Any Vandersteen 7 Owners in SFO Bay Area ?

Richard Vandersteen is an amazing manufacturer and business owner. Veerapaneni, If you just got the Model 7s your pair are probably better sounding than mine. I know for a fact that no matter how long a Vandersteen speaker has been in production RV is always finding ways to make it sound even better. You can rest assured that you got the latest and greatest 7 available.

Also, in the Southern California area, Randy Cooley is the top dealer of Vandersteen. He will make you deal you cannot refuse. I am living proof of that. Even if you do not live in So Cal (too bad) you should still contact him if interested in something. Just kidding about "too bad".

Dead on about Asian distribution.

Sad about Avalon. I used to love their speakers, but with the new company it's just changed a lot.  They lost most of their US dealers because they won't support them with ads or anything.  One former dealer told me that.  

That's why I love Vandy's.  He's trying to build an even bigger USA dealer network.  I think that's cool.  

veerapaneni, how are the 7's breaking in?  How do you like them?  Are you getting what you wanted out of them?  Inquiring minds, lol......

I think we have to accept the reality that international sales are keeping many of the high end manufacturers healthy. I have been told by people in the business that shipping to Asia via container ship is very cheap and cost effective. I know that Aesthetix does business throughout Europe
and elsewhere. The most important factor in international sales is having a very strong distributor who is active and has many contacts in the country. More US manufacturers are deciding to attend high end shows in Europe and Asia (Berlin and Tokyo). I remember a few years ago I wanted to hear a new speaker made by Avalon Acoustics. I could not find a dealer in LA that had that speaker available for audition. I called Avalon and asked where in SO CAL I could hear the speaker. They said forget it because their sales concentration was overseas and they had not shipped that speaker to any of their dealers on the west coast. 

How awesome. Guys, I have noticed a trend here.  Richard is growing and growing properly.  He can keep up with increased sales and keep quality, unlike others who have grown in the past.  He's starting to open up more and more stores around the country and hopefully for us, he'll open up more.  I know that the ones he's had, for the most part, have been OUTSTANDING IRT set up and helping customers.  

Great to hear that he has Performance Audio.  Very cool.  Thanks for sharing.

As you requested, Performance Audio carries Vandersteen speakers:

Performance Audio
2847 California St.
San Francisco, CA 94115
415 441 6220

@lxgreen , I bought ctsooner's Treo's and own a pair of 2w subs and am very happy with the result. Johnny R. at audioconnection said using the external subs gets you pretty close to the Vandy 5's. So, I think if you did go with Treo's, you would do pretty well.
As ctsooner pointed out, having a sub array would be plenty sweet. Though, the nice thing about Quatro's would be that you really don't need the external subs.-Especially if your listening room is like mine, too cluttered and with limited space to move things around.
Bob

I agree with Randy.  Also, if you go with the Vandersteen's over the Dali, I think you will be VERY happy!  If you can get the Quatro's, get the.  THEN use the other two subs to have an arrayed set up. I spoke with Richard about this and he agrees, but it's not realistic for most folks.  You'd then have 4 subs and if set up properly, you'd get the best of all worlds and would approach the 5's in performance.  You won't have the carbon midrange that is magic and makes the real difference, but you'd be really close and that bass would be approaching the bass of a 50k system.  

Bob, no was going to go to AC on Friday, but didn't make it.  Johnny was out on install.  I will be keeping my internal bi wire run of Castle Rock per Richard.  In the future, if I want to re terminate them and get a second matching 8' pair, I'll do that.  It makes a difference, but I am bound by money and need to still set up my digital system as  you know.

You should be able to get very close.  I just got the Quatros and have had them in my system for a little over a week.  I am coming from stand mounted monitors with a single REL sub.  I was curious to hear the difference in the bass between the two built in subs vs the the single REL  Comparing the two I find that interestingly enough the REL got it right most of the time and in some cases may have gone a little deeper than the Quatro. That probably has to do with the 10" woofer in the REL vs the two 8" woofers in the Quatro.  The biggest advantage to the Quatro is being able to fine tune the bass to the room.  While there is probably more versatility with 11 band equalizer on the Quatro to tune the bass, the two separate subs will give you more versatility with regards to placement.  If you were starting from scratch I would recommend the Quatro over the Treo but since you already have two high quality subs I suspect that will be a great combination.

Great discussion. I'm considering trading my Dali helicon 400 MKII for Vandy Treo CT. my thought was since I have two JL Audio fathom 110s and the CR-1 crossover, I would get great balanced bass without having to go to the Quattro or 5AC with built in active subs. Is that thinking correct? 

ctsooner....I'm using Ayre,...tried many conditioners, all of them change the sound but include warts..   Not for me.

