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Vandersteen 1C: suggestion on placement and amp

Recently purchased a pair of Vandersteen 1C speakers with "riser" stands and I am surprised, if not stunned, as to how good this speaker can sound. Nevertheless, the overall sound is a bit aggressive, and high frequencies at times sound harsh and pinched at the very top end. I am using a Musical Fidelity X-150 integrated amp which is 80RMS. Speaker cable is Analysis PLus Oval 12. I am currently only using a CD player which is the original Sonographe. The interconnect between the CD and amp is an Audio Magic Sorcerer II. The room is 12X13 and currently the speakers are positioned on either side of the a large direct view TV which is placed in the one of the room corners. I am considering moving the TV and speakers to long wall of the room to see if that improves the overall balance of sound and imaging (which is good).I realize this speaker is under $800 so it will have inherent limitations, that is, lacks smoothness on the top end and some control of the bass. Therefore, I welcome any suggestions on how to improve on its basic performance which is often amazing for the price.
sunnyjim
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tsugury
251 posts
 
IMHO these speakers sound so much better when driven with tubes.
siliab
362 posts
 
I have worked extensively with 1Bs in a nearly square room of small dimensions, such as yours. The harshness and boominess that you speak of may be the result of corner reinforcement and slap echo that result from how you've set up your system. I obtained the smoothest frequency response, and best soundstaging with the following arrangement: After dividing the room into 16 imaginary squares, each speaker was placed with the center of its front baffle at the interior vertex of the left and rightmost squares at the front of the room. The listening position was set with the listener's ears one square from the back of the room and equidistant from the left and right walls. The speakers fire straight ahead. At these distances, tweeter-woofer integration is strongly affected by azymuth. I used the threaded spikes on the stands to cant the speakers back about 5° from plumb. I like this better than setting up the speakers by the rule of thirds (i.e. Speakers one third out from the front wall and one third in from the side walls, listener one third forward of the backwall) which made the midrange too forward and seemed to generate lumpier bass response. Imaging was swimmier too.
The moral of this story is that playing around with placement can have a very large effect on frequency balance, smoothness and imaging. Its worth a few hours of messing about.

I agree with Tsugury that these speakers sound great with tubes. I've heard them sound splendid with a cheap 15 wpc ASL integrated. They sound unbelievably great with the Music Reference RM10 that Wes discussed. However, they also sound extremely good with the cheap 35 wpc NAD integrated amp that my son is using. The Musical Fidelity stuff is very nice. I would not be inclined to set the blame for your problems there.

Good luck!
timrhu
2,779 posts
 
I owned a pair of the 1Cs and was also amazed at how good they are for the $. They are, IMO, one of the best speakers under $1K.
Siliab has it right when he mentions the tilt angle. With my Vandys I noticed a huge difference in sound quaity when sitting and standing. After tweaking the tilt angle the image snapped into focus and the three dimensional quality improved dramatically. Mine were tilted too far back. Good luck and congrats on a great purchase.
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