Vandersteen Model 7: has anyone heard?

I heard the Vandersteen 7's at RMAF on Sunday and can't say that the top ended sounded aggressive on the tracks that I heard. Another attendee I talked to felt the Vandy's sounded "shrill" on a track he had them play, but he also thought the same track sounded shrill in Dan Wright's ModWright room played back on the modded Sony XA-5400ES. So, I suspect that the fault lay in his recording.

I agree with the above posters that the speakers in most of the rooms sounded too aggressive. On Friday, I heard the $26000 Pure Reference Extremes that Israel Bloom of Coincident Speaker Technology had brought and thought they sounded terrible in the small room. The first two tracks of Patricia Barber's "Companion" CD that I brought sounded bloody awful - totally unnatural.

I agree with tvad that the JM Reynaud Offrande Supremes were some of the best sounding speakers at the show. And those "little" standmounts are flat to 30 Hz according to Jean-Claude Reynaud. The Revel Ultima Studio 2's, though different, sounded very good to me in the Rogue Audio room. While the Daedalus DA RMa in Dan Wright's room weren't aggressive and generally sounded good, I thought they were somewhat lacking in clarity compared to the Reynaud's.

I was disappointed that John DeVore chose not to exhibit at RMAF. I would have liked to hear his Gibbon Nines.

Any manufacturer who insists that his speaker is right and all others are wrong is a manufacturer who should have his ears, if not his head, examined.

"Any manufacturer who insists that his speaker is right and all others are wrong is a manufacturer who should have his ears, if not his head, examined."

This sounds like a very strong point. I just wish it was
clarified, to be easily understood.

"Any manufacturer who insists that his speaker is right and all others are wrong is a manufacturer who should have his ears, if not his head, examined."
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No mystery. I was just merely commenting on Csmgolf's post above describing his experience with Tidal speakers at RMAF 2010.

My bad, I missed Csmgolf's comments on the Tidal room.
Thanks for the clarification.

I recently had the opportunity to listen to the model 7's in Tacoma, WA, and will say this; I don't frequently voice comment on the attributes of sound equipment, as I usually prefer to quietly listen. But these things put a grin on my face I couldn't wipe off. The idea of distortion free drivers was merely a concept to me before hearing these speakers. The 7's have an accuracy to their sound that I have never heard reproduced through recorded music. The listening session changed my perception of what a dynamic loudspeaker is capable of. Remarkable.