Vandersteen Mod 5 vs Coincident Tech Total Eclipse

Scott, Natalie is correct. I own the Coincident Digital Master, with Troubass subwoofers.

Think of them as Israel's take on the Wilson WATT/Puppies. Truncated, pyramidal, two way time aligned satellites, using a good sized subwoofer as its stand. A simple, first order crossover makes them very easy to drive. A lot of people who know this hobby much better than I do tell me that they consider this perhaps Coincident's best effort, ever. As I have never lived with any other of his models, I am not sure. But, I do know I will probably never get rid of them. Israel has told me a few times that I would be a fool if I even think of parting with them.

Compared to the newer Coincident speakers, I would say there are some advantages and disadvantages. While they are tube friendly(including SET), they are less so than the 14 ohm impedence, 94+ db/2.83 V sensitive products he has been putting out. On the plus side, they sound richer, and more musical than the other Coincidents I have spent time with. I find the older Coincident line much more interesting, especially in terms of design, than the newer stuff. But, this is a business, I understand. The one thing I need to do is upgrade to the Scan Speak Revelator one day, it is a true upgrade from where I am.

By the way, the little brother of the Digital Master, the Troubador, is sometimes up for sale here on Audiogon. I assure you, you can buy a better speaker, but for the usual $650 I see them for, I don't think you can beat them. They are like a shorter(1/2 as tall) version of my satellite, but they feature a nifty tweeter coincident(ever wonder where the name came from???) with the midrange. Yes, you should mate them with the Troubass subwoofers if you can find any for sale(now they are hard to find) to make a full range loudspeaker system. The Troubass serve as stands for the Troubador. The Troubador may not be the most refined speaker in the world, but a winner nonetheless.

Currently, I am driving the Coincidents with Atma Sphere M60 monoblocks. And, as Fatparrot stated so much better than I will be able to, this match is as good as I have ever encountered.

Now that Fatparrot let us in on Ralph being a big fan of Coincident, and Natalie has told me in the past that Coincident mates splendidly with OTL, it seems as if they should show together. Atma Sphere will certainly benefit from getting away from the horns they normally show with, and Coincident will be at its pinnacle. Incidentally, I must offer my public thanks to Natalie for steering me in the direction of Atma Sphere to go with the Coincidents. Match made in heaven. I am forever thankful!

Fatparrot, thank you for the kind words. I think the Total Eclipse is a big step up over the Super Eclipse. I have reservations about running the metal coned midrange drivers into the treble regions. They are prone to a nasty ringing. But yes, I do think that Coincident speakers across the product line share in sonic signature.

On the Vandersteen side, I have had 1s, 2s, and 3s in my system. And, I have always enjoyed the 4. That is why I am such a big Vandersteen fan. As it stands, I have a local person who has a pair of 4s he wants to part with for an absolutely incredible price. But, I have bought enough audio this year, and I am not sure if I would be allowed to put them in the family room. They are big, Big, BIG!

I would say that at the 2001 Stereophile NYC HiFi Show, the Vandersteen 5 were paired with Cary V12 monoblocks. Please do not think I am exaggerating when I say the sound was positively stunning. The match with the big room and the Carys was perfect. And, so was the sound. It was the best I have ever heard at a show.

I think John_1 hit the nail on the head when he described the Vandersteen 5. Kudos! If you have the right room, taste, and electronics, you may find heaven. Otherwise, you may have dropped a lot of money on something that will not work out.

Fatparrot, i have spent many an afternoon listing to the Super Eclipse's and the Atma-Sphere M60.This was the Combo Arthur Salvatore had on display at High-End Audio in Toronto.9/10 times when you went into the store this was the combo he had playing. They are a match made in Heaven. The sonic Sig of the Super and Total are the same.Depending on the size of the room.You would chose one over the other.
In my situation the Totals will not work.The super's will work fine.
At some Point I will move into a pair of Super Eclipse's.

I'm really pleased with the level of discussion on this thread -- it's the first one that has really grabbed me in some time. My personal opinion is that the discussion on the forum has become really superficial over the past year, and this thread is the first one I've seen in some time that resembles the interchange found on the forum 2 years ago. Kudos and thanks to everyone who took the time to provide some REAL input.

Tubegroover is proof that some people on this site REALLY know what they are talking about. I think you summed up high end audio in a most succinct manner.

I think sometimes we piddle around, and look too far into the minutiae, but anyone who doesn't talk about rooms, speakers, and tastes, has completely bypassed the fundamentals.

I guess the thing I really wanted to say through all of my blabber is that taste is a big, big thing. I did try to go out of my way to say how different the Coincident Total Eclipse and Vandersteen 5s are, but what I really should have said is that if you know how each of them sound(via a THOROUGH audition), where you will place them, and your amplification, you really don't need to come to anyone here to know which speaker will be the right one.

Me, I would never put down $7500+ on anything audio without having the utmost confidence in what I was buying.

I am not sure why we don't look at this whole game in much simpler terms. It's a lot like automobiles. If someone is asking whether they should buy the pickup or the sports car, I think you need to spend more time learning about their own needs first. Let's say I have settled on a sports sedan, and have narrowed it down to the Audi A4, BMW 3 series, or Jaguar X Type, it would be expected of me to give each a thorough test drive. Otherwise, people would see me as a fool. It would quickly be seen that the BMW would take the most effort to drive, be the most athletic, most spartan, and most harsh. The Jag would be at the other end of the spectrum. Soft, luxurious, more plush, and less tenacious on the road. The Audi would fall somewhere in the middle. Since they are all more or less the same price, the test drive would lead me to the one I ultimately purchase. It wouldn't take much thought. The feel would address all questions for me.

Scott, I agree 100%!

But, then look at who has gotten involved in this thread. When you bring in the heavy hitters like Tubegroover, Natalie, John_1, Fatparrot, and yourself, it just seems like old times. We are definitely getting into the class of Audiogon here, and I feel priveleged to be a part of it.
No, the discussion on the site over the past year plus has not reached the level it did previously, but this thread proves what is possible.

I hope that the trend I am starting to perceive in the site's discussion is actual. If so, Audiogon will be taking a big turn upward

Trelja:

Interesting comment on the 2001 New York show. Richard has told me he prefers Cary electronics, but primarily because they are hard wired and easy to tweek. Don't know if the NY room was that of a dealer or Richard's own room, but if it was his, the Cary units he was using may not have been stock units.

Despite the fact that I used solid state with my Fives (I have my own personal quirks that led me to abandon tubes a long time ago for reasons having nothing to do with sonics), it does seem that the Fives are usually mated with tube electronics. One of Richard Hartley's recommended systems a while back included the Fives with ARC 100s (although he did suggest that one of the higher power ARC models might be preferable).