SDA 2A vs. Vandersteen 2ci

Rev. Hayes

I'm looking at a set of these 2ci's tomorrow for an asking price of $450.

I have some currently stock (and very clean,original boxes yada yada) SDA 2A's that I like but I don't like the tweets. I know I could hot rod these to no end and they would sound great but such mods would likely end up costing around $300.

Would you rather have stock Vandersteen 2ci's or SDA 2A's with larry's rings, sonicaps and rdo 194s?

I'm torn.......

ps. I have never heard the Vandersteens which is why I'm asking you good folks.

ben62670

Hard call brother. After hearing Vandy's I have said they are the only speaker to replace SDA's. I was on the band wagon with big SDA's but through experience I have come to the conclusion that the "little" Sda's are most tonally accurate SDA's.
Clear as mud?

zarrdoss

I have had the Vandersteen 1c, nice speakers, well made and clean sound. Personally I think you will like the sda 2c with mods better. IMO but go listen first.

erniejade

I have the 3e, sda 1.2 2.3 snd carver amazing originals. The vandies highs are smooth and the low end was suprising. The mids. And some vocals I thought both sda did better. Mind you I have not changed to rdo's yet. From what I'm told the rdo even without changing the crossovers will take the edge off and smoothen out the sound. Now as far as pure authhority goes I have to give it to the polks over the vandies. It might also be my room but the vandies seem to echo sounding. Hard to describe. How big is the room you are putting them in? What kind of music do you listen to?
Remember. The sound itself of a open or free air bass is different. Many mistake it for not enough bass but its there just more mellow and not in your face like the polks. They do not fatigue.

Rev. Hayes

erniejade wrote: »

How big is the room you are putting them in? What kind of music do you listen to?

Room is ~20x14

Music- Jazz, Rock, Bluegrass, Classical etc.... In other words I need speakers that cover all the bases.

I like the way you said the Polks are more authoritative. I do want my music to "hit" not just float around, no matter how pure the sound is (that barely makes sense to me even).

erniejade

The Polk's are more in your face as where the vandies are more of an open and airy sound.

.
When you hear them later, let us know what you think.

By rock are you talking metal or normal rock?
The room size you have is good. THe vandies do sound good on everything except hard dance and ext ream metal in my opinion.

Again the is a big difference in the 2 designs. It is 1000000000% personal taste on this one. The open box design is a airy sound and mellow, more laid back. The polks have more of a concert sound in your face. It is sooo hard to describe. I cant call one better then the other, just different. I have 3 amps and go between the polks, vandies and the carver amazing. I guess a better comparison would be a ribbon speaker vs the polks on the vandies. A ribbon is more open and airy sounding where a "box" speaker is in your face.

Speaker placement including the hight your ear is to the center of the speaker is also important. I am still playing with placement on mine. an inch tilt makes a big difference on the sweet spot on them.


Go listen to them. Let us know your opinion and how you would describe them. I wish i had better words on this one lol.

muncybob

I have Polk 2B's w/RDO's and Vandy 2CE's.....like em both but for different reasons. As stated the Polks are more "in your face" and the Vandys are more transparent to me. I really think it depends greatly on the room and placement (as it does with most speakers). With this said though I am not getting the best out of either of them as I only have a Yammy receiver right now...hope that will change come my birthday!

erniejade

Thanks for the confirmation on the in your face sound. I have no idea how else to describe it LOL.

artinaz

I have had the Vandersteen 1b, 2Ci and the 2Ce, Polks SRS2, SDA1c, SDA-CRS, 11tls... long list

I like the Polks much much more- better midrange and much warmer than the Vandys. With the vandersteens I was never as impressed as I was with my first listen of the SRS2.

I ran a home theater setup with vandersteen fronts, center and sub. For 2 channel stereo, I found the vandys much more critical to room placement. The Polks are more forgiving.

Also 450 for the 2Ci is a little bit more than the rates in the SF Bay Area, I have picked up 2 sets of the 2Ces in the past for 500.

erniejade

artinaz wrote: »

I found the vandys much more critical to room placement. The Polks are more forgiving.

You got that right LOL. even in the manual, it gives a huge description on room placement hight to the ear, take the room x - % got to know a little math to set them up LOL. crazy.

http://www.vandersteen.com/2ce_signature_ii_manual.pdf

This is for the 2 sig but the same rules apply for the ci's for placement.

erniejade

BTW did you go listen to them yet?

inspiredsports

erniejade wrote: »

BTW did you go listen to them yet?

Looks like we may never know as the original poster's ability to post has been compromised.

I will share that I have no where near the experience of many and I'm just now starting to branch out and critically listen to different speakers, but I keep coming back to my modded/TL'd SDA 2B's as being a very special breed.

