The Official Vandersteen Owners Thread

Audiofreak71 said:
Ive had best results from a hybrid setup, tube pre SS amp,

Audiofreak71
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I have been thinking of this -- tube pre with SS Amp -- is any of the "tube magic" lost this way ?? Assuming a good-enough well designed SS amp with proper current etc, are there any differences in terms of spaciousness, details etc that we all enjoy with tubes..... (I confess to becoming a recent tube addict having been all SS for decades)) ..
 
kappclark said:
I have been thinking of this -- tube pre with SS Amp -- is any of the "tube magic" lost this way ?? Assuming a good-enough well designed SS amp with proper current etc, are there any differences in terms of spaciousness, details etc that we all enjoy with tubes..... (I confess to becoming a recent tube addict having been all SS for decades)) ..
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Well I have an integrated and it’s a hybrid (tube pre/SS amps) so I can’t do tube rolling with mine and that’s fine with me as It sounds excellent in my setup still has the sweetness of tubes with tons of power with the SS amps. However, I have heard separates in a hybrid configuration and imo no you do not loose the tube magic imo.

Audiofreak71
 
techguy0192 said:
This is why you buy a Vandersteen. Quality, engineering, and attention to detail that is 2nd to none.

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Yep you’re right I watched that video a few days ago , excellent quality. The Treos are nice but honestly I would jump to the Quatros if I were looking at them. I’ve heard them both side by side and the Quatros bottom end is so much more punchy and tight however the mids and highs are almost identical.

Audiofreak71
 
FabRik8r said:
I'm enjoying my 3A's more than ever after taking even more time to change my room layout to have the system on the long wall ... I can't imagine a speaker anywhere close without spending twice what I could sell these for.
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You are 100% correct, once Vandersteen’s are dialed in it’s very hard to find a speaker that betters them for the money . It would take a speaker many times more money to equal there performance.

Audiofreak71
 
Is the 1CE I believe it was just a forget about it speaker in the Van line ? They were the smaller type I believe I have the Model number correct here. Not kicking dirt on them I would like to hear that there is a way to make those speakers really kick off but all reviews I read say no. They usually show up cheap and in decent condition.
 
Hi,
Very new to Vandersteen, and have a great opportunity to get some 2Cs. My main concern is I Have a Jolida 3502 Tube amp- great sounding on more effecient speakers, but very worried, its not the right amp for these speakers. Any feedback / beta is greatly appreciated.
 
Caryg said:
Hi,
Very new to Vandersteen, and have a great opportunity to get some 2Cs. My main concern is I Have a Jolida 3502 Tube amp- great sounding on more effecient speakers, but very worried, its not the right amp for these speakers. Any feedback / beta is greatly appreciated.
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Hi welcome to AK and the Vandersteen thread!. Your Jolidi at 60-85wpc will drive the 2cs just fine although they love a lot of current , you should drive them just fine with that amp.

Audiofreak71
 
canton said:
Is the 1CE I believe it was just a forget about it speaker in the Van line ? They were the smaller type I believe I have the Model number correct here. Not kicking dirt on them I would like to hear that there is a way to make those speakers really kick off but all reviews I read say no. They usually show up cheap and in decent condition.
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The 1ce’s were/are nice sounding speakers but like all vandys like good clean power and imo sound best with a hybrid amp be it integrated or tube pre and SS amp.

Audiofreak71
 
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Yes I dug a little deeper into the reviews from dif years going back. It gets mixed some do really enjoy them (1C's) but many others leaned towards changing there set ups just for the speakeers. I would not go in that direction either I enjoy a speaker or not. Sure might try Tube vs S.S. but not changing out my set up to satisfy a speaker too many speakers out there for that. But I get why people do it on there end.
 
canton said:
Yes I dug a little deeper into the reviews from dif years going back. It gets mixed some do really enjoy them (1C's) but many others leaned towards changing there set ups just for the speakeers. I would not go in that direction either I enjoy a speaker or not. Sure might try Tube vs S.S. but not changing out my set up to satisfy a speaker too many speakers out there for that. But I get why people do it on there end.
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The best I have heard my Vandersteen’s with both sets (2Ce Signature ii’s and my 3a Signature’s) is with a hybrid setup. My current amp is an Musical Fidelity NuVista M3 that has been upgraded from the factory and the sound is exceptional. Vandys absolutely love current so the more clean watts you give them the better they respond.

