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Vandersteen

After hearing many good things about Vandersteen speakers I purchased a pair of 3a signatures. They sound beautiful with chamber music or small group jazz but quickly fall to pieces with symphonic works or rock. Have other people noted this deficiency with Vandersteens? 
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reubent
7,061 posts
 
What is the rest of the equipment in your system? What previous speakers did you use?

Vandy's are pretty darn good speakers. There are 4 likely possibilities:

1. Your setup is off.
2. Some other component in your system is causing the issues you hear.
3. Your newly acquired Vandy's are broken.
4. You don't like them.

I've heard Vandy 2's and 3's with large scale classical music and though they were about as good as it gets at their price point.
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,262 posts
 
Most audiophile loudspeakers "fall apart" when trying to reproduce large scale music when compared to their performance of smaller musical groups.  The Vandersteens are no worst than other similar loudspeakers in this respect. 
mb1audio02
188 posts
 
The owners manual gives very specific setup instructions. Its not difficult, but you need to take the time and do it. Also, move the speakers closer together. Try them at 6ft, 6.5ft and 7ft apart. Measure from inside edge to inside edge. Make sure the contour adjustments on the back of the xovers are set to 0, and carefully check your speaker cables at both ends to be absolutely sure you didn't accidently wire them out of phase.

If none of that helps, list your entire system and a description of your listening room.
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 

"Most audiophile loudspeakers "fall apart" when trying to reproduce large scale music when compared to their performance of smaller musical groups. The Vandersteens are no worst than other similar loudspeakers in this respect."

Interesting comment. I have seen (heard) this phenomenon on several very good "systems" and always wondered why this happens, or which component(s) is being the bottleneck. I guess this is what the experts call the ability to be "resolving". I also know many of the newer popular music are intentionally and optimally recorded for playback on earbuds or headsets as opposed to high end gear and they sound dreadfully fatiguing, especially at higher volumes.

cedargrover
302 posts
 
I have 3A Sigs and while I don't listen to large scale symphonic works, they excel with rock and jazz.  And anything with well recorded vocals.  

You can see my system in the systems section. One thing I don't have listed is that I use Audioquest Colorado ics, which work very well indeed. 
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