Review- Played the Vandies tonight...

Played the Vandies for the first time tonight...




Made a trip southwest a few nights ago (30 miles) to pick up a pair of Vandersteen 2Cs, which were described as very good condition.

Arrived at the fellow's house and was greeted by a 13 year old girl.

"My dad went to pick up my brother- he'll be right back!"

Indeed he would be, as shortly after this declaration a fellow in a minivan pulled up with his son in Soccer gear.

Introductions were made, and as I couldn't go into the house to check them out (wasn't wheelchair accessable), my pal and the kindly gentleman brought 'em out.

One was in it's original box- including packing materila. The other box had come undone, and was left behind.

Factory stands (or aftermarket? dunno, but they were bought new with the Vandies) were already mounted.

Also, a bag of spikes was brought out, and about two 15' sections of straightwire, and banana plugs.

The Vandies are hard to gauge the size of- at first, they seemed smaller than I thought. Of course, later at home and standing on my floor, they were a bit bigger than I expected. These aren't uge speakers, but no one can expect to mistake them for bookshelves.

They looked spiffy, but had a slight odor of mustiness, due to the cellar dwelling. It was a finished playroom, but in the basement. Had that typical new england smell to 'em.

The fella was a straight shooter, and glad to see them going to a good home. We talked about Hi-Fi for a bit, and he said how after his Onkyo died, he put the Vandies away.

He later swapped to an iPod for his music fix, and an upgrade to the minivan's sound system is where he was getting his audio kicks nowadays.

A crate of records was offered, much to his daughter's horror.

"Dad! You know how much those could be worth?!? Do you still have that thing that plays them?!?"

I chuckled inside. Cute kid. Lucky guy.

The records were in decent shape, but nothing worth any money- the $1 to $3 bin at a used record store. I was thrilled however to expand my record collection. And a few, some Los Lobos records, I left for him to eBay- they were the best of the bunch, and worth the most of what he had.

We chatted a bit longer, then I made the trek home. The vandies were placed in the living room area, taunting me until I could get some help setting them up. It would be a few days...

Before I knew it, Friday rolled around, and a new friend Rick (also into audio, also an a/d/s/ L1230 owner) and my trusty friend Birddog were down for a lunch of sausages, bratwurst, chicken livers, potato salad, grilled chicken strips, and plenty of beer.

We played the Thiels I've been listening to- wonderful and smooth speakers, with a great presentation. If they had a more full-range sound, I'd probably not have grabbed the Vandies- they're that good.

After a while, we swapped over to the Vandies.

We hooked 'em up via a Sansui CA-2000 pre (it will run two amps), a pair of Denon POA 1500s, and a Sony ES changer and PS Audio DAC.

I was quite nervous about them, as I was fearing trouble- yes, they were in good shape, but they had sat doormant for a while, and were in that musty cellar. Visions of the passive clunking or a crossover failure resulting in no midrange worried me a bit.

Play was hit on the CD player, and low and behold, no bass.... none.

Crystal clear highs. Good upper midrange. No bass.





Of course, it would have helped if we turned both Denons on.



That quick little fix, and the Vandies were playing full-range. Plenty of rich bass now, and best of all, no passive clunks, no weak midrange, no crossover failure and midrange dropout.

The Vandies were playing as good as they looked.

We threw a bunch of female vocals at them, then a bit of male vocals, some rock and roll, later some punk, pretty much anything.

The beauties performed very well across the board. They went low, they reached high, they presented a hearty and natural soundstage.

Now, placement was less than ideal, but these were true troopers, and despite that poor location setup, these still shone.

The outcome? Keepers.

These are serious performers. Vandersteen is still in business, and owner/founder Richard Vandersteen still makes himself available to his customers- call Vandersteen and you may find yourself speaking directly to him.

Vandersteen makes a great effort in keeping these beauties working to their full potential, so repairs and parts are available. This is a big plus.

And these really are a full-range speaker, dropping fairly low and of course as high as you can reach. music sounds detailed, natural, wholesome through these. Colored sound? slightly. But you're grasping at straws here.

These 80's/90's speakers are a true high-end speaker, of course bettered by some, but for the low investment ($50 to $1000, and $400 to $800 average), you walk away with an audio legend and a fantastic, right-stuff performer.

Placement isn't as horrific as the spouse may think- no small buggers, but not overpowering of the space, either.

The optional stands are quite desireable. From what I'm told, it cleans up the bass presentation a lot. I say sure, as I haven't played them without the stands, but on the stands, they handle the bass really well.

Surely a step above many a speaker I already own here, and they had the Thiels beat in both detail resolution and in bass extension.



Where do they fall short?



Compared to the Thiels, they are a bit hotter on the top end- but maybe by reducing the upper range "hotness" (I had 'em pretty neutral- could have turned them down more), this may be cured.

Midrange warmth was stronger on the Thiels, which is odd, as I was told the Thiels were a bit bright here, and my amps are suspect to brightness as well. No problems with the Thiels, and in honesty, the Vandies did well here- exceptionally well and incredibly satisfying. Just not as smooth as the Thiels.