Audiofreak71
 
My current set up is a pair of Dynaco MKIVs with a Pas3X pre that is going to changed within a few weeks at least that is the plan. Got my eye on a new pre amp. Rare to buy new but going to give this one a look and listen. Good Van conversation.
 
So I have an update that I'm sure will be helpful to some Vandersteen owners, as well as anyone else that uses an interconnect.

This past weekend I took a batch of Cardas Audio speaker cables and IC's to an audio show. It gave me an opportunity to try them out on my system. The interconnects I'm going to talk about are in the following product lines: Clear Sky, Parsec, and Iridium. The Clear Sky and Parsec both have the patented Matched Propagation. Clear Sky has air tube suspension. Parsec has poly-e air-tubes.

Most of the interconnects in my system are Canare LV-61S coaxial cable with Taversoe RCA's. I have one turntable with Cardas phono cable and the other with custom Mogami Neglex (can't remember wire model) with Neutrik Rean connectors.

Since I only had three IC's to swap out, I connected the best cable, the Clear Sky from my Sansui CA-2000 preamp to a Parasound HCA-1500 (rebuilt) amp. I did this to prevent a bottle neck effect "down line". My digital source, a Marantz CD6006 got the Parsec and the Dragon tape deck got the Iridium. FYI, the Iridium is the most attainable cable in the CA lineup to feature the Golden Ratio Stranded Litz conductors, so in my mind, I can't see a good reason to go any lower in the product line, with Crosslink (entry level) cable.

My speaker cables are Supra Quadrax in bi-wire format. They are slightly better than the Canare Star Quad I had before. The difference may be imagined, but I can get some nice sound out of my Vandersteen Model 3's with factory "A" upgrade. I wanted to use the Clear Sky X4 biwire cables, but the spades were a tad too wide to fit between the plastic isolation wall between terminal posts.

For comparison, I pulled out the Audio Wave XRCD24 disc of Hank Mobley's Soul Station and Tears for Fears The Seeds of Love (fontana/PolyGram, DDD, 838 730-2) that has some really nice details in the upper frequency's. For analog, the Dragon was fed a Maxell UDXL recording from the mid-80's of Andreas Wollenweider's Caverna Magica.

I haven't moved the interconnects around, but I can say in general terms that both sources sounded about 5-10% better, as in a little more detail, some of which I hadn't heard before ... slightly more open soundstage, with more depth. Cardas says these cables have good transparency and imaging. I agree.

The difference wasn't big, but it was noticeable. Some material sounded about the same. But for well produced vinyl, tape and cd, that has more information to retrieve ... I heard it. In the end, it helped me see that it's time to replace my $50 cables. Theses IC's aren't cheap for most of us, but the question I would ask you is simple. What is your investment in media (vinyl, tape, cd's, etc) and if you could hear just a little more detail out of at least half of it ... what is that worth? Can you place a value you'd pay per album that justifies the cost? Does the improved experience add value? For me, the answer is yes. And more importantly to this thread, it helped me enjoy my Vandersteen's a little more. And this is something Audiofreak has been preaching. Change your IC's and speaker cable, as well as experiment with speaker positioning. If you put in the time for that, you will be rewarded. I'm not saying every album and media type you have will be improved enough to bring a smile to your face. But I will say that on great recordings, your smile might make you forget the cost this type of change.

This weekend, I hope to experiment with the three types of cable to see what difference I can hear.
 
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FabRik8r said:
So I have an update that I'm sure will be helpful to some Vandersteen owners, as well as anyone else that uses an interconnect.

This past weekend I took a batch of Cardas Audio speaker cables and IC's to an audio show. It gave me an opportunity to try them out on my system. The interconnects I'm going to talk about are in the following product lines: Clear Sky, Parsec, and Iridium.

Most of the interconnects in my system are Canare LV-61S coaxial cable with Taversoe RCA's. I have one turntable with Cardas phono cable and the other with custom Mogami Neglex (can't remember wire model) with Neutrik Rean connectors.

Since I only had three IC's to swap out, I connected the best cable, the Clear Sky from Sansui CA-2000 preamp to Parasound HCA-1500 (rebuilt) amp as to not be a bottle neck. My digital source, a Marantz CD6006 got the Parsec and the Dragon tape deck got the Iridium. FYI, the Iridium is the most attainable cable in the CA lineup to feature the Golden Ratio Stranded Litz conductors, so in my mind, I wouldn't see a good reason to go any lower with Crosslink (entry level) cable.