Veerapon...I suspect the price of admission may only bring "marginal" improvement.  I have 5A's and heard the 5A Carbons and thought that very thing. One has to define "marginal" in their own terms.

+1 chargerfan.
CT, did you get out to Audioconnection? Also, what speaker cables are you going to use with the Quatro's?
Bob

Those perfect piston drivers make the difference. Plus, the Vandys are phase aligned. Many speakers are taller and bigger than the Model 7s, but not better sounding. And for my money, that includes the Magicos as well.

Bob, I used to live out there and even with the fluctuations, but it's still such a small factor as it's not nearly as bad as some make it out to be.  It's most probably a quieter room.

Not sure how long it will be.  I told him to hold off a bit as I've been gone and will be gone again soon.  I'd rather wait and get them when I'm fully ready.  My Ayre gear isn't back yet either as I took my time sending it in.  In time, lol.....lot's of time in the bedroom with the Linn system, lol...I really do miss the Vandersteen's.  Heard Focals Sopra's and Paradigm's 9H's today.  Paradigms were good, but not nearly anything close to the 5CT's and the Focals were just dead sounding.  Boring and not fun. I was shocked.

CT, from what I heard from Pat at McCormack, the Western states seem to have more problems with voltage fluctuations than we do on the East coast.
How much longer till you get your speakers and amp back?
Bob

Charger, thanks for sharing and having my back on power conditioners. I know so many of you use them.  Heck, I have the SR Powercell 10 mk2 Tesla cable, but I use it for the digital only right now as well as the TV, Apple TV and cable box. Jim is correct and I've spoken to engineers at Ayre, D'agastino, Vandersteen, Krell and others about conditioners and to a person they poo poo it.  

I just reached out to Richard to ask about dedicated lines. I remember someone told me that you want all your components on the same circuit for ground look reasons.  I'm looking into doing dedicated lines if I keep the system on the same wall it's on. If I move it to the original wall, I have a six pack dedicated circuit I was using and loved it.  

I think it was on this thread somewhere that someone spoke about hearing quality differences due to power during the day and night.  Everyone assumes that it's cleaner power during the night when there is less usage etc.., but the kind of variation during the day and
night he is talking about may be more about how quite it is
in his sound room (or not). An extra 10 db of quiet (easy to
do) can expose the magic the Sevens (as well as his other speakers) are capable of doing, because the magic is not masked by as much noise in the room. This is a big deal and very few know about it, because they attribute it to the power being better at night
or weekends. This may be a small contributing factor, but
mostly it is pure old fashioned signal to noise magic. The
time and phase pistonic ability of the Seven especially the
Mk II version revel this, where most other high-end speakers
don't have the goods so it won't matter.  

I just thought I would also mention that the Atlas amps have a built in high pass filter. I was able to upgrade the caps to a very high grade and the improvement was significant. Some have mentioned cables. I use Audioquest Everest bi wired speaker cable and Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder interconnects. I cannot use any line conditioner with the Aesthetix amps or pre amp. Jim says the massive power supply
combined with a power device makes the sound worse. I tried one out and he was so right about that. So, I put in a dedicated line from the main box to a sub panel outside the living room (listening room). Each component has its own circuit except the Basis table. Power cables are Kubala S. and Audiuoquest on the 7s because the termination fits. I also added a Lyra Etna cartridge when I bought the Super Arm 9 from Randy.
He did the set up and yes, he is very good at it. He gave me great trade in value for my Vector 4 arm. My system is now complete, I think.

I Finally got my Atlas amps back from Aesthetix. They have the Eclipse upgrade . So far I have 45 hours on them and I can say without any hesitation that this is a major, major upgrade from the Atlas Signature. I am truly amazed at the difference. I live about 90 minutes from the Aesthetix factory so I have talked to everyone  there. When they first heard the  upgrade they were totally shocked. Jim told me that they expected better sound, but what they actually heard was far beyond what they expected. They 7s love these mono blocks. The upgrade is expensive, but like the Basis Superarm 9, worth every cent. No question that Richard's amps are fantastic with the 7s. Those amps were out of my price range. Anyone with the Atlas Signature Stereo or mono blocks should  consider this upgrade.

