On Wed. I stopped into Ultrafidelis for a quick listening session. The speakers were scheduled to ship out later that afternoon. I met Jon for the first time, who after a short introduction began spinning lps. A quick note; I believe all supporting equipment was Audio Research except for turntable, which appeared to be an SME...sorry if that is incorrect. The AR amp was a digital, I think the DS 450. Unfortunately, I had limited time, so spent very little of it inquiring about the equipment. I am completely unfamiliar with each of these audio manufacturers so I cannot fairly assess the speaker on it's own merits...the whole being a product of the sum.
I wish to offer a preface illustrating my dubious and hesitant bent that I entered the listening session with. My one previous experience with Vandersteens was back in the mid-90's in a much less than optimum setting, leaving me tastelessly biased.
It was just Jon, another customer and myself; so I was slightly off, and sharing the sweet spot. Jon played a number of cuts off of lps, mixing in some jazz combo, vocals, harpsichord, small scale orchestral and lastly live Van Morrison.
From the first cut I was struck by the inner detail and lack of distortion. Incredible display of articulation without any noticeable grain or stridency. Jon switched out lps frequently, so to give us an assortment of genres and presentations. Each track brought out the most "live" in-the-studio panorama I have experienced form an audio system. The rightness of the instruments this system produced, especially in piano and strings was, again, the best I have heard. Not only the overall tenor, but the size and depth of each instrument seemed extremely accurate. The Van Morrison, with audience just blew me away. It was all there.
For me it is very difficult to justly make judgments in 40 minutes. The couple criticism I silently made was in Coltrane's tenor...sounded thin; and how sitting slightly off center was reminiscent of my experience with Avantgardes...the dominance of the nearer speaker. I have only the greatest adulation for the system Ultrafidelis assembled. It was evident the placement, room treatment, etc. was well thought out. When I got home and played a dozen lps or so through my Avalons/Jadis/Walker/Joules I was left wanting. The transparency and low level detail, decay and resolution of my system did not even approach what I had earlier heard.
One last comment...no slam music or heavy bottom was played. I regret not having made that request.