Face

Crap, what'd I miss?

erniejade

wow I didnt see that person got banned!!!


and inspiredsports, $ for $, you will have a hard time finding something that will beat what you have in my opinion.

Rev. Hayes

erniejade wrote: »

BTW did you go listen to them yet?

I got stuck in a late meeting that night and couldn't get out to hear them. Gonna try again Fri. Real nice guy. Even offered to call me in case someone else wanted to pick them up sooner.

Here's the link if anyone wants to see the pics. They look super clean.

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/ele/2035173740.html


Aside:

(the banning was an accident and I'm sorry about the pissy thread in the clubhouse)

inspiredsports

Rev. Hayes wrote: »

. . . the banning was an accident and I'm sorry about the pissy thread in the clubhouse.

That was quick. Welcome back!

hoosier21

I had 2 pair of these before, a must hear, great speaker

george daniel

Got the good stands too

falconcry72

I'd like to hear a pair.

I just read some specs that said they're good to 32hz, +-1.5db, and 28hz +-3db.

That's impressive for a speaker that's hardly over 3 feet tall!

Rev, just get them; if you don't like them you shouldn't have a problem reselling them.

DaveHo

I auditioned a pair of Vandy 2Ci's back in the late 80's. I liked them very much, but ended up with Polk 10Bs as the Vandies were a bit out of my price range. I'd still like to own a pair of 2Ci,Ce some day.

-Dave

erniejade

again the vandies can go deep but it is kind of deceiving since it is hot a gut feeling deep like the polks can hit. Some people mistake it for not having enough bass.

ohskigod

I've had 2b's, I also had the vandy. I miss the Vandy more.

get the Vandy

Rev. Hayes

Went for a listen......


The Vandersteens stayed with their current owner.

They were bi-amped with two 150WPC Nads (a good bit more power than I would have given them) and they just didn't come alive for me.


PRO-
I was very impressed with the over all cohesion of the drivers. Until I got real close I couldn't pick out a "tweeter sound" or a "bass driver sound." It was a smooth ride from top to bottom. This is something that the SDA 2A's are not excelling at. The tweeter is constantly jumping out of the overall sound.

CON-
Even just a few degrees outside of the narrow field they were set up to project in the sound disappeared. (they were towed in about 10 degrees, I don't know if that is a suggested set up or not) This surprised me given the "box-less" design. I would have thought that would add to sound dispersion but I'm no acoustic engineer so lesson learned. The SDA's sound extra cool when you're in the sweet spot but they still put the sound out around them as well.

PRO #2
They were pristine and the heavy duty t stands made them look tough yet slightly less monolithic (which is something that I've heard a number of complaints about since the 2A's showed up in the house).

FINAL CON
I suddenly remembered that I had a toddler in my house. We're learning quickly not to push on speaker grills but those Vandy socks look so solid and they are sooooo not.
I imagine it would only take one or two good leans to ruin the appearance of these beautiful speakers.




I would have liked to hear them at my house with my equipment but they just didn't make a $450 impression on me. Sometime I'll find a beat up pair and make it a true knock down match against the 2's

His maggies on the other hand I would have taken straight home

vc69

Slight toe-in is correct. I have had a similar experience with 3aSigs in that the sweet spot was the only "good" spot. I would have totally snagged those for the price though.

Face

Time to upgrade your crossovers and tweeters.

Rev. Hayes

Face wrote: »

Time to upgrade your crossovers and tweeters.

Yup,,,,


I was hoping these Vandys would blow my socks off and make me not want to bother with the upgrades. The cost of those two 130uf caps per speaker makes my **** pucker everytime I think about it:eek:

helipilotdoug

Rev. Hayes wrote: »

Yup,,,,


I was hoping these Vandys would blow my socks off and make me not want to bother with the upgrades. The cost of those two 130uf caps per speaker makes my **** pucker everytime I think about it:eek:

LOL Yeah, I know what you mean. That is one thing that's held me back from doing them. Have not done the upgrade to my 2A's yet, but have done a set of 2B's. I can tell you that the money spent was well worth it because of the huge improvement realized when listening. I did find some Aeon 130 uF caps for $38.52 each at http://www.zalytron.com/ Click on capacitors. I know Aeons have been used by others here at CP when rebuilding the lower end crossovers, but really don't know how they stack up to other manufacturers.

Face

helipilotdoug wrote: »

I did find some Aeon 130 uF caps for $38.52 each at http://www.zalytron.com/ Click on capacitors. I know Aeons have been used by others here at CP when rebuilding the lower end crossovers, but really don't know how they stack up to other manufacturers.

The guys at Zalytron are good guys and make some very nice custom cabinets.

I've used Aeons for shunts before and they worked fine.