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While this post may be more appropriate in Speaker Asylum, I thought I would post my impressions of how my analog side has blossomed with the addition of new Vandersteen Quatro speakers to my set up. I replaced my Thiel 2.4s last week and am in the process of burning in the speakers, so I'm listening to mostly analog and I'm amazed at the clarity, resolution, low-level detail, the imaging, the wide and deep soundstage of these speakers that seem to come to life with vinyl over ceedees. I'm also detecting anomalies in the recordings that I never heard before, or am not supposed to hear. I find that I can isolate every component more clearly. It makes for a whole new listening experience. One example:On The Eagles When Hell Freezes Over Simply Vinyl release, I can readily hear overdubbing of Don Henley's vocals on certain songs from the concert portion. Never heard that before. Anyone hear that in this album? I'm going to check it against the concert DVD.
Ry Cooder's Buena Vista Social Club Classic Records issue, which demonstrates a wide and deep soundstage, is even moe expansive with these speakers. It just draws you into the music. I foresee many hours of listening pleasure in my future as the grass grows tall in my yard.
Thanks for indulging.
Follow Ups:
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I assume you mean by "sensitive" too revealing, too sensitive to fine details. It is a comon myth that the better the system, the more revealing it is of faults of recordings, the less enjoyable those poorer recordings sound. I don't agree at all. Why should the faults or limitations of your speakers define the limits of the system rather than the recordings or something else in the system? I have found that the better my system has become, the more I enjoy all recordings, even poor ones. Sure, I may hear the "faults" of poorer recordings better, but I hear what's good about them better, too, and that wins. I have Vandersteen 5s and think they are the best speakers for vinyl AND digital I have ever owned. They do reveal the shortcomings of any upstream components in a system, and many CD players have serious shortcomings that are obvious on these speakers. Maybe that is what you are referring to. But I find many cartridges, amps, and phono stages have shortcomings that are easiier to hear with these speakers as well. Speakers like these sound increasingly better, or rather, music sounds better, as all the components are upgraded. I find my Ayre CX-7e an excellent match for the 5s, and well-recorded CDs are a real pleasure to listen to. But even Schnabel playing Beethoven sonatas on early 30's recordings sounds better on the 5s than I have ever heard them before.I will agree with another interpretation of your comment. There is little point in getting speakers as fine as these if your upstream components are so poor as to preclude them being able to show at all what they can do.
At my dealer's house, via tubes, BAT equipment, modified pre-amp, etc. It was the 2005 Telarc Martinu/Dvorak and some other things on the one-piece dCs and the Rega Apollo. Flat. Dead. Done.
Both through broken-in Marantz SA14 v. 2 and a Sony XA999ES. Though Cardas Cable and a MuFi A308. I think the "hazier" sound of non-first-order crossover speakers do CD better. I have no problem with "bad" recordings, of which I think you speak of boxy mono or harsh DG vinyl, I'm talking about leading-edge transients and above-the staff strings via CD. So there you go. Congrats on acquiring the 5's. To be able to afford all my beauty products AND good speakers, I had to go with the 3a sigs.
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seems like you're saying the change happened with analog but not digital. how is that possible?
nt
There's someone in my head and it's not me.
maybe now your speakers reveal that you can take your digital up a few notches now, to get them more on par?
will require significant investment. I'm currently using a Cary 303/300 cdp, which is in the same price band as my analog setup. The Cary is an excellent ceedee player, which I've only had for three months. Good bass slam in solid state mode. Lots of PRAT. Not so good in tube output mode, which was the reason I bought it. I should have bought the Bluenote Steibbert cdp, but the price was a bit steep for my pocketbook. Frankly, my next upgrade is to swap out the VPI JMW 9 arm for the Graham Phantom arm. Analog is my preferred listening medium, so I want to squeeze out every bit of performance I can get just short of busting the bank. Thanks for your suggestion.
There's someone in my head and it's not me.
moving from the JMW 9 to another, modern arm will certainly be a big step for you!i've not heard of a component that lets you switch between SS & tube output. interesting!
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