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Trying to extract more from my Vandersteen

I've come to the realization that my ideal system is always 2 steps ahead of whatever my current system is. I am only satisfied with whatever updgrade for a few months, before I convince myself that I need to upgrade again. This is as exciting as it is unsettling.

My current system is as follows:
Vandersteen 2CE sig
McCormack DNA-1 deluxe
TAD-150 sig tube preamp
Eastern Electric Minimax tube CDP
Blue circle Power cords
MIT IC's and speaker cables

I had spent the past two years building this current system, and I had been fairly happy with it. I thank this system for introducing me to the world of jazz. Switching to tubes really helped my Vandersteens "sing". I had entertained the thought of replacing the McCormack with a tube amp, such as TAD-60 or other equivalent, but I never did. I was happy with my system and figured it would remain intact for awhile.

Then something had to rain on my happiness or complaceny. Due to a busy work schedule, I was forced to do most of my music listening either in my office through my old NHT and all rotel setup or at home through my Sennheiser headphones. After a couple months of this, I finally had time to do some listening through my main system. It had never been apparent to me before, but all the music coming out of the Vandersteens sounded "veiled". Before, I purchased my vandies, I read and heard all the criticisms regarding this "veiled" or "shrouded" sound. I never felt this was true about my vandersteen's until now.

So instead of making generalizations, I figure this is a good opportunity to "improve" my system. I am still more than happy with the soundstage, midrange clarity, and bass dynamics. Perhaps what I want to improve is higher frequency extension.

All this being said, I welcome all recommendations and comments that need not be limited to the following topics:

tube-rolling...

Pre-amp...
Any recommendations on pre-amps (tube or SS)?
How about a passive unit (Sonic Euphoria, Placette, Mccormack TLC)?

cables...
anyone recommend Purist?

Amp...
Any good integrated's out there?
What do you think about the Eastern Electric Integrated?
How about Krell KAV 400xi? For that matter, how does Krell match with Vandersteens?

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to reading your comments.

Drew
drewyou
drewyou OP
24 posts
 
Thanks for all your input guys. I'm gonna first try testing various speaker positions, toe-in/out, vertical angle and such, and see what improvements I can get for free.

What do you think would have more impact? Switching IC's or speaker cables?
unsound
7,329 posts
 
My guess is that switching speaker cables would have more impact, but, switching both would help.
sean
6,231 posts
 
One can't say what would be a more drastic change i.e. swapping the speaker cables or the interconnects, as it would matter what make / model for each that you intended to go with. Even then, some of that would be guesswork, especially with IC's, due to system synergy and the impedance related issues. As such, speaker cables would be the easier route to go, but even then, there are still quite a few variables involved depending on the choices that you make.

I think that Richard uses and recommends Audioquest cabling. Whether or not you go this route is obviously up to you. Most of this will boil down to your personal preferences, system goals and system synergy. Unless one has an identical system with very similar sonic preferences, the only thing that you'll get here is recommendations based on one's own personal preferences within the confines of their system.

There may be some technical issues involved in why some speaker cables work better / more uniformly than others in most SS installations, but all of that has been covered in the archives. Whether or not one likes the sonics that the technical advantages that these speaker cables bring with them boils down to personal preference. In most cases, people "band aid" their systems using cables as a tone and transient control, making such changes and recommendations a crapshoot at best. Sean
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glenn_garza
61 posts
 
Have not had the same system, but had assembled a system with a Theta Transport, Muse D/A, Krell pre, Aragon amp and Mirage M3si speakers. I was very unhappy becaue there was little sonic difference between this system and a home theater setup I had using an inexpensive Sony receiver and NHT Super Ones and Zeros (plus sub). Your story interested me because my description of my own sysyems sonics at that time was that it sounded like listening to a good system from another room, or as if there were a blanket between me and the speakers.

At the dealers recommendation, I was using MIT MI-330 Series II ICs and MH-750 Biwire SCs. I was (and am still) taken with some aspects of the MIT cables, but they were the culprits in that setup. Replacing the ICs and SCs really opened the system up (no more blanket).
sean
6,231 posts
 
You can't design a product with very obvious technical pitfalls and then try to correct all of those problems after the fact with some type of network or correction circuitry. This is akin to designing / building an obviously sloppy circuit that will pass signal and then trying to make it "world class" in measurements by band-aiding the errors with a gob of negative feedback. The end result is something that is less than technically correct or natural sounding and the ear / brain interphase recognizes this. Sean
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