John Atkinson's thoughts on the New Vandersteen System Nine from LA Show

@exron Interested in what size midranges you like and what correlations you've observed between midrange size and performance.  

Richfield.  We need to catch up before I go to Cancun on Wed.  Want to hear about the show. Maybe next year I can tag along with you guys.  We'd have a blast for sure.  

Thanks for sharing about the new Basis TT.  AJ told me about it last year I think it was and he probably spent an hour on the phone explaining it all.  Man do I miss him.  Just a great guy and I see why he and Richard were so close for all these years.

I assumed the 9's would take it to a new level for so many reasons, but you are the first one I know who's heard it and shared about it.  I realize it solves the problem he had of moving more air in rooms without hurting the SQ.  Seems like he's solved more problems than creating more by separating the enclosures of the mains and the 2 extra subs.  I will wait until he puts the 11 band EQ into his smaller sub (pray he does this eventually) and get a pair to augment the Quatro's.  I personally like to stay in the same company line if I'm going to use subs. They are voiced the same and integrate better I feel.  That goes for anyone's speaker's/subs.  JMHO

JA is a funny guy, and one I blame for the modern "Stereophile" curve being pursued by so many speaker makers.

Even if he's right about a speaker, he's so biased so often I no longer feel his objective reviews are worth reading.

erik,

I can understand your view.

And  I tend to find JA's reviews less descriptive, leaving me less of a sense of what a speaker sounds like.  He will tend to talk in terms of frequency response etc, whereas Michael Fremer will paint a subjective picture of the sound.  Fremer's descriptions have proven very accurate to my ears, over the years.

At the same time, I've found JA has a very keen ear, and to the extent he describes any problematical issues he hears it's often bang on. 

I actually think JA is something of a treasure in the high end world, in terms of the scope of what he has contributed.  Stereophile's measurements have been a gold mine of info.

Prof, I agree with everything you have said.  We all have favorite reviewers or maybe some hate all reviews.  JA does indeed have a keen ear and although he will find all the good things a piece will do, he won't wax poetic unless he loves a piece.  I believe that he owns Vandersteen 7's for his personal listening as many reviewers do.  I found that out AFTER I became a lover of their sound.  In the 90's, I always wanted a pair of Avalon's, lol.  Loved the cabinet and the sound. I never realized they were also a first order cross over and time and phase correct.  I felt Jim Theil's speakers could be a bit bright back then, but loved what they did.  We've really had some great designers and still do.  There's a new crop of them coming along.  

I do feel the if a speaker doesn't measure well, it usually doesn't sound good either.  I've noticed a ton of the top end speakers tipping the treble up a db to three to sound more 'open' and 'alive', but for me it shuts me down as it's irritating.  Some folks put their list of 'audition' speakers together by the measurements shared before going to listen.  It's not 100% maybe, but it's pretty close I bet.  

Spot on post in my humble opinion Prof. Thanks.