I felt compelled to try to explain just what the VSA goal and sound is, and how it differs from all their contemporaries. And thank you, I very much appreciate your kind words about my prose here. This episode was meant to try to communicate to the folks who, for whatever reason, just don't understand what the goal at VSA actually is! I'm asking them to let go of their previous understanding of what hi-fi has meant, and try to envision - and hear - what it SHOULD BE... Comparing one speaker to another, while not without its own merit, should NOT be the paradigm...right? Your example of comparing what is a stunningly difficult instrument to capture properly in all its capabilities, your grand piano, to what your reference speakers recreate in your room for you, exemplifies what the goal should be. Thanks for your support of my work here at the channel, my friend. Be well and stay safe.

Welcome to the channel! I'm so glad you found it, and I hope you enjoy the content...

Hello and thank you for writing. The dB100 was an EXCEPTIONAL loudspeaker. A good friend of mine bought a pair and had VSA refurbish them, and she still paid less than they sold for new... In fact, Episode 39: Building a Vintage Audio System (kzfaq.info/get/bejne/rKeKbNV-ts6sZmg.html) is highlighted by that dB100 rebuild and its role in her system. Take a look if you have the time.

Same experience with the podiums. The impact on the presentation must be experienced, difficult to explain. In my case, the biggest surprise was actually better efficiency. I was expecting better bass, soundstage, instrument position. This all came, but my amp does not need to push mutch anymore, meaning less to none energy going into the floor. The drum kick is real kick, at first I quickly moved as I thought I am going to be hurt.

@@petervansa2477 Better isolation almost always brings positive returns. See this piece I did, after collaborating with my friend, the late Anna Logg (Valerie Kurlichek) www.soundstagenetwork.com/synergize/synergize011999.htm

Thank you for tuning in - and for the kind words...

Thank you so very much, my friend!

For what it is worth, I spent over five years with the enchanting VR-55 Aktive, and can recommend them VERY highly... Here is my review from The Absolute Sound. www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/von-schweikert-audio-vr-55-aktive-loudspeaker/

@@theaudioanalyst Thank you. A very good friend of Damon's said that the VR9SEMk2 I will hear next week will cost 40% less than a new VR55 Mk2 active and a pair of VS subs, more cabling (about $100K). I live in CA and the sales tax is almost 10%. Will the VR9 have nearly all the qualities of the new VR55 combo? I love the Ultra 9 and 11 I've heard (and the 7 I haven't heard) would be perfect but too costly for me. Resolution capabilities are secondary. The recreation of the performance, wide dispersion (without superwide imaging as so many other speakers do e.g. omni's or planars) and out of the box/speaker disappearance are my primary goals in replacing the Signature IIIs.

I also watch your videos and greatly appreciate your articulate dissection of equipment. Even if your opinion is not always accurate, it sounds wonderful to hear (and read), unlike so many other on-line high end audio reviewers.

​@@StephenFleschlerWhile you may choose to disagree with anyone's opinion, you may not describe those disparate opinions as "not accurate." To claim that an opinion is inaccurate is in itself an absurdity because it is only a reflection of your view, based SOLELY on YOUR opinion... Further, I would add that my "opinions" are based on over five decades of experience in and around this industry, across so many different capacities; consumer, retailer, repair and modification technician, and product consultant and developer. Add to that my time as a journalist and editor for over thirty-five of those fifty years, and I would argue that my "opinion" is not only better informed than the majority of consumers and industry members alike, but more honed and succinct as well.

​@@theaudioanalyst I acknowledge your multi-generational knowledge and experience but I beg to differ as to my having an occasional difference of opinion. Opinion is not a fact, especially when we hear differently (that's a fact). I do not have your deep equipment experience but I do have very significant sonic knowledge. I am a part-time recording (150+) and remastering engineer at major and lesser venues in Los Angeles. I have been/currently am the archivist of a semi-major classical music composer and a major Jewish music composer. My best friends include the very keen eared widely known analog mastering engineers as well as friends with world renown remastering engineers. Even a very good friend of Damon's who was a manufacturer and now a dealer of high end audio equipment made a mistake. He tried a high end speaker in my home that sonically failed (badly) as it was tried using my 125w custom tube Class A/B monoblocks and and EAR 890 amp. Solid state only for those speakers. Everyone has a right to disagree with an opinion although yours is more highly informed than most and certainly more enjoyable to hear/read than most reviewers. Certainly you know more than I do and three of my best friends have extremely superior hearing attributes (one a lesser known boutique audio cable manufacturer). You should not be upset if someone has an alternative opinion. I value yours and I don't blog about mine. Music is much more important to me than the delivery system (live or recorded). I have 51,500 LPs/CDs/78s/RRs (pending selling 7,500+ excess). I am fortunate to listen to 2 hours or more of music daily and perform and/or record 6 to 12 times annually.

I may be selling a super nice pair of VSA Vortex Screens. Last generation prior to the VR4.

That is SO COOL! Is there any chance I could talk you into sending pix of your Screens? Thanks for watching and writing!

@@theaudioanalystSure thing! Where do I send them?

