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Questions for Vandersteen 5A owners...

I finally got to audition 5A's yesterday. Involved 9 hours of driving, but it was worth it. :-)

I realize no speaker is perfect and it's a matter of tradeoffs. I am attracted to Vandersteen because of a strong reputation and the fact that it includes a powered bass module with 11 bands of EQ per speaker. I have a troublesome room. Currently have Aerial model 9s - a great speaker but not ideal for my room.

Anyway, I wanted to post my impressions and see what owners have to say.

1) Larger than life sound. Holy big imagery. High hats sounded like they were 3 feet in diameter.

2) Wide dispersion of sound (i.e. large sweetspot). Vocals stretched from speaker to speaker. Panning of instruments off center was hard to pinpoint.

3) Bass seemed EQd well (couldn't hear any notes being louder than others) but all in all it wasn't as articulate as I expected. Bass was very fat sounding.

4) Problem at loud volumes? It might have been the 200 watt amp, but when the volume was cranked it was very distorted. I notice that Stereophile recommends the speaker but says "won't play as loud as other speakers". I have never experienced a speaker that had a volume limitation per se, so I'm not sure what to expect - distortion or were they simply meaning it wasn't very sensitive? I don't listen to music at crazy volumes, but these would also be used for home theater - where speakers should be able to handle loud peaks. Have any of you noticed this?

5) A lot brighter than I expected and very revealing. Highs sounded less smooth/laid back than I expected (or was used to for that matter). Almost harsh at times. Could have been the recordings, but I played stuff I was very familiar with so I'm puzzled here.

6) Midrange was very nice.

Anyhow, I'm interested in others' perceptions here as I can't audition these in my own home. I do believe that the dealer could set up the bass well in my room, but am generally worried about some of the points above.

Thanks in advance.
madfloyd
zargon's avatar
zargon
453 posts
 
A number of you have mentioned the importance of set up. It takes patience and care, but I agree it does not require a dealer. I observed a well known dealer set up the sub EQs on a pair of 5As and he spent less than 30 minutes! Clearly he was running a business and time is money, but it was not nearly as carefully done as one would have expected. It can be accomplished quite easily with a RS meter and some simple instructions, so don't be afraid to plan on doing it yourself.

I have learned a few tricks that refine the overall placement and inprove the imaging that aren't in the manual as well. One involves a slighty different approach to ensuring the speakers are exactly vertical and aligned to each other which doesn't assume the floor is perfectly level under both speakers. This seems to be critical for a time and phase aligned system and the manual does not emphsize it as much as I think it deserves.

If anyone is interested, I will describe it and post it here a bit later today when I get some time.
stringreen's avatar
stringreen
5,112 posts
 
..if you have 40,000 dollars to spend, the Vandersteen 7's are coming.
madfloyd OP
411 posts
 
I'd be interested, Zargon.
rgs92
958 posts
 
As to mtdkings' stmt above, I also considered new 5As from a dealer, but the manual made it sound like a heroic effort to set them up, and didn't want to have to depend on a dealer if I ever moved or even moved my speakers around or changed upstream equipment. It would be just to much of a hassle. It just seemed really intimidating. It's a shame, because I always liked them at the NY HE show.
I ended up with Harbeths (very nice, setup is a breeze).
sonofjim
557 posts
 
Stringreen,
Where have you heard about a Vandersteen 7? I would be interested as to what major improvements have come up that would justify a new model. All I need is that temptation now.
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