A nice upgrade... hopefully...

DSkip wrote: »

I don't like their current placement honestly. Have you thought about throwing the rig in the corner and putting a bass trap in the actual corner? If that's not an option, I think you'd be better off flipping it 180 degrees. Sitting at the base of the stairs will eliminate reflection points and probably give you a more balance sound due to the solid wall being behind both speakers. I'd suspect the left side of the current setup to be a tad thinner than the right side?

You mean moving the left speaker all the way to the left wall like this below?
I can try that but it'll block some entry way to the room from front hall.



Or go back to the original opposite wall?

erniejade wrote: »

When I had 3A ( not sig) they were sensitive to the tilt and tweeter hight. an inch and make one heck of a difference.

Placement is kind of a challenge here.

tonyb wrote: »

All I know is the Vandy 5's are one helluva speaker, and endgame speaker to get you off the merry-go-round. If you can find the 5's at a good price, jump on them. In the mean time, enjoy the 3's.

I got lucky on the 3A's. I haven't seen 5's anywhere locally let alone within my budget.

**************

Back to 3A's.
I'm really afraid to listen to higher volumes with the Rotel now so I hooked the Crown XLS1500 up.
It sounded okay but compared to Rotel, it sounded thin.
The depth/heft is lacking.
I cranked it up and it sounded loud but still hollow and brighter or felt brighter due to lack of depth.
It didn't have the punch in overall sound and I felt like music is more directional.
It's listenable, just not as good as Rotel.
But I'll bring the speakercraft bb275 from the basement and use that instead.
I'm guessing that'll sound better than the Crown.

I'll test Rotel with another pair of speakers and pass on if it works fine at loud levels.

tonyb wrote: »

Seriously dude....waste of time imho. Your speakers deserve better, your ears deserve better.

I will get something better.
This is temporary just to go with bi-wire recommendation instead of using single wire with crappy jumpers.
And it does sound better I think and I already had them so it's not a total waste to experiment.

tonyb wrote: »

You shouldn't be using that standard spool wire from Home depot or the likes, let alone 16 ga. wire. It's all junk....worthy maybe of surround speakers or a garage rig, nothing more.

Find some well made 12 ga. cables, single runs and use extra speaker cable as the jumpers. You can get a roll of most major brands of cable without connectors at a fraction of the price and use bare wire. Try the Cable Company, click on bulk wire or search by brand.

http://www.thecableco.com/Catalog/Bulk-Speaker-Cables

Yes, I'm looking at Canare or Furez 4-conductor wire if I do DIY.
I was using single wire from MIT E98771 or something 14 gauge and Proflex 12 (or is that 14, need to check) gauge in wall already but Vandersteen suggests bi-wire so changed it.

That bi-wire cable is 16 awg each cable so bi-wire makes it close to 13 awg I think.
From the awg and feet chart, that should be okay as it's not even 12 feet long.

May be I should go back to single wire and just replace the jumpers with same wire for now until I get better bi-wire cables.

Single run won't work as I'll always be thinking I'm not doing what Vandersteen suggests.

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For the amp, any good bad on Hafler, Carver or Arcam or other suggestions?
thanks

tonyb wrote: »

Look for a nice B&k or Parasound 2 channel amp for around 4 bones used. The SQ on either is head and shoulders above everything your looking at. Then you'll need RCA's to hook it up too so don't think about 20 buck IC's for that. Signal cable analog 2's or BJC LC1 bare minimum. Dougs cables too are reasonable and should be a big step up.

On another note....with floorstanders that can pump out the low end, you need a bigger gauge cable for that low end . Bi-wire in general doesn't do much....your simply making that split in a different area. The same thing is accomplished with quality jumpers, and they should be the same as the speaker wire....if not better. Some even use 9 ga. even 8 ga. for the lower portion. Depending on the speaker of course.

Okay thanks. Will keep eyes open for those amps.

For the IC's, I have few Taralabs prism 22 and Delta Audio Tributaries so I think they are at least same or better than LC1's.
Also have few pairs of Wireworld Oasis III interconnects. I think these are around a $100 so I'm covered there.

Taralabs prism 22 retails over $50 and has great reviews at audioreview.com.
Here is one comparison:

Last comparison was between AQ Viper and Tara Labs Prism 22.
The Tara cable out did the AQ by a large margin.
The Tara cables were natural and clean. No muddiness in the bass, clear mid band and a shimmering high band. The soundstage was as deep as the AQ cables showed, but the separation and the clarity was much better with the Tara cables.

I have to dig for more pairs of Wireworld in cable boxes but currently I'm using two pairs of Wireworld Oasis III, a pair of Tributaries and a pair of Tara Labs Prism 22 interconnects between the two systems.
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I just tested Rotel with my JBL L80t3's and cranked it so high that my ears are still ringing.
No shutdown, no hum nothing so Rotel is good at least for 8 ohms speakers.

Then I brought the Speakercraft BB275 and hooked the Vandersteen's.
It's only 75 wpc but is stable to 2 ohms as per specifications.

SpeakerCraft BB275 75-watt per Channel Stereo Amplifier

High Current Stereo Amplifiers
The BB275 is a two channel amplifier that utilizes discrete high current design, which make it ideal for installations that require multiple speakers to be connected to a single amplifier. The high current designs also allow the amplifiers to reproduce and sustain deep bass.

Custom friendly features include
Multiple turn–on modes, so the amplifier turns on automatically when the main system is switched on; Front mounted independent level controls allow you to balance the volume of each speaker to match the volume of the main system, which can vary greatly with different speakers and power ratings; and Pass through inputs to outputs, which allow multiple amplifiers to be daisy–chained together for multiroom applications and future expansion.

High Current Design
The BB275 incorporates discreet power supplies to balance power between channels. A massive toroidal transformer assures adequate power reserves. Discreet output devices allow the amplifier to drive low impedance loads with very low distortion. Huge filter capacitors improve dynamics and lower IM distortion, while providing a sustained energy storage for low bass.

I put the same track and cranked it up.
The punch and depth in the sound came back similar to Rotel and I think this one has even more punch. It is slightly brighter than Rotel but it may be due to punchier sound in all frequencies.
Highs, mids and lows all sound heavier and with more force.
However, I had to turn the pre to 11 o'clock to get 90 dB.
It was louder than I ever listen to.
I even tested it just past 12 o'clock and it got very very loud but the BB275 amp still kept going.
I only listened to few tracks and I think I may like this better than Rotel.

So for now I'm good with BB275 and will watch for good deals on more powerful amp.
Rotel is in the basement with JBL's and Epicures for the moment.
I'll try the QSC later just to see how it sounds but expect similar sound as Crown.

zarrdoss wrote: »

Not sure, they never tell who they make amps for I just did the research on mine to find out.

DSkip wrote: »

Find some nudies.

At least the Niles SI275 and my BB275 look pretty much the same.
Even the 'Cascade output' is same on both.
Could be same OEM. That explains why I like them pretty good.

SI275:





BB275:

leftwinger57 wrote: »

If you want an amp that generally goes for $300 or less you can't get much better than an Adcom GFA555 w/ 200 wpc ss ...

I had Adcom GFA-555 II that the Rotel replaced so I'm familiar with it but preferred Rotel. These two have same specs, 200 w @ 8 ohms and 330 @ 4 ohms.