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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
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In Reply to: What speakers sound like Vandersteens ($1000-$1500). posted by musicfirst on August 1, 2009 at 09:29:57:
musicfirst,
If the Vandersteen is your perfect speaker, why not, as EBerlin suggests, have another set?
I've used Vandersteen 2C's since 1985 and in fact am still using the 1985 ones. These, in my view, work really well with tube amplifiers of all kinds, and especially Audio Research: Transparent bass, imaging, and a smooth but detailed mid and never harsh treble. As a measure, my ideal speaker are probably Soundlab 3's, electrostatical!- and I've heard some really impressive Wilson's, KEF's, and B&W's. The Wilson's ability to magically make $26,000 disappear- beyond transparent to a point of aggressively invisible- is also done surprisingly well by the 2C. I've read that Audio Research in their listening room uses both Wilson and Vandersteens for voicing their stuff, making a system synergy between their electronics and Vanderteens.
I think mine are 86dB but don't need a lot of power to work really well:
When the Audio Research D115 (2X100W, 6550's) was away for work for a month, I plugged the trusty old McIntosh MC240 in it's place and with the SP10 -and 40 Watts, it did better than I expected in my Bach Organ / Schubert Lieder / Mahler's 5th test, not only having an extremely rich sound- but also in being able to shake the floor with The Passacaglia and Fugue in Cmin and Solti's Chicago 5th.
A friend with an SP10 recently bought an Audio Research VS55 (2X50W, 6550's), Audioquest Python (silver) IC's and Rocket 88 DBS speaker cables, and Vandersteen 2C Signature II's and is very, very pleased. He should be- the wires alone cost more than many cars I've owned. And, he said he tried his Adcom 535 (2X35W, solid state) with the 2C SigII's and was amazed- and he's of the "louder is better" crowd.
I have just revived my Oracle III > SP10 > D115 > Vandersteen 2C setup- in storage for along while and am again reveling in the 2Cs' sound- still crazy good - I think- especially for the price.
And, you might look into another set of Vandersteen 3A's, as I think they aren't much, if any, more power hungry than the 2C's. I've thought for a long while that my next speakers will be 3A Signatures. I feel unimaginative using similar speakers from the same maker my whole life, but I listen to a wide range of speakers- and these are impressive with tube amplifiers even of modest horsepower. You mention liking the 3A more than the 3A Signature and these are quite reasonable now- recently Audiogoon had a pair for $1200 whereas Signatures are still $2100-2400.
The Heartbreak of Bad Speaker Placement: Episode 5 I recently moved and my office -5 times in 8 years- and this one again has layout that makes any reasonable speaker placement impossible- two doors and a full side wall of closets.
To have sound in the office then, I'm taking the cowards' way out: giving up and using a computer based system. This is: Dell 8400 CD-ROM > 1995 Audiowerk2 soundcard > Logitech Z-2300 THX 2.1 computer speaker system 2X35W satellites and a 130W subwoofer). This means I'm substituting the $115 powered satellite/subwoofer set for the Cambridge Audio 640C / Revox B160 > Audio Research LS3 > D130 > Infinity 360's office system. One pair of interconnects cost more than the whole Logitech system,...
The thing is, while the weird plastic boominess is a bit annoying, the placement of the satellites- and the subwoofer as nearly as possible to one of the satellites, this setup is making a far better image and I'm hearing some detail better than the hotsy-totsy setup when the speakers are in wrong relative positions. There's huge loss of the quality of the sound you hear when you and the speakers are awkwardly placed. I once had the speakers behind me and another they were 180 degrees.
When the speaker to listener placement is wrong, it's just throwing a big portion of that expensively refined sound away.
I've got a new situation in the new house- the Vandersteen 2Cs are about 15' apart and I'm sitting on centre but about 12' away". This means I'm too close. Moving around, standing behind the listening sofa, I can hear how much of the system's imaging is being lost by the speakers being too far apart. The layout:
------------------------------------------------------
WALL
RECORD SHELVES
2C --Audio Stand Amplifiers--Audio Stand Sources--Television Stand-- 2C -
-------------------------------------------------ME
So, I'm going to have to shift the speakers inland:
2C -Audio Stand Amplifiers--Audio Stand Sources-- 2C --Television Stand.
-and I'll have shorter speaker cables as well: 8' instead of 10-11'. I'll move a bit closer too and this should be an improvement for detail too.
In the office, the work layout is the priority, but for a main system, I'd encourage working out- or perhaps only trying for a couple of weeks- an optimal speaker/listener layout, even if there are some impracticalities and/or long speaker cables. Great speakers will not make up for the loss in sound quality by placement problems.
Cheers,
Bambi B
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Follow Ups
- If the Vandersteen is your perfect speaker, why not have another set? - Bambi B 08/2/0907:46:08 08/2/09 (0)
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