Hi Samsoum, nice to read about your experience! I'll try to comment on some of the things you've mentioned but it's difficult as I've not seen or heard what you did during the audition.
First, I've found an unofficial copy of the review of Collums I mentioned earlier. It's a very good but detailed and highly technical review, complete with measurements. Plenty of critical remarks as well. For some perspective it's important to remember he's comparing the VR-5's to other high-end loudspeakers like the Avalon Eidolon Diamonds (like he said 'extant references') so don't let these critical remarks scare you off to much. Anyway the review is here: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/2...icriticcom
A 35W amplifier is indeed far from properly capable in driving the VR-5's. They're a tough load on amps (see review) and need a stable amplifier capable of delivering high currents because of the low impedance. The Devialet 200 is of course much better capable to do this. In view of much recent experience with my 250Pro I feel the new Pro's are even better suited. Smart that you took the 200 with you BTW!
I'm using a subwoofer because this offered me ways to no longer compromise between optimal placement for bass response and all other aspects like mid/treble response, soudstaging etc. I failed to address bass response issues in my room (which is far from ideal) with adjusting placement and acoustical measures (like bass traps) without turning it into a studio and suffered from room modes and extinction of certain bass frequency ranges due to standing waves and accompanying cancellations. These cancellations for example caused a bass thin sound lacking slam on my listening position. Several meters further into the room it was OK. Using measurements I was able to find the best spot for the sub where it would create the least dips in bass response on my listening position. The DSpeaker Anti-Mode then took care of the peaks.
All this would happen more or less with any large powerful near full range speaker in my room so it's not really specific to the VR-5's, it's just one of those big powerful loudspeakers. Also I'm quite a perfectionist and all the above was addressed over several years. So yes, like I mentioned earlier I consider optimal placement and the room absolutely critical to get the best from these, or any, set of loudspeakers. Different loudspeakers do "load" rooms differently and thus some can be a better 'match' for some rooms than others thus I gave you the advice to try them out in your own room. Some need to be be really free standing, some can be placed nearer to walls etc. etc.
There's also some fine tuning options available like I mentioned earlier using dacron ("pillow stuffing") inside the loudspeakers. Currently the ports of my VR-5's are fully sealed this measured and sounded best with my sub (which is also a sealed type).
First, I've found an unofficial copy of the review of Collums I mentioned earlier. It's a very good but detailed and highly technical review, complete with measurements. Plenty of critical remarks as well. For some perspective it's important to remember he's comparing the VR-5's to other high-end loudspeakers like the Avalon Eidolon Diamonds (like he said 'extant references') so don't let these critical remarks scare you off to much. Anyway the review is here: https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/2...icriticcom
A 35W amplifier is indeed far from properly capable in driving the VR-5's. They're a tough load on amps (see review) and need a stable amplifier capable of delivering high currents because of the low impedance. The Devialet 200 is of course much better capable to do this. In view of much recent experience with my 250Pro I feel the new Pro's are even better suited. Smart that you took the 200 with you BTW!
I'm using a subwoofer because this offered me ways to no longer compromise between optimal placement for bass response and all other aspects like mid/treble response, soudstaging etc. I failed to address bass response issues in my room (which is far from ideal) with adjusting placement and acoustical measures (like bass traps) without turning it into a studio and suffered from room modes and extinction of certain bass frequency ranges due to standing waves and accompanying cancellations. These cancellations for example caused a bass thin sound lacking slam on my listening position. Several meters further into the room it was OK. Using measurements I was able to find the best spot for the sub where it would create the least dips in bass response on my listening position. The DSpeaker Anti-Mode then took care of the peaks.
All this would happen more or less with any large powerful near full range speaker in my room so it's not really specific to the VR-5's, it's just one of those big powerful loudspeakers. Also I'm quite a perfectionist and all the above was addressed over several years. So yes, like I mentioned earlier I consider optimal placement and the room absolutely critical to get the best from these, or any, set of loudspeakers. Different loudspeakers do "load" rooms differently and thus some can be a better 'match' for some rooms than others thus I gave you the advice to try them out in your own room. Some need to be be really free standing, some can be placed nearer to walls etc. etc.
There's also some fine tuning options available like I mentioned earlier using dacron ("pillow stuffing") inside the loudspeakers. Currently the ports of my VR-5's are fully sealed this measured and sounded best with my sub (which is also a sealed type).
PS Audio P3, Shunyata ΞTRON Alpha Digital and HC/Furutech power cables, Paul Hynes SR7EHD-MR4, DIY Roon Server & Roon Endpoint running AudioLinux Headless, Phasure Lush^2 USB cable, Audioquest Diamond RJ/E ethernet, Uptone Audio etherREGEN, Mutec MC-3+ USB, Shunyata ΞTRON Anaconda Digital XLR AES/EBU, Devialet Expert 250 Pro CI, Nordost Tyr Reference LS cables, Von Schweikert VR-5 SE Anniversary Edition, Anti-Mode Dual Core 2.0, JL Audio Fathom F112. More detail here.
The Netherlands
The Netherlands
