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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 3 responses by shadorne

shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Stumpie,

If you like "Toys in the Attic" CD then you will be blown away by the SACD. The sound engineer did a fantastic job on the 2002 remaster....unfortunately I don't think their is a CD layer on this SACD.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Thanks Darkmoebius for the supporting comments, which help to emphasize that a great speaker should be able to play any kind of music well. It sounds like you were impressed with ATC 100 actives even though the Chinese drums might not be something you are very familiar with or your preference in music.

Some believe that you only benefit from a very loud playing speaker with huge dynamic range if you play rock or, as you mentioned, something akin to those heavily percussive Chinese drums. Some believe that you only need a very loud speaker with huge dynamic range if you have a very large room.

While it is true to say that strenuous rock music can certainly show off a speaker's capabilities to play undistorted at exceptionally high levels, the above beliefs, which are often based on this kind of observation, are in fact quite erroneous.

Greater dynamic range has tremendous impact on any music; it allows your ears to pick up more details by increasing the contrast in various sound levels within the music.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,477 posts
 
Not sure I agree with 02pete about rock music speakers being like a beer mug to beer and jazz speakers being as a crystal wine glass is to fine wine...

As far as I am concerned, it is all music and a good speaker should do it all well ...as softly as you want and as loudly as you want...whatever type music you like....and all with accuracy and low distortion.

Try auditioning ATC speakers...they are used by Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, Mark Knopfler, Lenny Kravitz and many other rockers and their sound engineers. They are also used by Telarc label for classical. They are used by TEC award winning engineer Doug Sax (do a google on Doug Sax Mastering Lab). They were used by Sony for SACD demos at AES conventions. Doug Sax mastered the Aerosmith "Toys in the Attic" SACD from original master tapes on ATC speakers (an SACD which got great reviews). They are used by Disney and Hollywood studios. The list of professional users is large....in all probability about a third of the music you buy (whatever your genre taste) will have either been mixed, mastered or re-mastered on ATC speakers.

You mention compression (a common problem with low cost drivers in competitvely priced speakers) and the fact that you wish you could really crank it up: the larger ATC models play loud enough to easily do permanent hearing damage and even at these levels they play with some of the lowest levels of distortion in the business....just be careful.

[caveat I am a proud owner of various ATC speakers for about ten years but I am not a dealer or a pro and have no affiliation with ATC]
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