Hi all—
I am very new to the world of audio, and I am looking for a budget amplifier recommendation. My family bought a pair of Von Schweikert VR-4 speakers many years ago, and I have been diligently moving them with me for also many years now. I am not sure exactly which generation the speakers are—my best guess is generation 1 (they look like the ones at this link). Recently, I bought a Fosi Audio BT20A to power a smaller pair of bookshelf speakers, and a couple of days ago, I tried powering the VR-4s for the first time with it. I was really surprised at how good they sounded. I was also surprised that the BT20A was able to power the speakers at all—I remember amplifiers being gigantic things, so I guess these newer class D amps are really powerful for their size.
My question: is my BT20A (nb: not BT20A Pro) powerful enough to power the VR-4s? If it is not powerful enough, which amp would be more appropriate? I don't need the best sound quality—I just don't want to damage the speakers (I googled and found that an underpowered amp can lead to clipping and therefore damage to the speakers) and be able to use them. Some sort of wireless connectivity would be nice too. Ideally the amp would cost less than $200, but I'm willing to go up to $500 if I have to. That seems to be on the low end for what amplifiers cost... any used options worth looking into?
I am including the specifications of the speakers below. I'm not sure exactly which type of VR-4 I have, so I'm including specs for all the VR-4 manuals I could find online below.
Best,
Jeremy
Specs for the VR-4JR:
Specs for the VR-4SR:
Specs for the VR-4 Gen III HSE Hovland Special Edition Series (full document here):
I am very new to the world of audio, and I am looking for a budget amplifier recommendation. My family bought a pair of Von Schweikert VR-4 speakers many years ago, and I have been diligently moving them with me for also many years now. I am not sure exactly which generation the speakers are—my best guess is generation 1 (they look like the ones at this link). Recently, I bought a Fosi Audio BT20A to power a smaller pair of bookshelf speakers, and a couple of days ago, I tried powering the VR-4s for the first time with it. I was really surprised at how good they sounded. I was also surprised that the BT20A was able to power the speakers at all—I remember amplifiers being gigantic things, so I guess these newer class D amps are really powerful for their size.
My question: is my BT20A (nb: not BT20A Pro) powerful enough to power the VR-4s? If it is not powerful enough, which amp would be more appropriate? I don't need the best sound quality—I just don't want to damage the speakers (I googled and found that an underpowered amp can lead to clipping and therefore damage to the speakers) and be able to use them. Some sort of wireless connectivity would be nice too. Ideally the amp would cost less than $200, but I'm willing to go up to $500 if I have to. That seems to be on the low end for what amplifiers cost... any used options worth looking into?
I am including the specifications of the speakers below. I'm not sure exactly which type of VR-4 I have, so I'm including specs for all the VR-4 manuals I could find online below.
Best,
Jeremy
Specs for the VR-4JR:
Specs for the VR-4SR:
Specs for the VR-4 Gen III HSE Hovland Special Edition Series (full document here):
Last edited: