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Vandersteen Seminar at Audio Connection (NJ)

Audio Connection hosted a fantastic seminar this past Saturday with Richard Vandersteen.  Richard spent a few hours answering questions and telling us about what's going on at Vandersteen.  One of the more interesting tidbits (IMHO) was Richard's focus (obsession?) on the non-pistonic behavior of cones, found in even in "hi end" drivers (but not his carbon/balsa ones).  Richard seemed to view non-pistonic behavior as causing significant losses in information, and simultaneously responsible for the heightened sensitivity of a lot of drivers (i.e., that some of those dBs of sensitivity are distortion).  He mentioned that a major objective is to bring pistonic behavior into the lower-cost designs, leading me to hope that upgrade packages might because available for the 3A Sigs.  :)    

After the chat, Johnny R had a demo running of the 7s set up with the new Vandy subs ("System 9" is what he was calling it), Vandy amps, AR Reference preamp, and Aesthetix phono-pre.  (Sorry, I missed the specifics of the pre and the analog rig; I did notice that it was a Benz LP cartridge.)  They were playing the MoFi one-step pressing of Fagen's The Nightly--it was probably the best sound I've ever heard in my 25+ years in this hobby.  The midrange and high frequency clarity was just unreal.  After "New Frontier" played, the whole room had to pick their collective jaw up from the ground.

Kudos to RV, Johnny R and the whole Audio Connection for putting on such a fantastic event, and for setting up the demo system so well.
cedargrover
joey54
434 posts
 
I also attended the event. I thought the 7's powered by the Vandersteen amps sounded the best I have heard them. They truly disappear in the room.

Nick played some great music and I lust after that AMG turntable. At around $18K-$20K it's way out of my budget. I do have a fairly good TT, Clearaudio Performance DC with an AMG Teatro cartridge and although I have a good digital setup, Ayre Codex & Aurender N100H, my listening is 90% vinyl. I highly recommend adding a TT to every system.

I thought the system with the 5A Carbon's and an all Ayre stack sounded great as well. Richard is always entertaining when he is there and it's a real pleasure to speak with him.

The Audio Connection crew deserves a lot of credit for setting up this annual event. And John wearing a suit, unbelievable!
gdnrbob
4,441 posts
 
Nuts, I didn't even know about it. I always wanted to meet Mr. V.
B.
goheelz's avatar
goheelz
297 posts
 
Thank you for the Vandersteen report.  Question: How were the Vandersteen subs connected with the Vandersteen 7's? Did you have a chance to listen with/without the subs in the system?

Thanks!
rcprince
3,068 posts
 
I was at that meeting as well (up visiting friends and snuck away to visit John, haven't seen him since I moved four years ago).  Richard was fascinating, and that Model 7 system with the subwoofers was quite frankly the best system I have heard in years.  Wasn't as impressed with the 5 carbons, only because I felt the bass was a bit heavy in the room compared to their midrange--that could be due to where I was standing, though.
bondmanp
1,804 posts
 

I couldn't make it, and that's a shame.  I have heard Johnny's Vandy 7 setup, and it is magical.  Mr. Rutan knows how to set up a system and match components as well as anyone I have ever encountered.  He also happens to be a heck of a nice guy.  If I had real money to drop on gear, Audio Connection would be my first visit.


"New Frontier" is my absolute favorite track on the Night Fly (there was even a way cool video of it back in the day).  I use it as a demo, and that's only a 16/44 FLAC needle drop from a bog-standard LP.  I can only imagine how the whole thing sounded with the re-issue on high quality vinyl.

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