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Set-Up Advice for Vandersteen 1Cs

I'm beginning to piece together a system and having previously owned a pair of Vendersteen 1Bs back in the late 90's before I sold all my equipment I purchased a pair used 1Cs for $299 and $80 shipping... hopefully this was a good price.

I have a small apartment and these will be in the living room with the TV and I would like the sound from my TV, Cable, Apple TV or Roku 3, Blu-Ray, a DAC connected to my ipad/iphone/macbook pro, and eventually a turntable to be able to play through this system. I plan I have zero interest in a surround sound system, so multichannel is not a concern.

My understanding is that I should probably get an HDMI switch with audio out since things like the Apple TV and Roku 3 don't have audio out and I'll want the audio from those to play through the system. This area is new to me so any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

To complicate things I would LIKE to have a tube amp if possible. I am willing to go solid state, but I would much much prefer tube.

My budget is somewhere in the $500-$750 range. I am planning on buying used equipment to get the most bang for my buck. Something with a phono input would be best, but obviously I can't have everything.

I've been completely out of the loop and this was totally a spur of the moment purchase for me but I don't have a tremendous amount of time or disposable income so I'm looking to greater minds than my own for assistance.
greatwhitebat
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"05-22-14: Timrhu
Be careful with the tilt. I found very little tilt worked best for me with both the 1Cs and the 2CEs. Discovered this after setting tilt and noting how much better they sounded when I was standing in front of my chair. I straightened up the speakers until they sounded best when seated. Still some tilt, just not too much.
I would think the 40 watts is plenty unless you are really cranking them."

Did you use the formula in the manual? If you set everything just right, it should sound OK as long as you don't have other problems like a bad room, or your head is too close to the rear wall.

" Are you biwiring them? If not, you need to or you won't get everything out of them that you want."

You can' biwire the 1's.
ctsooner
2,104 posts
 
I assumed the 1's could be biwired. When you hear Richard himself talk about wiring, it's very interesting. His speakers definitely need to be biwired or you'll lose what you paid for. That's a must and anyone will tell you that.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"05-22-14: Ctsooner
I assumed the 1's could be biwired. When you hear Richard himself talk about wiring, it's very interesting. His speakers definitely need to be biwired or you'll lose what you paid for. That's a must and anyone will tell you that."

I think you took my post the wrong way. I just pointed out that you can't biwire the 1's. There's only one set of binding posts. Aside from that, I agree. I run 2 sets of speaker cables on all my Vandersteen's. And the difference is not subtle.
ctsooner
2,104 posts
 
REally? Wow, I'm almost shocked. I bet it's because of the price range he made them for. I know they are more efficient than the others too. That's a good topic the next time he does his tours. Wow.
greatwhitebat OP
35 posts
 
He talks about the lack of bi-wiring on the 1C at length in this interview

Bi-wiring is very inter-
esting. We have been doing it now for
twenty years. Our smallest model, the 1C
is not bi-wired, and we’re often asked why
is our littlest speaker not bi-wired. One of
the main advantages of the bi-wiring is the
separation of the magnetic fields in the
wire. I’m talking about the expanding or
collapsing magnetic fields that occur when
an amplifier is trying to drive a wire con-
nected to a very large, heavy duty woofer.
This results in a tremendous amount of
current going to that woofer and because it
is not a simple resistive load, it’s a re-
active load, the back EMF can be very
significant, and you have to remember ex-
panding and collapsing magnetic fields
is how transformers work, so it can be
very significant if that field is crossing
through the very same wire that is driving
the subtle signals involved with the mid-
range and tweeter. The reason we don’t
do it on a small two-way is because it’s
a very light weight responsive 8-inch
woofer. So when you are talking about
small, little speakers, I think bi-wiring just
makes it sound different. It can’t really be
justified from an engineering standpoint
and the money it costs to do it would be
better spent on higher quality components
for the crossover or better drivers.
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