@@txc500 Awesome. My email address - and tons more info - are available at my website, and that link is listed in every Description section of each video. It is greg@theaudioanalyst.com

While that is a VERY good question, I suspect that you know you hit the nail on the head, at least to my mind. Your supposition that loudspeakers are the window into EVERYTHING before them, good or bad, has indisputable merit. And, while ALL component choices are important, if your speakers can't provide the proper resolution, transparency, and generate a realistic sense of tone color, texture, body, and bloom, how will you get that from whatever source, electronics, or accessories you are implementing up stream? To my mind, this is an axiom at this point, and is one of the reasons my dear friend Jim Merod claims to "hate" loudspeakers.

Hello Boris. I'll have to reserve my comments on how the new KORE systems from Dali sound, as they JUST introduced them at Munich, and I chose not to attend this year. However the principal seems sound enough; essentially a double magnet motor, with one magnet's south pole facing forward, the other with its north pole facing forward. The driver then uses TWO voice coils wound on the same former, but in opposing direction. Theoretically, such a motor could offer up to TWICE the energy, and because any asymmetries or non-linearities found with motion in one direction would tend to be canceled by the similar but opposite effects of the other. This works REALLY well with isobaric loading in subwoofers. Using two identical woofers, but mounted FACING each other and wired out of phase... This kind of non-linear cancellation seems to be really successful. However, the results using motor structures and voice coils would seem to present considerably more complex and likely a less interrelated series of benefits, to my way of thinking... Speculation at this point is all I have, so I will reserve judgement until I hear them. Thanks for watching and writing...

Other loudspeakers that have merit to my ears include SOME (not all!) models from Alsyvox, Focal, GamuT, Granada, Lansche, Magico, Magnepan, Martin-Logan, Perfect8, Sonus faber, SoundLab (now gone, I believe), Studio-Electric, and YG Acoustics,

​@@theaudioanalyst "SoundLab (now gone, I believe)" - Dr. West is still making speakers. There are a handful of listening rooms around the country where prospective buyers can go and listen to a SL electrostatic. If I every buy another system, the SoundLabs are on my shortlist.

@@TheDanEdwards Hey Dan... Thanks for the update. I wasn't sure as I haven't seen a SoundLab at a show or heard any friend discussing a new installation in some time.

Thanks, Henry!

Hello Carey...thanks for writing. Your question is problematic in that it necessarily implies that if one thing is true (one specific "best value"), then another is not (all others are less exceptional). If we can set aside that false “if…then” relationship, we can look at this from what may be seen as, perhaps, a more sensible perspective. I firmly believe that the $25,000 a pair (price hikes pending across the entire product lineup!) ENDEAVOR SE (www.vonschweikert.com/endeavor-se) represents one of the most exceptional values in loudspeakers available today. It belies its affordability with its modest footprint and large swath of ULTRA DNA. By that same token, the $180,000 a pair ULTRA 7s MAY be the best value in the entire ULTRA line, in that they deliver SO MUCH of the ULTRA sound, and may actually be a tad more resolute and transparent through the upper bass/lower mids… Then there are the ULTRA 9s… Though they are physically the lower one-half of the ULTRA 11, they are so very close to the performance of those 11s that it is scary. And then there is the ULTRA 11, which offers the most faithful sense of musical scaling I’ve EVER heard. If the ceilings in my current room had been tall enough, I really think I’d have gone with them… Alas, the ULTRA 9s give me all but that final few percent of the ULTRA 11s magic… I hope this all makes sense…

No worries Greg.

Hello Elliot, These are the most recent in-room evaluations. www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/vivid-audio-giya-g1-spirit-loudspeaker/ www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/gamut-audio-zodiac/ www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/von-schweikert-audio-ultra-9-loudspeaker/ Further, I attend (pre-, and now, post Covid lockdowns) several shows annually where I hear many dozens of other speakers...especially at Munich and AXPONA where there are hundreds of speaker manufacturers represented. If you care to, take a look at my Show and Event coverage webpage here - www.theaudioanalyst.com/show_coverage/ I have been involved at some level of this industry or other for the past five decades and have been privileged to write about and cover it for the past 35 years. No one can hear everything, but I can comfortably say that I have heard most every significant speaker release over the past five decades, whether at a show, a dealer, or in a private installation. In fact, I spent four days in front of another pair of Focal Gran Utopia's just a month ago, and I'm often flown in to cover all variety of speaker product launches...

@@theaudioanalyst thank you Greg. Maybe someday you might be up for something different in your room. One never knows :)

@@elliotg.5383 Well, sadly, different doesn't directly correlate to better... And, until such time as I hear something that has the potential to be more accurate, articulate, and authentic in this space, I will likely not be replacing this ULTRA 9s. I'm not sure if you understand just what it might take to outperform these quarter-of-a-million-dollar world-class transducers. Whatever it may be, it likely will not be easy, or less costly, for them to be bested. Thanks for watching and taking the time to write.

Um, clearly you are reading things into the purpose of this Association that I never said, nor have been implied anywhere - including at the site. aiap-online.org/ The association deals ONLY with the ethics outlined in our Statement of Principles (aiap-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/AIAP-Statement-of-Principles.pdf). There is NO REFERENCE to gear, or anything else for that matter, regardless of price.