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IMPORTANT NOTES:
Please read the following instructions regarding setup, as imaging and bass response must be
optimized to your particular room. Since every listening room will have different dimensional ratios
and reflective/absorptive coefficients, each setup will be different. A thorough break-in must be
conducted in order to realize the full benefits of the VR’s transparency and imaging accuracy, and
several experiments with placement must be undertaken. In situations where these instructions are
not followed, you may not achieve the ultimate sound the VR-5 Anniversary can offer; optimum
performance is only attainable by using the following instructions!
When unpacking the VR's, please note any hidden shipping damage. If you find damage, please notify
the freight company who will then send an inspector. Do not discard the boxes or otherwise alter the
contents, as the inspector will want to see the damage as you found it. Since Von Schweikert Audio
has no control over the shipping companies or their damage claim policies, it is imperative that you
follow the instructions from the freight company agent explicitly. Additionally, please retain all
packing materials for later use in the event of a move.
BREAK-IN
The VR-5’s use proprietary drivers custom-made for this system; stiff suspensions were designed to
control the cone motion and will require several hundred hours before the suspensions become
compliant. Since the crossover networks were designed using “aged” transducers with 300 hours of
music played at 93dB (fairly loud), you will need to play the speakers for 300 hours before the
transducers and crossovers “work” together properly. Since the “fluid” nature of music, along with the
dynamic range of the speaker depends on free movement, you may notice a slight “brightness” in the
midrange/treble area and mechanical “heaviness” or even perhaps “lean” bass for the first 100 hours.
The sound engineered into the VR's will take approximately 200-300 hours to achieve, so we
recommend that you not make a critical judgment of their sound until break-in is accomplished.
Break-in is best done by playing loud rock or jazz music for several days straight. We suggest placing
the speakers face to face, with one speaker system wired out of phase. Quilts may be placed over the
speakers to reduce the radiated sound. This trick will cancel a lot of the sound that may disturb others.
However, please make sure that you are not driving the amplifier into clipping or distorting the
speaker, since sustained high volume playback at clipping will burn the speaker’s voice coils. Make
sure that you set the volume level
before
putting one of the speakers out-of-phase and installing the
quilts. Note that low powered amplifiers will burn the voice coils much faster than high powered
amps due to the onset of early clipping in low powered amplifiers. Use caution when breaking in your
new speakers; clipping is easy to hear and sounds metallic, harsh, or “buzzy.” If you get to this point,
you’ll need to turn down the volume a couple of notches to avoid burning the voice coils. If you
choose not to break in the speakers before setting them up, note that it may take several months or
longer to break the speakers in if only quiet music is played at background levels. Classical music
played quietly does not contain enough bass or dynamics to do a proper job, so we suggest using a CD
player on repeat, using a loud rock album as the source. If you have a “clean” amplifier with 100-200
watts of power, you will be able to play the VR-5's loudly over a long period of time without
damaging the voice coils.