Congrats on getting the Vandys. Richard does Such a great job with his speakers. He really puts his passion into every speaker and we get to enjoy the fruits of his labor/passion 

 Excellent thread. Thanks for keeping it going. I can't wait to get my new Quatro's also. I asked Richard to shoot Audi Havana black as my paint. I was going to get the zebrawood, but in the end decided to have them painted. As for cabling, I love the Castlerock audioquest cables bi wired. For more money you can get better cables however the return on investment for me is not so great as to warrant the extra expense. I'd rather put that money into other parts of my system or for new music.  I've never spent much time auditioning power cables, however I do have one in my system made by the late AJ Conte that I use on my server. It seems to  made a bit of difference there. I'm waiting for Garth Powell the designer  now with audioquest, to release his new series of Niagara cables. I heard the proto types and the price points are going to be ridiculously low for what they do. I feel that they are going to set a new benchmark for power cables. I too like the upperline Nordost cables however I feel audioquest is more neutral.

Thanks for thanks for sourcing info - my plan is to make Richard a set and send them to him !!!!! 

Quatros offer so much !!!!!!

To answer some questions:

Randyhat - " BTW, what speaker cables are you using?""

I'm currently using a bi-wire pair of MIT Shotgun S3.3 Gen 3.
The universal iconn spades barely fit in the barrier strips but
are otherwise an extremely solid connection. I do have a bi-wire
pair of AudioQuest Volcano DBS cables but they would have to be reterminated as they have bananas on all ends.

tomic601 -  "where did you source the bits from" 

The Acrolink 6N-P4030 cable was sourced directly from Japan several years ago but is no longer available. The new Acrolink 7N-P4030 II is available from VH Audio as is the Furutech FI-50M(R). The Schurter 4781 
is available from Revolution power. BTW, the FI-50M connector has made substantial improvements on every sub I've used them on. Even just cutting off the molded male connectors on stock power cords and implementing the FI-50M makes a great improvement. 

I'm continued to be amazed at the resolution of the Quatros and the image/soundstage they throw, both on music and movies, is outstanding even surpassing my Nola Viper 1AX speakers which are noted for their imaging/soundstaging due to their open baffle/dipole mids and tweeters!

I am in the Dallas area.  The dealer will be setting up my speakers for me.  I have already mentioned to him my interest in new cables so maybe he can let me try out a few pairs.

Randyhat - congrats Zebrawood is worth the wait - i had a highly figured Rosewood on my 5a and just loved it.

......since I plan to eventually upgrade to RV amps which come with speaker cables I am using a pretty unconventional set of LFD wire that I got from a friend. Many Vandersteen dealers use Audioquest ( the rest of my system is AQ and my Vandersteen filters pigtails are as well).

i will say that Bruce in San Diego gets fantastic sound using Nordost product.

where are you located ? i find building a dealer relationship important - typically i borrow wire before buying..

first things first - Ken thanks for posting the parts you used to build up a set of power cords for the subs !!! where did you source the bits from ??? glad you have it sounding good - the EQ does wonders...

Sounds great.  Those are beautiful speakers.  I ordered a pair in the Zebra wood and should have them in about 3 or 4 weeks.  BTW, what speaker cables are you using?  I'm debating whether or not to upgrade my speaker cables with my new speakers.  I am currently using a pair of internally bi-wired Cardas Cross.  I was planning to just keep them but it now seems that my Cardas spades may be too wide for those slots on the speakers, so that has set me to thinking whether I should bother with having them re-terminated or just sell them and buy a better cable.  Anyone have recommendations for speakers cables...under $2000 if possible.

Hi guys, new Vandersteen Quatro Wood owner here. I bought them used and in fact they are the very pair that was used for the pics in the following link - http://vandersteen.com//media/files/Brochures/Quatro-Seven%20Brochure.pdf. 

So far I am extremely impressed but that was to be expected after hearing them, the 5A Carbons and the 7's @ different audio shows vowing each time that I will own one of these models someday.

When it came to setup, I was on my own as confirmed by RV himself thru an email exchange. 1st up was the M5-HP battery change as they were due both by the date on the batteries and the measured values of 4.16vdc on one and 6.44vdc on the other. Changing the batteries does require some soldering skills as they are soldered to the PCB but was not difficult at all.

What was difficult was that apparently only Duracell 9v MN1604 batteries work as the Energizer 12-2021 9v batteries would slowly drain as soon as they were connected. It took me a while of troubleshooting to finally reconnect the old batteries and confirm that they did not drain so there must be something in the Energizer battery but not the Duracell. Anyway, both now measure 9.62vdc and are stable.

As for speaker setup, I set them both where my Nola Vipers had sounded best and started from there. I fine tuned their position using the built in electronic x-over in my Oppo BP-95 Bluray player set to 90hz. Once that was acceptable, the M5-HP's were pressed into service and out came the trusty Radio Shack sound level meter and a download of the Vandertones to a flash drive.

