Vandersteen Model 7: has anyone heard?

They do portray a very different take on music reproduction, that to my taste has very little to do with how music actually sounds.
Maril555 (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)

That's an interesting topic, because I find just the opposite to be true.

95% of the systems at RMAF were too tipped up and sounded nothing like any live music I have ever heard. Yes, they dig out every detail on a recording if it's there, but the recordings usually selected as reference material are often close-miked and are not representative of live music from an audience's perspective.

My favorite speakers were the JM Reynaud Offrande, Audio Note AN-E/SPe HE, Tidals Piano Diacera SE (they got the detail and dynamics of music without the aggressive tipped-up sound of so many rooms), and the Daedalus DA-RMa (driven by the Modwright KWA 100 SE in the Modwright room), and the Daedalus Ulysses (driven by Berning and First Sound). These rooms to me presented a more natural sound than did the others I visited.

Anyway, based on what I heard at RMAF (and at the other shows I've attended) most listeners appear to want the sound you also like. Yet, so many audiophiles constantly complain of bright systems. It's a Catch 22.

My preference in sound is clearly a minority point of view.

In my statement, I was actually referring more to a dynamic aspect of live music, than to a tonal character.
I do agree on many bright sounding systems, which are not at all to my taste.
On the other hand, speaker can be totally tonally correct and lacking dynamics at the same time, and to me it's a discfalifying characteristic. Live music is extremely dynamic, and lack of thereof doesn't sound live, or "natural" to me.
I agree with you on two Daedalus rooms, just outstanding, one of my favorites at the show.

Maril555, I will concede that my Audio Note speakers do not have the same dynamics as other speakers I have owned. However, they do so many other things right in my view, that I am willing to sacrifice some dynamics. Plus, they "fit" my room, if that makes any sense. The other speakers I owned that were more dynamic overpowered the room.

Tvad,
Fair enough.

One thing to keep in mind is in show conditions, the speakers were not listened to with the same tracks and on the same day. I listened to the Vandersteens on Saturday. I listened for about a half hour. I did not find them overly bright. I think the statement that 95% of the rooms were overly tipped up is a little high, but for the most part you are correct. I would put the estimate at about 75%. I liked many of the same speakers that you did, in particular the JM Reynaud and the Daedalus. The Tidals were a mixed bag. Most of there presentation was excellent. However, I got to listen to a track from one of my discs that I am very familiar with. The song is "Tradition" from Stanley Clarke's "If this bass could only talk". I have heard this song well over one hundred times on more than a dozen good systems. Stanley has his bass tuned up one octave, so there is a lot going on in the lower midrange. There must have been some kind of suckout in that range as the sound of the bass was very soft and the speakers placed him BEHIND the drums on the stage. The bass is THE featured instrument of the song. After the song finished, I was asked what I thought. I told them what I heard and told them I had never heard him placed there before. They apparently heard it too, because they did not dispute it, but instead blamed the engineering of the disc for this as the speakers could not be to blame. I told them how familiar I was with the song and was told in no uncertain terms that their speaker was right and every other system I had heard it on was wrong. I listened to this song on a couple of other systems that weekend, and apparently, they were wrong also. The whole thing was very off-putting and kept from returning to the room the rest of the weekend.