Vandersteen 2CEs for $500?

[silvernutsaq]

My buddy is bringing them over to demo and thinks I might buy them. :scratch2: I`ve read good things about these speakers and I`m definitely intrigued. I just happened to catch the ad yesterday morning before leaving for skiing, recognized the phone number and called him, thinking he was trying to raise funds to buy back his SX-1250 and 4312s from me (a loan). He explained these speakers were in lieu of cash for some drywall work he did for a client.

I asked if the previous owner had tried selling them recently, as I saw a pair for a couple weeks priced at $800, then $750. He said same guy and I recall the pics showed NM speakers along with the cartons. Also claims they`re barely broken in with low hours of use. After he spoke with me, he had several calls so pulled the ad. Also, since he`s still short on funds these days, I`ll have to buy them outright and hold onto his other gear for now. His 4312s are actually in my LR now and helped me to decide to part with my Heresies last week. :yes:

I have HPM-150s needing a refoam soon, also JBL L112s same story, Forte lls in reserve, DQ-10s, and series 1 Time Windows. Do you think the Vandys are any more exceptional than what`s listed and are they worth $500.

 

[ehoove]

Great buy at $500 if in mint condition! IMHO
Regards,
Jim

 

[sheltie dave]

Let him know you will buy them, contingent on everything working. That is a level of speaker with a very good entry price. It will cost you, as you will need to upgrade your amp.

 

[sancho22]

Yes I belive you will raise the level of your speakers despite already having some nice ones.
I belive the Vandy is in a different league.

 

[audiomagnate]

I heard a pair at the CES show earlier this month. I think the current version retails for around 2K/pr. They sound very nice.

 

[silvernutsaq]

Let him know you will buy them, contingent on everything working. That is a level of speaker with a very good entry price. It will cost you, as you will need to upgrade your amp.

Aww, do I really have to? I was hoping a Spec 2 or 4, Sansui AU-X701, Denon POA-2800, B&K ST140, and Yammy M70 would have me covered. I guess I could fix the BA-5000 but I need that elusive CA-3000.

Anyway, he`ll be here within an hour and I forgot I had ADS L1090-2s I`ll A/B them with for comparison. That was the speaker that sent my Polk RTA-12b out the door. :yes:

 

[sancho22]

I love ADS and still have two pairs of the 1290. However (to me) the lack of cabinet provides a nice open/airy no resonance sound from the Vandy. Interested how will they fare in your A/B - YMMV.

 

[silvernutsaq]

The Vandys are in the house now and we A/B/C`d them with the 1090s and the 4312. First impression was the y were kinda laid back and pleasant compared to the other two. Definitely don`t have the bass extension of the JBLs or the revealing highs of the ADS. The midrange seems as smooth and airy as any I`ve eever listened two. Tomorrow I`ll be engaged in more critical listening, but for now we`re getting ready to go hear Bill Charlap, who was recently part of the Blue Note 7.

 

[Nat]

Do they have the stands? Seems a bit high, especially if they don't have stands. They are worth it -- great speakers, but they aren't that rare.

 

[Nat]

Oh -- I see that I forgot to submit my comment, and in the interim you got them, in which which case, comments about price seem churlish.
But I urge you to listen more to them -- I think you will perhaps change your mind about the lows and highs -- the pair I had a decade and a half ago in combination with a Bozak CMA 150 amp had the most explicit bass I've ever heard -- it was immediately obvious if a drum kit was on concrete or on a plywood floor, something it had never occurred to wonder about, much less to listen for. And your referring to the detailed high end of the ADS suggests to me that the Vandersteens have it right -- actual music isn't detailed, but just is. I think the 2s get that much righter than the ADSs I've heard.
Anyway, congratulations on getting a really fine pair of speakers.

 

[silvernutsaq]

Nat, they don`t have the stands and yes they are very rare in my neck of the woods, plus the guy I got them from has given me really good deals four previous times, so I wasn`t about to dicker with him. As much as he would have liked to keep them himself, or even trade me to get his SX-1250/4312 combo back, he needs the money right now and after listening to them for an hour, I thought it was a good deal. Plus they`re basically new as they spent most of their life in the cartons and haven`t been broken in yet.