My speaker cables are Supra Quadrax in bi-wire format. They are slightly better than the Canare Star Quad I had before. The difference may be imagined, but I can get some nice sound out of my Vandersteen Model 3's with factory "A" upgrade.

For comparison, I pulled out the Audio Wave XRCD24 disc of Hank Mobley's Soul Station and Tears for Fears The Seeds of Love (fontana/PolyGram, DDD, 838 730-2) that has some really nice details in the upper frequency's. For analog, the Dragon was fed a Maxell UDXL recording from the mid-80's of Andreas Wollenweider's Caverna Magica.

I haven't moved the interconnects around, but I can say in general terms that both sources sounded about 5-10% better, as in a little more detail, some of which I hadn't heard before ... slightly more open soundstage, with more depth.

The difference wasn't big, but it was noticeable. Some material sounded about the same. But for well produced vinyl, tape and cd, that has more information to retrieve ... I heard it. In the end, it helped me see that it's time to replace my $50 cables. Theses IC's aren't cheap for most of us, but the question I would ask you is simple. What is your investment in media (vinyl, tape, cd's, etc) and if you could hear just a little more detail out of at least half of it ... what is that worth? Can you place a value you'd pay per album that justifies the cost? Does the improved experience add value? For me, the answer is yes. And more importantly to this thread, it helped me enjoy my Vandersteen's a little more. And this is something Audiofreak has been preaching. Change your IC's and speaker cable, as well as experiment with speaker positioning. If you put in the time for that, you will be rewarded. I'm not saying every album and media type you have will be improved enough to bring a smile to your face. But I will say that on great recordings, your smile might make you forget the cost this type of change.
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You hit the nail on the head and I am glad that you are experimenting in order to find what best suits you. I will admit that I used to be a cable naysayer until I was offered to try a cable out , if wasn’t too expensive but much more than I used to spend and to my mind blowing surprise there was a big change (for the better) in sound.

However I still was getting some grain at the top end so I started experimenting with cables , the cables I have now are not cheap but they have shown me that upper tier cables can reveal a level of refinement by letting the system do its thing. So with that said I am happy you are finding your niche with the Vandys as they are incredible speakers as long as one is willing to spend a little time with them :thumbsup:

Audiofreak71
 
Agreed. My system has a lot of cables, so better insulation/isolation helps. But like you, I didn't expect as much, especially since my system is not modern design gear that boasts "high resolution". My Sansui CA-2000 has a frequency range of 10Hz - 80kHz ... my Parasound HCA-1500 and Sansui BA-3000 both are 5Hz - 100kHz.
 
FabRik8r said:
Agreed. My system has a lot of cables, so better insulation/isolation helps. But like you, I didn't expect as much, especially since my system is not modern design gear that boasts "high resolution". My Sansui CA-2000 has a frequency range of 10Hz - 80kHz ... my Parasound HCA-1500 and Sansui BA-3000 both are 5Hz - 100kHz.
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I honestly believe you don’t necessarily need modern design gear to obtain a high level of detail from your Vandys , I have heard your speakers with some older pre amps amps (early 90’s) but had the right cables and the gear was a match synergy wise and I was hearing resolution as good as a lot of modern gear I hear.
 
Agreed. I have heard systems that cost much more than mine that don't sound as good. You have to factor in the listening space and setup as well. All aspects you have been talking about through this thread.
 
Indeed. Recently a friend of mine put together a pretty nice HT setup , he did just about everything right gear wise , has Atmos, dual subs , 4K projector etc . So he calls me one day and says man I got the system all setup and it sounds like crap , it’s lifeless with no soul , now this guy did do the calibration and dialed every speaker in , his problem was he had zero room treatment, only a couch and some pictures and was on a hardwood floor.

So I gave him some tips on room treatment and sent him in the right direction on diy panels , rugs etc . Couple weeks later he calls me and says holy freakin shiznit , this is what I’m talking about now it sounds like a real movie theater. So it’s the things we of them don’t pay attention to that could potentially be the most important.

Audiofreak71
 
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I wish I knew some nice cables to check out but itis always out of my price range. That is what keeps me away from possibly inproving the sound thru better interconnects and also for my speakers. Question guy I know has some old big Monster cables are they decent interconnects ? He would let me have them cheap bc he has done work for me in the past and has a lot of stuff laying around any info appreciated. Anyhow thanks for the info and anyone who knows of some inexpenisve cables that are known be nice to try out one day when I have the extra cash.
 
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