Calling all Vandersteen Fans

the Anticables copper spades are very soft and yield a nice gas tight connection without excessive torque.

helomech have they arrived yet ???

Not yet. I was hoping I'd have them before my vacation, but had to postpone the ship date because they're coming by freight. They should arrive in a few days. 

I ordered both Vampire and Furutech spades, and will probably use whichever is a better fit for the barrier strips.

 I would have gone with AntiCables, but being as I occasionally re-route my cables for use with different amps, I'm afraid the insulation coating wouldn't hold up long. My gear is housed by a rather heavy entertainment credenza that necessitates the speaker cables being snaked behind it whenever I have the urge to switch amps.

I finally received the speakers, unfortunately, the 26' of bulk cable I ordered with them had been cut into 5 random lengths (wtf?). So I'm using stranded cable in the mean time. I was surprised to discover my Audioquest Suregrip 300 spades were able to fit the barrier terminals.

I had my previous speakers hooked up to my Rogue CM-II prior to receiving the Vandys but decided to switch to my SS amp for initial break-in. They're certainly good overall but I need to play with positioning. I had positioned them according to the manual but not getting the decay I remember with the 1Cis - I suppose that would be a matter of tilt setting. 

The bass is definitely improving with each listen. I plan to hook them up to my CM-II this weekend to see if that amp was responsible for the better imaging and soundstaging I was getting with my other speakers (Spendor SP2/3R2).

great stuff and thanks for sharing.

Well guys, unfortunately, the 2CE Sigs aren’t working for me. I’m really quite baffled (no pun intended), because they sound nothing like what I recall of the 1Cis. I played them quite a lot over the last week and regardless of placement tweaks, I just couldn’t duplicate the decay of the 1Cis. The midrange is also quite lacking in detail compared to nearly all my other speakers. On the plus side, I didn’t notice any sibilance in the high freqs as I did with the 1Cis. The bass extension is also very nice, though sometimes it sounds like it’s overwhelming the cabinet with resonance.

I realize speakers can take a long while to break-in, but these would have to undergo quite the transformation for me to keep them.

After boxing up the Vandys last night, just for kicks, I inserted my 43-year-old Advents into the system - same cables and all. I’ll be a monkey’s uncle - the Advents were producing more detail, greater midrange presence, better imaging and just overall greater musicality. I know that’s hard to believe but that’s what I was hearing. I’m sure at least 5 out of 10 would hear the opposite. Anyhow, my dealer was agreeable in making an exchange for a demo pair of Stirling SB-88s - a speaker I know I’ll enjoy.

I still appreciate everyone’s responses and advice here.

Happy Listening.

Sad to hear this.
I do know that speakers take a while to 'break in', but sometimes things don't work out.
I hope the Stirling's do the trick.
Bob