My room being quite live, the Thiels and their warmth were quite welcome.

The bass on the vandies- very good. But a bit finicky regarding placement if you really want to wring the most out of them. That back-firing passive radiator is gonna demand some thoughtful placement to get the most from it.

The a/d/s/ L1230 bass was crisp, tight, effortless and easy to place- the increased box volume and twin 8" woofers are the (welcomed) culprit. To really rock, I'd lean towards the L1230s here. The Vandies do it, but their forte lies elsewhere, in many other areas. No slouch at all in the bass department, but not made for my bad mix of ZZ Top from Columbia House.

So, to recap- the Vandies are a delightful and quite impressive beast. Well-mannered, full range, affordable, large- but forgiving size, and backed by a company and an owner/founder that is respected by the audio community, and still in business.

Compared to the Dahlquists? More range, same wonderful presentation. The a/d/s/ L1230s? A bit less bass, but its charactor neater, cleaner. The Thiels? Not quite as smooth (or warm- subject to change/room conditions/gear), but a real full range to them.

Hope you enjoyed my mini review.

Paul

This post has been edited by thedelihaus on September 28, 2007 09:26 pm

nice write up Paul, i found your comparisons to the other speakers very interesting.

i would play with placement on the Vandies, in my experience, one thing they are not is 'hot' in any respect. they really suck me in with their extremely comfortable sound.

another thing.

since you have identical amps, perhaps you could try vertical bi-amping (with the Thiels and ADS' too).

I think component synergy is key also, with what I got going it seems to make them very smooth and as dingus said comfortable and not hot at all with my set up, I would hazard the guess that it might be the components you are using, not that they are in anyway bad, I would say that my components are lacking, but work well with my vandy's,

I am going borrow some different components from dingus and give that a whirl to see if I can wring out a little more sound, I am sure I can.

nice write up paul.

elroy

Great write up, Paul.

I only heard Vandies once in a proper home environment, and I loved them.

You´re moving up, my friend.

Jorge

Paul, thanks for the review. I've read a lot of the 2C and your review raises my expectations.

Thanks for the positive feedback, my friends.

I'll venture to say part of the "hotness" may also be due to my room- it's very, very live.

Also, the tweet range was set high initially, and we turned it down to neutral, if recall. I never got around to defeating them a bit more.

Overall, no complaints, and with a bit of room treatment and the like, I should be fine.




No complaints with the Vandies. They are top tier.

You willingly ate LIVER?

As I have been saying all along, Vandy 2C are the speaker you could live the rest of your life with, given your have the right electronics to control that midrange warmth. Kimber 8TC is very nice. If you bi wire them even better!

thedelihaus is getting quite good at putting the essence of the sound to words.

I think I may have to brush up and get out my Thesaurus and Roget's!

good work.... Well which is it Thiel or vandy?

Ohhhh, well, the midrange warmth doesn't bother me- it's nice. I need to reel in ther top end a touch (working on room acoustics should cure that).

If I had to pick? I'd probably go with the Vandies, ONLY as they are a full-ranger.

BUT....

If that 3D sub fills in enough of the low end, the Thiels would win out.

Purely for the fact I can listen a dozen hours and never fatigue from them.

Everything sounds correct, natural.

Paul,

Another great write up and review. Much more than I can get into when listening to a new set—I always get lost listening to the music . Reviews as yours give me an idea of what to keep an eye out for. That's how I decided to make an offer and buy my Klipsch Fortes as they were at a relative premium cost.

I love it.

Paul,

didnt you say that you had a kenwood ka 7100 laying around?

Dingus brought over his Luxman R117 and The Carver Reciever and we set them up with the vandies, I got to tell you there was a nice improvement in dynamic range and and soundstage, but I lost some of the smooth lush sound of my Yamaha 1020 - kenwood ka8100 setup, I listened to the lux/carver setup for a couple weeks and just didnt like it. anyway, my point is, I believe it goes back to component synergy, I just like the match of my yamaha/kenwood setup better.

Dingus and I tweeked the tone controls on the speaks to try to tame the almost bright sound we were getting on the vocals on some songs, with some success, it seemed that I was alway fiddling with tone controls for each type of music I was listening to, with the yamaha/kenwood setup, everything I listen to doesnt need any fine tuning, it just sounds good to my ears.

again, I ramble, my thoughts are that if you maybe put that kenwood on the highs and something else on the lows you might be able to smooth out the mids and highs. just a thought.


elroy

That's a good thought.

I actually have two 7100s. To me, the amps are a bit dark and thick- the Sansuis and Marantz are warm, not as dark, the Yamahas a bit clinical.

I find the Kenwoods to be possibly the most forgiving, at the cost of some fine detail, but that could be what the Vandies need, in my room.

Then again, if I tame the room with some treatments, that could work too, eh?

Good suggestion.

I run the yamaha on the lows for that reason and that works well, with the kenny on high.

elroy