Von Schweikert Audio Tower of Power

I am selling my Von Schweikert Audio Tower of Power I bought new from Albert because I replaced it with two Martin Logan Balancedforce 212's at a mere eight grand.
The Tower of Power is a great powered sub the amp was designed by Bob Carver it is fast and accurate and the best thing about is its small footprint only being 16" wide but 8" deep.

Rare and very desirable, thin POWERED Sub Woofer Tower with Electronics and power amplifier designed by: Bob Carver.

Great Compact powered sub-woofer for any Stereo of speaker system for Stereo or Home Theater.

General Features:

Dual 10" Woofers.

Dimensions: 42.25" tall by 16" wide by only 8" deep.

Controls:

Volume, Bass Level, Crossover Level & Phase.

Inputs & Outputs:

RCA & Speaker in and out.

Review

The Tower of Power or TOP is different than your typical big box sub. Its cabinet takes up very little floor space because it uses two 10" drivers. It faces the rear wall rather than the front or floor.

The two drivers have double-thick carbon-impregnated polypropylene cones. By using smaller drivers, the TOP is able to maintain tight control. These two drivers move plenty of air. To power the TOP, Albert is using a modified Sunfire amplifier, similar to the one inside the Sunfire Subs. The amplifier is rated at 800 Watts RMS and can achieve instantaneous peaks of 2600 Watts. To reduce distortion that might be created, an electronic servo (current sensing) is used.

Located on the amplifier, on the back of the sub, are the amplifier controls including volume (I set this by using the internal noise generator in my surround processor and using my trusty Radio Shack SPL meter), a crossover frequency control (a variable frequency knob, but I always prefer using the crossover built into the Meridian processor, so I left the crossover completely clockwise), and phase control. Again, I used the phase control built into my surround processor.

A lot of what you hear in many showrooms is distortion, but I heard none of that here! One might think that the TOPs are not going very low, but they are, and it is just something most people are not used to . . . i.e., clean bass. For our tests, Von Schweikert sent two TOPs just in case I wanted more bass(?!?!) In my living room, one TOP would have been fine since all of the other speakers are full range.

I must say that I have never heard or felt thunderous bass as that on the Apollo 13 DTS LD. As Apollo 13 took off, I could almost see the shock wave coming at me, and feel it pass through me. It was quite amazing. My couch felt like it had transducers mounted to it. Using one as the surround sub made all the difference in the world. The Surrounds each have a 10" so you know they rock, but that extra sub in the back was incredible.

My next wiring configuration was with both as the LFE/Mono sub. The Apollo 13 Launch was not quite the same, the bass was still there, but the shock wave was not as potent.

The sub stands 42" tall with the amplifier on the bottom and the two woofers on the top. I was afraid that with so much air being moved, they would shift its position in the room. That never happened, and the sub stood perfectly still even when it was rocking the foundation. It has been designed to be placed 5" from the wall, so it virtually disappears, and you can hide it behind the main speakers as I did in my final placement.

How did the sub do on music? It added that extra bottom end, and because I had them spread across the room, they also helped tame some of those room modes. But their music prowess was dependent on which amplifier I was using to drive the main speakers. For 99% of all my listening, I used the Sunfire Cinema Grand to drive all the speakers, and for about 3 weeks, I used the Sunfire Signature two-channel amplifier to drive just the VR4s. Either way, the mains integrated with the subs like they were one speaker.

When I substituted a Krell for the Sunfire, the sub felt like it moved a bit slower. After all, the Krell's bass is running at warp 9, which is unlike just about any other amp. Although the TOP's bass is some of the quickest I have ever heard, the built-in Sunfire is no match for the speed of the Krell (nor is it a match in price). Now this was only noticeable in music and it was not distracting, but I am just trying to make some comparisons. I could not really discern any difference between amplifiers during my movie viewing.

One thing that would have been nice is having an on/off switch on the subwoofer. When I unplug it, I can hear the amplifier cut off, and the woofer goes "thump" one last time. I noticed this because I tried the subwoofer in numerous positions and had to plug and unplug it several times. In normal use, you would plug it in once and leave it, so this would not be a big deal. Of course, eliminating turnoff thump requires an extra capacitor in the circuit, so there's always the argument that no additional caps means better sound.

Calibrating it all

After placing the three front speakers in an arc, trying to get them all an equal distance from my listen position, I next placed the TS-310s directly to the side of my couch, with about 4' on each side of the couch. I placed the sub near the right wall in-between the Right VR4 and the Right TS-310.

After getting all the speakers right where I wanted them, I placed my side room tune acoustic material. I walked around the room looking for reflections from the left, center, and right speakers. I placed three room tune strips along each sidewall.

Now that I had taken care of the basic acoustic problems, I proceeded to calibrate the levels using the built-in noise generator in the Meridian 861. The 861 also allowed me to adjust the phase of each speaker and combination of speakers as well as any timing delays because of speaker distance.

Once I was happy with all of my settings, it was time to get down to business.

Listening to music

The real test of any home theater system is music. You watch/listen to films all day long, but you never really know how accurate everything is. After all, films are put together in pieces with artificial sounds.

