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I love my Vandersteen's but . . . . . . . .

Over the last 35 years I have only owned Four different speaker brands . In the 70”s Radio shack ,In the 80’s ADS L-990's and Vandersteen 2ci , In the 90’s to present , Snell B’s and then back to Vandersteen 2ce sig’s .. You can see my current system here on Audiogon.. Do a search In virtual systems for Stumpies System ..This will give you a lot of info on my system.

Ok ,, Here is my question … I love the sound from my current system but there are times I wish I could get a little more volume out of it . Most of the time when I listen the Meters on the McIntosh amp are bouncing around the 40 watt area with “peaks” around 100 W . But there are times I wish I could turn it up some . If I try to turn the Vandersteen’s up the sound starts to get “compressed” ,, Instruments loose there air around them ,, everything gets thin sounding so I always turn it back down.
Is there a speaker out there that will play “bigger” in my small listening room ?
Speakers I have been considering are B&W N-804’s ,, Von schweikert VR4jr ,,, Green Mountain Audio ,, NHT .
I listen to all kinds of music . Light rock mostly . Eva Cassidy,,James Taylor,,James McMurtury,,Lyle Lovett,,Mark knopfler,,Bob James,,Larry Carlton,,Lee Ritenour ..

What to do ??? Any help would be appreciated ..
stumpie

Showing 1 response by ejlif

ejlif's avatar
ejlif
1,377 posts
 
I don't think your amp or any of your system is at fault, you are just ready to step up from the Vandersteens for sure. The Vadersteens are great, but slamming dynamics are not thier strong suite.

I'd skip on the Dunlavy reccomendation as well. I've owned those for years and they just don't resolve enough or put out enough bass to justify those huge coffins in your room. They don't do bass anywhere near as good as the little VR4Jrs

You will love the VR4Jrs I'm sure of it. I own a pair of them and a pair of the 4SRS. They love power like you have and will drop right into your current system like a dream. They will play loud and clear the bass is awesomely tuneful and tight, maybe not the final word in low extension, but really really satisfying. If you gotta have more bass get the SRs, but they may not be worth it, the super duper value is in the JRs for around 2500 used. If you have the system for them (good powered amp (and a good one too) great preamp and source) they are AWESOME speakers, but again they will reveal everything about the system. Placement isn't to tough and they are very small for the full sound they make. They don't have a humongously tall soundstage if that matters to you, and they sound superb out of the sweet spot as well as in it.

Good luck and feel free to hit me up with any questions you may have.

Ryan
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