How is your experience with Vandersteen Model 1's?

Mystery

I recently got a pair of Vandersteen Model 1's and wondering if anyone here has them and how they sound with some expensive gear.
I just have run of the mills receivers/amps so that may not be best suited for these but so far I really like them.
These are my 1st pair of above normal speakers if you want to rate them at mid/high-fi end.
Thanks for comments.

pglbook

Congratulations, Mystery. I have never heard any Vandys myself but have read great things about them. I am eager to hear what you think of them. From the single pic you posted, the cabinet looks a lot like the Polk SDA 2Bs.
Enjoy and let us know how they sound!

erniejade

Decent speaker but a little bass shy vs the 2's I think they are 4 ohm so if your receiver can do 4 ohm it should be fine. open and natural sounding speaker in general. I had a set of 2ce sig, and 3A's in the past.

DaveHo

Vandy 1Bs were among the speakers I auditioned in the 80's when I was looking to upgrade from the Advents I had at the time. Ultimately they didn't come home with me as I ended up purchasing Polk 10Bs. The 1s IMHO are OK but the Vandy line really starts to shine once you get to the 2Ci, 2Ce or the 2Ce Sigs.

Mystery

Thanks pglbook!

I have A400's as fronts currently and they are the best speakers yet so this post will have them as reference.

Instruments, stereo separation and imaging is amazing in these even with my crappy test setup.
Reminds me of Polk SDA effect in many places.
Vocals come directly from the front center even when these are 8 feet apart and toed in.
Sound is very clean and smooth like studio type, no noise.

Specially with live music type recordings like jazz, blues, these 1's sound almost perfect.
The roughness in voice, plucking of guitar strings, soft thump of drums etc... everything is so separate and right there that it feels eery, hair raising.
I feel like I'm there with the singers while A400's feel like listening to recorded music.
It's just so clean and clear that I don't feel like it's coming from speakers but directly from the instruments.

These don't have bass of A400's but vocals and midrange are even more open and smooth.
Highs are smoother whereas A400's have more sizzles.

These are highly inefficient.
When I listen to these at normal level and switch to A400's, they are at club level.
Also, bass is no contest against A400's but that's expected.
Bass on these is even tighter than A400's but doesn't go as low or as full.
A400's and Polks have bass floating around/resonating everywhere while Vandy's only have bass on the bass note and not much afterwards.
So I guess this is what accurate speaker sounds like.

After taking volume level in account, these sound smoother, cleaner, airy, more presence of highs in the room (due to the open top cabinet, may be?) and vocals are more clear and open than A400's.
These have similar sound characteristics as A400's but more open, smoother and better imaging but bass is not that much so stand alone listening craves for little more bass.

However, one speaker sounds dull compared to other.
So I did a left right sweep and one speaker is slightly less bright.
I fiddled the tweeter control and it does change level so the pots may need cleaning. With one at max tweeter level and another at 0 level, they seem to match.
Hopefully, the terminal cup comes off without taking socks off.

To conclude, I really like these and can spend time listening and enjoying music without a need to switch speakers.
Even the bass sounds good and enough after few minutes of switching from A400's.
Very smooth and relaxing sound yet with all the details in highs and mids.
When listening to 'When Luther played the blues' and 'Thanks to you' from Marantz test cd, A400's sounds recorded music while these 1's feels like I'm listening to live music.
So this is my first pair of high/mid-fi speakers compared to other available everywhere pairs.
I just tested on Pioneer SA-1040 so better setup and amp should make them sing even better.

pglbook

Nice review, Mystery. They seem like wonderful speakers.

What are the A400s you are using for reference? Who makes them? Sorry, but I am not familiar with those speakers.

From your review it sounds like, overall, you prefer the Vandys over the A400s, although it seems the A400s are better in the bass department. Is that correct?

How do the Vandys compare to your Polk SDA CRS or Monitor 12 speakers?

Thanks. Happy listening!

Mystery

Thanks for chiming in erniejade and daveho.

pglbook wrote: »

Nice review, Mystery. They seem like wonderful speakers.
What are the A400s you are using for reference? Who makes them? Sorry, but I am not familiar with those speakers.

From your review it sounds like, overall, you prefer the Vandys over the A400s, although it seems the A400s are better in the bass department. Is that correct?

How do the Vandys compare to your Polk SDA CRS or Monitor 12 speakers?
Thanks. Happy listening!

Here is more detail and pictures of the Boston Acoustics A400 speaker compared against Polk CRS+ few months ago.

Comparison Thread: http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showthread.php?137016-Comparison-of-Polk-SDA-CRS-with-Boston-Acoustics-A400-Bass-SDA-Mids-highs-A400.

I haven't done a direct comparison of Vandersteen's against Polks but my comparison thread above puts A400 on the top.
however, Vandersteen 1's are the cleanest, most clear sounding speakers I have yet but I don't want to say that I prefer these over A400 until I do more setup and comparison that may take a while depending upon what other speakers go out.

Boston A400's without grill covers below:

pglbook

Thaks for the great info and pics of the Boston Acoustics A400. It is nice to learn something new every day. I did not know anything about the A400s. They sound like damn good speakers and the Vandys sound like they are even better! Congratulations! You have lots of great speaker options.

TroyD

The A400's are a speaker I've long wished to own....come close a couple of times but never sealed the deal.

The Vandy's are great all-around speakers. I can't say that they do anything badly....but, I've just never loved them. I've had a couple pair over the years and I've liked them but never enough to keep them. I know many swear by them and the 2 series is probably the best selling high-end speaker ever....but I'm just not bowled over. Thiel has the same effect on me. Go figure.

BDT

Mystery

TroyD wrote: »

The A400's are a speaker I've long wished to own....come close a couple of times but never sealed the deal.

The Vandy's are great all-around speakers. I can't say that they do anything badly....but, I've just never loved them. I've had a couple pair over the years and I've liked them but never enough to keep them. I know many swear by them and the 2 series is probably the best selling high-end speaker ever....but I'm just not bowled over. Thiel has the same effect on me. Go figure.

BDT

I see.
So what speakers do you prefer?

I've been listening to these 1's for last few weeks and others have little or no use so far.
They are cleaner and smoother than any speakers I have yet.