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Vandersteens, PSB or something else?

I’m looking to upgrade my speakers and would appreciate some input. My system includes ayre amp, aesthetix calypso preamp, and vandy 2c sig IIs. The room is relatively large at 23’ wide (speakers on this side) by 27’. I would like speakers that are good at both music and home theatre. I plan to run HT pass through and 5.1 overall. For music, I listen to a lot of classic rock, blues and jazz. Not too much classical. I do enjoy live Dead and Allman Brothers. I’d like the speakers to image well and present a nice soundstage but also really draw me in emotionally to the music. For home theater, I’d like to be able to include a center channel and get a decent theater experience. The vandies, really no complaints, they have served me very well. But I have budget to take the next step and was thinking maybe the Treos. But once I make this next step, I would not be making any moves for a while, so wanted to explore other alternatives as well. The PSB Imagine T3’s seem to have been reviewed well and may be worth a test. My budget would allow for these, and I guess I could possibly go up to the quatro for the right deal. Any other ideas that, given my musical preference, room, budget could be worth a shot? I have to admit, sometimes I do wonder if the live recordings that I’m listening too would really benefit from a big upgrade to the speakers.

sb_caribou
ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Like Tomic, I'm a Vandersteen owner (Quatro CT's in Havana Black) and have auditioned most of the speakers out there.  We all hear differently, but personally I've heard an incredible theater set up with Vandersteen Quatro's and subs to make a true 'swarm' set up.  It was plenty loud and plenty dynamic.  I won't get into semantics, but it was the most musical HT system I've heard in recent times.  I have heard some that are in the stratosphere price ranges, but that's not what we are talking about.

I personally like the newest version of the Legacy speakers much better than their previous models.  They are still too bright for my taste as I've always found with Heil drivers (my best friend Steve had a pair of the original Transtatic 1's that cost over 1k back in 73.  They were a transmission line bass.  I remember them being nearly as dynamic as his Klipsch Heresy's.  

I too used to love the highly dynamic, but no detail bass along with the bright highs.  Not musical, but it didn't matter back in the day, lol.  Things are much more refined now, but as I said that AMT driver complement is a love hate relationship.  Worth auditioning if all you want is dynamics for home theater I guess.  Lot's of other choices out there for you.  
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,927 posts
 
Bummer
OP caught in a crossfire hurricane

btw Allman Brothers Live at Fillmore is a seminal album and worthy of a great rig... there is great subtlety captured in the drums and symbols... lots of Air and hall ambience in Mountain Jam for example

the better speakers should all be chasing the holy grail of pistonic motion... many high efficiency speakers are junk producers - distortion counts as output...
better to ask WHY is a Vandersteen 7 an 85 bd speaker ?
no trash cone motion in the output...

i used the MQA version of Terrepin Station to help me decide if MQA was any good ( and it is) so keep chasing your dreams !!!

if I can help in some way let me know

ctsooner
2,480 posts
 
Great post and thanks.  I agree on pistonic motion and also lack of smearing.  That album is awesome.  Very well recorded stuff.  A test I"m running going forward is using Diana KRall live from Paris.  Just a great jazz album if you love Jazz and man is her voice haunting on my system.  If a speaker can't get that one right, then good luck producing anything.  It's going to reveal the cracks in your speaker's ability to playback realistic voices, that's for sure.  My Quatro's are nailing it. I went to hear it in a local shop recently and even the owner couldn't defend his more expensive speakers non ability to deliver the goods.  

I like MQA too, but I also like true DSD.  I don't own any yet, but will get getting some soon.  

Very interesting about efficiency and how it may relate to distortion. Maybe that's why I find horn loaded systems to be difficult to listen to for long periods of time.  have no idea if they are related, but just a thought in my head, lol.
stewart0722
184 posts
 
I owned three pairs of 2s, then went to Revel Studio 2s, then went to Magnepan 3.7s.  For the size space that you have, I don't think 3.7s would suffice, but 20.7s would.....  I would not pair Magnepans with subs....

Vandersteen represents good value, but frankly if you listened to the likes of Magnepan for a week or so and then went back to the 2's.....you would think they were an absolute trainwreck sonically.......

If realism is top on your list (instruments in acoustic space, rendered realistically) then you cannot do better than 3.7s or 20.7s

If you need more low end, then Quatros will probably be mandatory, but those are in the same range as 20.7s which you do have the space for.....

One speaker way out of left field that is what I would describe as the best of both would be the Marten Django XL.  I heard a pair at my dealer Reference Analog in Oklahoma, and then when he took them to the Rocky Mountain show and it is probably the only dynamic speaker I've heard that I could live with after having Magnepans and they are not really that expensive......


mr_m
1,900 posts
 
Realism? Magnepans? More like pleasant, euphonic colorations. Realistic presentation? Hardly.....A sub IS exactly what a Maggie needs.
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