Vandersteen Mod 5 vs Coincident Tech Total Eclipse

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).

One of the unique characteristics of the van 5 is that you run it with a highpass filter between the amp and preamp. The filter lowers the subwoofer handled frequencies by 6 db before handing to the amp.

The amps signal hits the van 5's crossover where the 6db is added back then handed to the 400w solid state amp.

When you use a tube amp, this gives the UNIQUE characteristic of a perfectly matched TUBE mid/top with a solid state lower end. I found this to be one of the van 5's greatest strengths.

Note: Don't use pass labs balanced amp/pre with the van 5 balanced hipass filter - you could destroy the speaker. It's a $50 mod at pass labs. Those guys are just SO GOOD to their customers.

I am currently using avalon eidolon's and finding that one of their weaknesses is that you need to have a monster amp on them. If you want tubes, this limits you to huge tube amps such as the premier 8, the bat vk-150SE, and the vt200. There are lots of drawbacks to these monsters - upfront and running costs, HEAT and physical size. I 've gone to solid state right now - an Ayre v-1x. My 100w pass labs alephs could not drive them.

As I said above, I've never heard the Coincident speakers. But as I reflect on the comments above, it occurs to me that while the Vandies and the Coincidents have different sonic signatures (I hope we all agree that every speaker made has a unique sonic signature and that there is no such thing as a perfectly neutral, accurate speaker), they do share at least two things in common.

First, they are both the results of designers who are passionately committed to constantly pushing the envelope with their respective design philosophies, while maintain price points that relate to the real world.

Secondly, both speakers share almost universal respect, even if some may choose other speakers that better suit their particular systems and tastes.