Incredible review of Vandersteen 7 mkII in...

Roy Gregory is a great reviewer and I really like his writing style. He also gave a very favorable review of my speakers in HiFi+ a few years ago right after HP praised them.

Thanks for the heads up.

Shakey

From my opportunity to hear the original 7...hard to imagine it being so improved on.

I had the 5a years ago. Nice speaker, but very polite unless it received a lot of watts. Downward firing subs are not to everyone's liking. Very limited sweetspot. Dynamic limitations due to those small drivers. Lack of punch in the lower midbass. Is the 7 so radically different?

08-12-15: Psag
I had the 5a years ago. Nice speaker, but very polite unless it received a lot of watts. Downward firing subs are not to everyone's liking. Very limited sweetspot. Dynamic limitations due to those small drivers. Lack of punch in the lower midbass. Is the 7 so radically different?

The problem her is the equipment not the speakers. I thought the same thing - typical Vandy house sound but since I build my own gear now, that changed the way the Vandy speakers sound. Goes to show you that you cannot make a judgement unless you have tried all the options. I run my very old 5s with a DHT DAC, Preamp and modified Counterpoint SA-100. These components changed the sound dramatically.

Happy Listening.

Have about 40 hours on them. coming from 5a and before that 3A SIG so you can see ( hear ) that I do not stray far from the fold ( nor the thinking, engineering and design and execution evolution ).
Are they perfect? Nope.
Are they better than 5A in every way ( except wood veneer not possible).. YES !
Very musical, engaging, relaxed yet percusive. VERY low distortion (pistonic)... System synergy important. i would class my choices in front of the 7's as decent stuff that each punches above weight class...Naim Uniti w Linear Supply, aesthetix Pandora SIG dac, ARc Ref 5 SE and Ayre VX-R...
Pretty much bliss.
Be all, end all to all ears..no way...looking for that is an endless road..
I am blessed to have them..
Staying upmpast bedtime discovering.ah

Thanks Tom. I've never heard the 5 CT's NOT sound engaging AND dynamic as all get out. I know people who don't own them say the same thing. I know that the Vandy sound of fast, clean and true mids really give them a special emotional connection for many of us. Any speaker can be equipment connected, but I often wonder how much that matters now days with all the new top end gear sounding so good. Even the gap between tube and SS is closing as gear gets more neutral.

Since the bass on the Quatro on up is EQ'd for your room, there is never a problem with the bass regardless of it being downward firing. You just put the speakers in your room where they stage the best and then you just dial in your bass. Your dealer sets this up for you so you can just relax and enjoy your music, lol.

As for the 7 mk2 vs the 5a that you are talking about.......Heck, the Treo CT's are totally different from the mids on up. The 7 is completely different from the 5CT's. Just got to www.vandersteen.com and you can read about the use of carbon fiber in the structure as well as the speakers. Similar great sound and emotional catch, but it does things much much better...but for a price, just like anything else in life. You can get the same signature sound with very low, accurate bass in the Quatro CT's and not spend an audio arm and leg. The higher you go, the more you get....

100 hours in..
play Low
The Great Destroyer on ?
then 7's
amazing....

Tom, I'm jealous, lol... Listening to my Treo's right now and loving them, but wanting the Quatro's so badly, but can't afford them, lol. Glad I have the Treo's though and am glad you are enjoying the 7's. they are very very special and so far the best I've ever heard regardless of cost and I've heard a ton over 100k.

moved all the various Wall-Wart powered digital stuff : airport , network switch, RAID drive for server and server over to dedicated Furman power conditioner...

pre and dac on a dedicated circuit, amp another, subs on another, digital on another...

wow...

about 300 hours on 7's

Nice to hear Tom. That's awesome. I finally got a SR Power cell 10 and it does isolate the digital. It's amazing how inky black my system can get. Just a very low noise floor. Heard the Quatros this weekend along with the 5&7's. Getting that high pass filter in ther AND a zero feedback set of electronics makes a HUGE difference. Separation dynamics imagining and staging just Bloom. I was in shock when I heard them. The vinyl cuts blew me out of the water. I heard the D3 803's and Sonus Olymoia this week and they just couldn't do anything I liked.