Using the stock power cords plugged into a Platinum Power high current balanced power transformer, I measured each speakers response and charted the results which were pretty flat considering my room employs ASC half rounds, quarter rounds and ASC acoustic panels as well as Golden Sound Acoustic disc corner treatments. The only real issue was that the right speakers frequencies from 120hz to 20hz were down in level due to an open space next to it whereas the left is in an enclosed space so balancing the subwoofer levels was imperative. Once that was achieved, we were off to the races and it was just a matter of adjusting the 11 band pots to result in a +/- 6db tolerance for both channels at the same level and at the same frequencies.

This actually sounded pretty darn good but I'm here to tell you that power cords do make a difference on the subwoofer amps and my implementation of Acrolink 6N-P4030 power cord combined with a Furutech FI-50M(R) male connector with a Schurter 4781 on the IEC end was a game changer. No major adjustments necessary but the difference was pretty substantial in a positive way and very slight adjustments to each level and Q control were needed to bring everything into a coherent whole.

With all that said, I think I just bought the last speakers I'm going to buy as they just keep getting better the more time I put on them.

Regards,

Ken

NO.  Honestly, I'd go straight into the wall for power amps of any sort. I'm redoing my whole digital and electrical.  I'll be selling the SR Powercell 10 mk2 most probably. I like some of these devices for a preamp or source as they don't draw a lot of power for the most part.  Everyone of these devices I've personally heard has limited correct a bit at times.  I know I'm in the minority, but even companies don't often use one.  Really good amps have their filters all built in anyways. I know that Ayre does this.  I also think that Richard does this on his amp as I know that i've heard it sound it's best plugged directly into the wall.  Ask Randy to see what he says as he's really good at set up.  He may differ from what I'm saying.  

@ctsooner - did the sound improve when you install built-in high pass filter in the Ayre amp vs using the Vandersteen external high pass filter box?  I now connect the external high pass filter box between my source and preamp instead of at the poweramp.  Think I like the sound better in this arrangement but have not gone back and forth to compare.

i would start as you have it configured
my 7 sub amps are right into wall on a dedicated line, amp and pre each on another dedicated line and finally all the wall wart powered suff on a conditioner.
my dac and server o
are also on a dedicated line with a linear psu for the server

how are you liking them ??????

I have my Amps and Preamplifier hooked up to Shunyata Hydra Triton.  Do u suggest connect the speakers also to it ? Not sure if Hydra can supply all that power. 

The 7000 is a great power tool (whatever we call them now) and works great.  I'm still not sold on using one for amps though.  I've heard of folks having the problem you talk about with their amps. 

Are you able to borrow one from your dealer?  If so, just try it and see.  Nothing ventured nothing gained I guess.  Garth was showing it off at Audio Connections when it was about to be released, but the 7's weren't plugged into it.  I know a few guys with 7's and the Niagara.  I"ll ask them their thoughts.  I know that they loved it with them and said they didn't hear any choking at all, which is amazing for any power tool.

Glad to see so many 7 users in this thread!  I have had the 7 for two years and have found that they somehow are more sensitive to powerline quality than other systems that have gone through my place, i.e. my system through the 7 sounds vastly different during different time of the day and it is quite repeatable.  Anyone else experience this?  It is quite annoying and I wonder if adding something like Audioquest Niagra (8000?) that is said to be made for the 7 will solve this.  When the stars align, I feel I am at the pinnacle point of this hobby, but at other times, I wonder what went wrong.  Took me some time to figure out its the power.

How cool is that!!!  Happy for you.  I'll be getting my Quatro's when I get back from Nepal in the middle of Feb!!  What color did you go with?

(( I am going to get my 7s tomorrow.
 Any suggestions for break-in them ?))
 Hook em on the 4 Ohm ARC taps and enjoy
 Best JohnnyR

I listened my way thru breakin.. they just get better - plan for many late nites of joy !!!!!

I am going to get my 7s tomorrow. Any suggestions for break-in them ? 

Tom, thanks for sharing.  Very cool.

Sorry the VTL are 180 wpc 
there were also two towers of Shunyata power conditioners.

i also listened to Diana Krall live in Paris - a disc I am hyper familiar with - I would say my digital front end system can keep up on many variables... I would call it a tie... some things better, some worse...

Congrats on getting your 7's !!!! That color is so cool !!!!

i was in Bruce's place in San Diego recently and heard his 7' in Red - they were sublime with Ref Recordings Symphonic Dances disc.

the chain: Delos , Bardo w tube power supply, Brinkmann arm , VTL pre and mono amps  180 SPC and Nordost cables.... sublime

Randy is great and of course really knows how to get most out of an ARC and Vandersteen pairing

The 5's would have been fine in my room.  I have plenty of friends who have small spaces and love their 5CT's.  Personally, I feel the Quatro's are the sweet spot in the Vandersteen line and I'm not made of money.  Iol.  

