Congrats Jim. What I've noticed in the years with all good speakers are that they won't wow you necessarily, but give them time to get to know them. Often times it's what they don't do rather than what they the opposite. Just like some stores turn up the brightness on their TV's to wow you in the store, may speakers are made to sound more exciting in a store do they show up better in demo's, but in the long run the best choice is often the one that you listen to and enjoy and you get to know them better and better during the journey. At first when I went from my Proac towers to the Vandersteen Treo's, I noticed a difference for the better, but I wasn't blown away. The longer I listened, the more I realized that I was reaching for all my recordings and not just the best recorded ones. I also was listening on average an extra couple or hours a day on days I was able to. I started to really heard the layering difference. Kind of like when I started to learn about wines in my 20's. It wasn't until I was told what to look for or taste that I really understood the huge but subtle differences in wines and cost. The detail retrieval is real on the Vandersteen speakers, where on some of the competing speakers in the 1's range, it's just tipped up on top and distortion. Too many folks hear that and think it's a 'cleaner' speaker or more open when in fact it's not. Just isn't so. That goes for expensive high end speakers also. Vandersteen puts tweeters on the backs for the 5 and 7 I believe, but no one I know uses them. They keep them on off all the time. I asked Richard about this and he said that in order for him to be competitive in the market, he decided to include them as some folks feel that makes the speaker better as it has more ambiance. It really doesn't. It's just more waves that aren't needed in the room.
The more folks I speak with about Vandersteen in the industry, the more I realize that they privately own them for their personal listening. Some of the largest names in audio use them for personal use when they get other stuff for free or high reduced rates. They are often purchase and torn apart to try and recreate what he's done and it's been like that since he broke onto the scene with the 2's back in the early 80's.
Feel free to email me about your thoughts and system. I just like seeing folks happy with their purchases and listening. Pete.