I used a few of my standard music CDs including Holly Cole, Paula Cole, Sarah McLachlan, Alanis Morissette, Jewel, Matchbox 20, Sheryl Crow, Everclear, Tori Amos, Rhapsody in Blue, and a few more.

When playing the new Jewel CD "Spirit" [Atlantic 82950 WEA], and the song title, "Hands", I experienced something that I had to repeat just to be sure I was not hallucinating. For most of the song, her voice is placed about 5' off of the floor. At the point where she sings, "I get down on my knees" The music stayed at the same height while her voice lowered. She was singing on her knees in my living room. After a few more verses, she stood back up. Now that is pinpoint soundstaging accuracy if I have ever heard it!

I have found that a woman's voice is excellent for hearing the fine detail from a speaker. Holly Cole's CD, "Don't smoke in bed" [EMI-Manhattan 81198] contains her remake of "I can see clearly now." This is my favorite version of the song. The bass is very natural sounding, and she just stands in front of the instruments. You can feel each musician in the room and "see" exactly where they stand. Several tracks on this CD have really fast moving bass that can expose just how good or bad your amplifier and speakers are at reproducing it. This is where the Krell outperformed the Sunfire. The TOPS, when using the Krell, could not keep the same pace as the rest of the speakers, being driven by the Krell power amplifier. When I used the Sunfire for the VR4s, the TOPS integrated without a problem (obviously an excellent match, since all amplification was with Sunfire).

One thing you will notice about the VSR system is the lack of distortion that otherwise might seem like more bass. If you want to hear some monstrous bass from these speakers - and I mean REAL bass, not just a load of harmonics - the first track on Paula Cole's CD "This Fire" [Image 46424 WEA] will blow you away! The track is called "Tiger."

Another one of my favorites is a track that has not gotten much play on the radio yet. It is called, "UR" from the new Alanis Morissette CD, "Supposed Former Infatuation Junkie" [Maverick 47094 WEA]. The song really shows off just how good she is, and how good the VSRs are at letting you know how good she is.

So, what about movies?

The DTS LD of "Apollo 13" is a great test for any home theater system. The visceral bass will wake your neighbors, so make sure they aren't members of the NRA if you plan to crank this movie. The only thing that comes close to this is, or was, the actual launch of Apollo 13! Like I mentioned in the beginning of this review, it felt like I had transducers mounted to the bottom of my couch. I could feel the shockwave when the rockets kicked in. If I had been constipated, this would have cured it right away.

I also like to listen to the Diva scene from "The Fifth Element". Her voice is rendered with amazing detail. This scene is very well mixed, with her singing and some nice fight sequences (ahh, movies!) The person who edited this piece deserves some serious praise.

I have watched more scenes from movies than actual movies. It's funny, when people come over we almost never watch an entire movie, but we might watch two hours worth of piecemeal footage from various films. Another favorite scene of mine to show off the sound effects is from "First Knight". It's the scene where Richard Gere runs the gauntlet. The sounds of the wood cracking are very lifelike. Great Foley effects here!

The intro to "Desperado" where Antonio Banderas is shooting up the bar has some nice directional effects. You feel like you are in the middle of the action and want to grab your chest to see if any of the little red bags of red colored water have burst.

There is one problem with the VSR: The Truth! The VSRs will give you what is there, and they do not mask anything. I have found many other speakers tend to hide the truth. What this means is that when you are listening to a movie, if the editors had to redo the dialog during a seen using ADR (automatic dialog replacement), you will know it. A good example of this can be found on the Criterion LD version of "Lawrence of Arabia". There is a scene where the actors are in this large hall, and you can hear the room acoustics very well. Then for a moment when Lawrence is talking, it sounds like he is in a closet. This is due to ADR being used for the restoration of the film and some additional scenes were added that had been deleted from the original theater release. Peter O'Toole had to respeak the lines from the deleted scenes since the original voice recording had been lost.

I like hearing the truth, even if it is distracting. This will force sound editors to work harder on reproducing a believable experience. I hope more speakers come to market that have sworn to tell the truth and the whole truth, so help them Rumplestiltskin. The end result will be better sound mixes.

Associated Equipment:

Meridian 565/861 Surround Processor
Theta Surround Processor
Sunfire Cinema Grand Five Channel Power Amplifier
Sunfire Signature Stereo Power Amplifier
Krell KAV Home Theater Amplifier
Panasonic LD-10 Portable DVD player
Sony S-7000 DVD player
Meridian 508.24 CD player
Pioneer Elite CLD-97 LD player
Nordost Red Dawn Speaker and Interconnect Cables
Nordost Moon Glow Digital Cables
Toshiba TW40F80 16:9 TV

Conclusion

I have experienced one of the finest sounding home theater and music speaker systems on the planet. The end result is a combination of the source, processor, amplification, and speakers. While I did get a different sound when I substituted various surround processors and amplifiers, the overall performance was always outstanding.

I have not heard a finer speaker system in my home. If you want to experience audio nirvana, you must audition the VSR home theater speaker system at you're nearest VSR dealer, where I am sure, you will be as impressed as I was.

Stacey L. Spears