I rarely second guess my audio purchases as I'm so anal, that I put a ton of time and auditioning in before any purchase.  I know the Quatro's will sound outstanding with a built in crossover in my Ayre AX5/20.  I've heard the 5ct with the AX5/20 on a few occasions and it sounds great, but personally, I like it better on the Quatro's.  Again, I used my ears and not specs to figure that out, lol.  Bob, I really think you will love the Treo's with the amps you have.  :) pete

Jetter, I am the guy who bought ctsooner's Treo's, I kind of kick myself for not realizing that the Treo and Quatro share the same footprint. I probably would have gone with the Quatro's and eliminated the 2w subs. Anyhoo, it's done.
Since I visited ctsooner to pick up the Treo's, I think the 5a carbons would be a bit overwhelming for his space, though he might disagree with me.
One of the reasons I sold my 3a sigs was because they were so physically large.- Though I found the sound to be sublime.
Bob

I am going to get my 7s sometime next week and i will post pictures once i get them.  

Just listed my 5A carbons on Audiogon. 

Very well put Chargers....As I've posted, Bruce is a great dealer and I used him when I lived in SD in the early/mid 80's.  Just a great guy who gets it.  I never met Randy, but have heard great things about his ability to set up a system.  All of Richard's dealers are masters of set up.  Every dealer of his I've been to, many, are set up artists.  

Love your system. I"ve heard it many times in other stores or homes and I'm jealous, lol.   

I just ordered my Quatro's in Audi Havana Black.  I will wait as long as it takes as they will take my system to the next level.  Have to send my Ayre AX5/20 back to Ayre to have the crossover hard wired into the amp. It will sound much better this way, rather than go with the external crossover as I have no way to properly install it.  It's a cheap and easy install and can be reversed if I ever want to sell the amp.  I'd be able to have Ayre go over the amp too, if and when I sell it.

The best I've ever heard the 7 mk2's is with Richards own amp.  I like Aesthetix better than AR amps/pre's.  I have a newly reconditioned and upgrade Rhea that they guys there did for me.  I will be putting it on the market soon as I never use phono anymore (I have MS and it's a bear to get up and change albums sides every 20minutes or so).  I feel badly as it's such a great phono stage. 

I think the reason the Ayre (and other reference gear) sounds so great with with the Vandersteen Quatro on up is because it's freed up having to power 100hz down.  Folks don't realize what a major difference this is.  You are not just getting possibly the best drivers on the market, you are getting an active speaker that is optimize in the bass.  Bass is the most expensive and difficult part to reproduce for any product.  Richard takes that guess work out and still allows us to go with the amps of our choice.  I do wish he's just offered a fully active system with a great preamp.  That would be a perfect world for me, lol.

I had the 5As which I considered to be a breakthrough speaker especially for the price. Bought those from Bruce at Stereo Unlimited in Sand Diego. Bruce is a super dealer in every way. A few years later along comes the Model 7. Living in the LA area I heard the 7s at Optimal Enchantment where I met Randy Cooley who I discovered knows more about Vandersteen speakers than anyone else out there.
Purchased the 7s and use them with Aesthetix Atlas Signature mono
blocks (that are being upgraded as I write this to Atlas Eclipse) plus the Aesthetix Io Eclipse phono preamp with volume controls. I believe the best amps for the Model 7s are the Vandersteen, Aesthetix, and Ayre
amps. As for the 7s,  is there better speaker out there that will work in an average sized listening room? Not to my knowledge. My tastes are classical and jazz. These speakers will bring the sound of a concert hall
into your living room better than anything I have heard.  I have heard Richard Vandersteen say many times that the difference is in the drivers. His perfect piston drivers are simply the best available today. The rest of the 7s design is state of the art as well, but the drivers really set this speaker apart from the rest.
  

Awesome and congrats!  I'm sure you will love them.  Randy will help you dial them in I'm sure.  It's so worth it.  I agree with limniscate IRT other's flagships.  I've heard a lot of other top speakers recently and am not impressed.  Just so much texture and info with all the Vandersteens. Just no smearing.  Only a fanboy because of what they do at their price points.  :)  Pleaes keep us informed

Great. Eagarly waiting for them.  Hope they sound good in my room. Need to fine tune my room acoustics before I get the speakers. 

I just heard the Sevens at Audio Connection and was very impressed. I liked them much better than the flagship Focal and Wilsons that I've heard.  Amazing coherence!