For Vandersteen owners & lovers: Which other brands do you like?
If you didn’t own Vandersteens, what would you own instead and why? Or, if you switched to another brand what did you choose?
First, let me say that I am a Vandersteen owner for 20+ years, now on my 2nd pair of the 2CE, the Signature III. I have owned other brands, and heard many others and even liked some. 😀 I don’t change gear frequently once I settle on something. Lazy & frugal = me.
I am on the verge of being on the verge of getting the Vandy Treo CT. I have auditioned them at length. I have also heard the Quatro CT and if budget allowed (including upgrading my front end) I would get them for sure. I’m not a fanboy—there is a reason why Vandersteen has sold something like 100K pairs of the 2CE. They sound very good and all of their models are a real bargain/value in their category, imo.
I have heard and liked, for different reasons, Maggies, Magicos, Harbeths, Focals, Linkwitz-Riley, and other brands. Others that I have not heard intrigue me too. I keep circling back to Vandys—maybe it’s what I have known the longest. I have flirted with the Larsen 8 or 9, which is a totally different design (AbSound has reviewed them well), and also the MBL 120 and 126 (omnidirectionals).
I know I could be happy for life with Vandersteens (Treo, Quatro, or dreaming—the Kento or 7). I am interested in detailed opinions of alternatives in the $10K range though. Thanks!
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Cabinet in a cabinet starts w Treo. It’s expensive… The 7 is cabinet in cabinet and a carbon fiber layer. The 1-2-3 aka sock series are too budget constrained to get the lower distortion cabinets, ditto the original sock Quattro. I will mention, ALL the Vandy cabinets are built in house in California….. The 5 series are massively braced and use a very dense stack w milled cavity for the head assembly. The 5A is as mentioned a fantastic speaker….still today…. probably a bit much in your room… just my $.02. |
tomic601 / JIM,
I had the EXACT same thought as I re-read the replies. Best, PD |
i’ve listened to the 2CE model on NAD electronics [the combo was on the darker side] and i’ve listened to my 1CI on a rega brio R [brighter balance but utterly non-harsh]. both DEMAND a larger than average listening room with plenty of breathing space around the speakers to where they are no closer than 3 feet from the rear wall and at least twice that from side walls. put them in any room smaller than that and those speakers tend to sound shouty. if i had at least a 20’ wide and 20’ deep [8’+ ceilings a must] listening room, i’d take my vandies out from storage and give them another listen. they made everything, even sub-par recordings, sound decent enough at least for casual listening in the aforementioned giant room. they had 3D imaging [ultra-narrow sweet spot] in an entry-level price point. then again, my thiel cs.5 speakers will do that in a tiny [14’ wide and deep] room, which is why i listen to the thiel speakers rather than the vandies. plus the thiels throw a much wider image beyond the outside edges of l/r speaker, with more depth. |
@tomic601 have you tried NZ? His guide told him to bait the hook behind a tree. When he asked why, the guide told him that the fish will jump out of the stream to take the bait right out of your hand. I was not quite as hooked when I went shopping back in the day, and they were only up to the model 2 then. But eventually I was hooked, and not a lot lured me in. But that was ages ago… it is easier to stumble upon good speakers these days.
@keithr funny you should mention them. I only heard them at the beginning of this year, but I was pretty impressed at the soundstage width. They seems like they had a lot of distortion, but in a pleasing way, and it might have been the Jadis stuff that powered them causing that “fullness”. They were impressive. |
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