Vanderteen 5A's versus Wilson WattPuppy 7's

My choice came down to either the Wilson Sophias or the Vandys. What ultimately made the choice for me was to play some music I find very emotional to listen to. The Wilsons gave me chillbumps, the Vandys made me weep. I bought the Vandersteens.

I preferred the precision of seeing into the music and the amazing soundstage that WP7's present versus the muddy "emotional" (I had a drink already) Vandy's. The crossover to the sub in the vandy was a hometheater experience for me.. and was impossible to get to match with the midrange.. it cut into bass guitar and upgright bass notes.. plus the dealers I've heard the Vandys like to crank up the bass and then the speakers to show you how loud (It felt like a hometheater demo or a high school parking lot).

If the rest of you system is up to snuff then Wilson's can take it to the next level.

If everything upstream isn't, then buy the Vandersteens and spend the money upgrading your front end, otherwise you will be disappointed with the Wilson's.

Or buy the Sophia's and upgrade your upstream components.

I bought "Fly Yellow" WP7's because I could also buy them in something other than boring Black Laquer or dark wood grain (unless they were Avalons in the Burl wood!!!!)

The dealer audition of the 5As had a lot of very low bass which caused me some reservations like you. They were set up "flat" since Dick Vandersteen was coming to the store in two days and he was going to show them his setup procedure. I decided to overlook the slight issues I had.

My 5A are still fairly new but they are broke in and the dealer came back to adjust the bass. I am convinced that unless you have a very odd room the Vandys can be set up to get it right. I spent 2 years moving my Dunlavy SC4A and REL Stentor around EVERYWHERE and the 5As are far better than I hoped for in the bass as well as in ALL areas.

The 5As have a lot more detail than the Dunlavys yet the sound in my room is warm in a realistic way. I plan to revisit the bass adjustments again later but after listening to a lot of music and HT they are close if not there.

BTW I very much agree with what Rwd and Burce 1 said.

Terry

I had a similar internal dialog within the past several months, however, several other speakers have also been part of the mix. I found that 5As and WP7s were similarly appealing with respect to long term listenability, but they were not equally compelling to listen to. On the very best systems there seems to be an elevated ability to convey the communication between musicians, or even the meaning of a song sung by a solo vocalist. These subtle shades of meaning may lie in very small dynamic and tonal changes that are very brief in duration, and very easily obscured. I've heard the 5As and WP7s several times on the same systems (once, perhaps, in the same LA area dealer as Agaffer), and the 5As obscure what the WP7s reveal in an unparalleled way. I thrive on that aspect of musical expression, so my choice is obvious.

Can you elaborate more on what you mean by this post? What do you perceive as the differences between the Wilson WP7 and the Vandy 5A???