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Von Schweikert VisiUN Center Channel Speaker A Secrets Speaker Review |
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| Written by John E. Johnson, Jr. | |||||
| Sunday, 02 March 2008 | |||||
Page 3 of 3
On the Bench For THD+N, the bandwidth was 80 kHz. At 1 kHz, distortion was 0.37%.
At 10 kHz, measuring from the tweeter, distortion was just over 1%. This is higher than when measuring it during the THD+N vs. Frequency test, and I suspect the tweeter heated up a bit when a constant sine wave was applied.
THD+N vs. Frequency across the entire audible range indicates that, like other speakers we have tested, there is quite a bit more distortion at the lower frequencies. At 50 Hz, it is about 2% and this is a good place to cross the VisiUN over to the subwoofer.
Room response shows that the VisiUN is reasonably flat down to about 50 Hz, then drops off sharply. At a 450 angle off axis, the response is about the same up to 8 kHz or so, and this is the majority of what we hear (I find that music is mostly in the 60 Hz to 6 kHz range). So, this is why the VisiUN sounds so good off axis.
The Impedance-Phase curves are shown below. The impedance appears to be nominally 6 ohms, and the electrical phase stays within ± 300. The speaker would be reasonably easy to drive, but I would suggest using a top of the line receiver at the least.
Conclusions Von Schweikert makes some wonderful speakers. The VisiUN completes their product line as a center channel. It has spectacular sound, and you can experience it no matter where you sit in the room. This is about as good as center channel sound can get. P.S. I damaged the VisiUN before I could perform the bench tests (burned a resistor in the crossover network), so the review unit is under repair at the factory, and at some point, I will get the speaker back to complete the tests. They will be added to the review at that time. Comments (11)
 Measurements
written by EMA , March 04, 2008 JEJ, Where are the distortion graphs? The freq. response, the impedance? Did I miss it? ...
written by JEJ , March 04, 2008 We were taking bets on how long it would be before someone asked where are the bench tests. It was one day. Anyway, what happened was that I damaged the speaker before I could gather the data. I burned out a resistor in the crossover. It was my fault, not any speaker inadequacy, and I felt that because this was a new product, I would get the basic review published. Von Schweikert has repaired the damage and will be sending the speaker back to me for the bench tests. Once those are done, I will add them to the review. ...
written by SH , March 05, 2008 Please don't take this as a snarky comment, but instead of taking bets on when someone would ask about the bench tests, why not just include the explanation you just provided in a footnote to the review? Kind of like a "P.S."? You clearly know your readers well enough to anticipate the question, so I'd suggest you take the next step and edit your articles from that perspective. ...
written by JEJ , March 05, 2008 I always intended to amend the review, but I just wanted to see what would be said about the lack of bench tests. I have added the P.S. that you requested. Matt Black
written by Brian , March 07, 2008 "The surface of the VisiUN is painted with the same finish as on the Stealth bomber (...) the paint reflects just about no light at all..." Oh man that is cool...but even more important ~practical~. The only other speaker company I'm aware of who even gave a thought to this was M&K Professional who, for a limited time before they folded, offered their pro monitors in a special SMPTE approved neutral matt grey. Center channel for the rest of us ?
written by Brian C , March 11, 2008 Any other great, more affordable centers that you've come across in your travels. Possibly in the $2000 - range ? My M&K 150 is great for action, but seems lacking in dialog clarity. Center Channel Matching
written by Josuah , March 16, 2008 You really need to match your center channel to your front speakers. Otherwise when sound, and particularly dialog, moves between you'll be wondering why it sounds like the person went into a different room. If you've got M&K fronts, you should stick with your M&K center from the same line. You might try changing horizontal to vertical orientation--that often improves things. You might also be having problems with clarity if the center speaker is on something that will vibrate, like a shelf, or if inside of an enclosure such that the drivers aren't past the edge of the enclosure. Moving the center forward so the drivers clear the edge, and decoupling the speaker from whatever it is on with large rubber bumpers can help. Also have to be mindful of reflections off the floor if placed low. Getting off topic
written by Brian , March 18, 2008 As this is getting off topic it would be better for the forum, but in brief if your 150 "seems lacking in dialog clarity" then something in your setup is askew (the 150 is in my experience near perfect in that respect), and assuming your L/Rs are also 150s, you'll be farther behind replacing it with something different. ...
written by JEJ , March 18, 2008 One other center channel speaker that just blew me away is the Revel in their Ultima2 series (http://www.hometheaterhifi.com...007_3.html) Again, this is a very expensive speaker, but it is something else. Measurements
written by Paul , March 19, 2008 Why do you use 120dB scales on your measurements? This hides the end results as its hard to see what is really going on. Also a 1ft measurement is useless unless you are doing a summed response of all the drivers. I really don't get the frequency response graphs. They aren't really representative of what the product can do. ...
written by JEJ , March 19, 2008 I don't use 120 dB as the top line on any of the graphs. The top line is 110 dB, but I think you may be referring to the 20% THD plus N line on the distortion vs. frequency graph. I use that standard because it makes the rest of the graph easier to read, and anything beyond 20% is irrelevant, as well as being usually at the very low end of the frequency range, often beyond the useful response of the speaker. If I changed the scale for each speaker so that the highest distortion was just below the top graph line on the Y axis, it would make it difficult to compare graphs from different speakers. The frequency response curves are shown for 1 foot, 1 meter, and 2 meters to indicate the progressive effects of the room. Write comment
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