Regarding the comments I made about my first impressions in comparison to others, sure another amp (I have a few to try) would likely produce an improved bass signature, but I get it that it won`t have the same deep thump of a JBL 12", but perhaps a more refined bass extension is possible. Also, the thing about the ADS is that they will reveal any surface noise on vinyl before the Vandys or JBLs will, and I wasn`t saying their detailed high was necessarily better, only different. My gut tells me through past experience that the Vandys will likely become more lively when I play the analog source through a DBX processor, which is currently hooked up to my Sansui amp; plus the next couple of weeks breaking them in should make some difference.

Btw, the Bill Charlap Trio was outstanding and on par with seeing Ramsey Lewis a couple years ago.

 

[audiomagnate]

They have to get an award for being the longest running continuously available speaker of all time, unless they were off the market for twenty years while I wasn't paying attention. Yeah, no real bottom, but I have L1530s so that's not fair.

 

[Designdweeb]

When you get back from that live concert, listen for the Vandies to be the closest reproduction of your auditory memory of the music.

 

[frperdurabo]

The Vandys remind me a lot of the Quad ESLs - a little underwhelming at first. But they do lots and lots of things right.

I like them best with tubes; Cary or ARC. The matching subwoofers are worth getting; their biggest improvement is in improved soundstaging and recreating the recorded space.

 

[Bubbamike]

I have the Vandy 2CEs like them a lot but I heard a pair of Quad ESL 63's yesterday. Wow was all I could say. With a Cary SLI 80 the sound was just marvelous. I thought very hard about buying them and the Cary right then and there. It was just outstanding, almost like the singer was in the room with us. the synergy between the amp and the speakers was outstanding. Clear, precise and warm. Me wants!

 

[audiomagnate]

The Vandys remind me a lot of the Quad ESLs - a little underwhelming at first. But they do lots and lots of things right.

I like them best with tubes; Cary or ARC. The matching subwoofers are worth getting; their biggest improvement is in improved soundstaging and recreating the recorded space.

Sorry, they're good, but nowhere near as good as Quads in the mids. This tiny company at CES was using the current version to demo their magical box that corrects for something or other. The fact that this ancient design is still competitive proves that nothing important has happened in speaker design since the late 70s. Except for the JBL Array 1400. Greg Timbers is an amazing man, and these are his gift to the world. Amazing speakers.

 

[Dr Tinear]

Placement is important on the Vandies. They have two woofers in there and I have no issue with bass. It's just right for me.

+1 on the importance of placement with Vandersteen speakers. I bought a pair of 2Cis for my college-age son (got a good price because one tweeter was blown, but that's a whole other story). Once I got the rebuilt tweeter back from Vandersteen and installed it in the speaker, I set the pair up in my big system. The Vandersteens are finicky about placement and are best used with the optional stands, but magic happens once you get the placement dialed in. They also like plenty of amplifier power and are revealing enough to show you the difference between a good amp and one that's not as good. My 120 WPC Audio by Van Alstine amp sounded wonderful with the 2Cis; the Pioneer SX-838 that my son is using with them in the short term sounded good, but not on the same level as the AVA.

I've heard the current incarnation of the Quad ESL and didn't think that it outpointed the Vandersteens by much in the midrange. The Quads fell far short of the Vandersteens in macrodynamics and bass slam, both of which are important to me as a fan of large-scale orchestra music, so for me they would be a poorer choice. Fans of female vocals, chamber music or small-combo jazz might feel differently.

 

[Nat]

I would agree that it may be more difficult to create a magic midrange if the ends of the spectrum are in correct proportion than if they are deficient. Lacking the low and high end, the ear seizes on the mids which are not obscured as they actually might be in reality. My experience is that reproduction is in someways more explicit than reality is.
As an aside, the absolute claims made for the JBLs (which I have not heard) actually make me less inclined to take any of the post as seriously as it was intended.