Vandersteen 5a Carbons

Guys, I just read the last few posts. Never owned Vandies, but a couple of years ago, I spent some time socializing with Treos at a dealer. The dealer had taken in trade an ARC VS-115 amp, which happened to have been the same model amp I was using at the time. I was underwhelmed.

Having said all that, I'm not so sure now that the fault was the Vandies, the amp, the cabling or any other system component. Instead, the problem may have been the room.

I'm not going to repeat the schpiel (sp??) I already posted in the DEQX thread that is still active. But suffice to say, I bought the DEQX PreMATE which corrected a goodly amount of my speakers' time alignment deficiencies. Even still, I can't say in good faith that my Paradigm Sig. 8s (v3) are as time coherent as the Vandies. But my speakers are more time coherent as corrected do sound better.

All that said perhaps the most important correction effected by the DEQX was room correction. If I didn't see the room effects with my own eyes via mic and computer display and hear the corrections with my own ears ... in my sound room, using my gear ... I wouldn't have believed such improvements were possible.

So ... back to the Vandy posts above. Even if I stipulate that Vandies are the most time coherent and best sounding speakers ever made and are driven by the best electronics, I submit that if the room sucks, the sound will suck.

Trust me on this. In fact, call Mr. Vandy himself, John Rutan of Audio Connection, and ask him what one could expect by way of performance if the room sucks. Johnny R is a pretty straight shooter. I surmise he would say get the room in order or be prepared to trash a lot of dough.

Btw, in my case, the room distortions were not limited to 500 Hz and below. Point being, I am dubious that the low end equalizer correction features in the better Vandies would be able to address all of my room issues.

Regards,

Bruce

Ctsooner ... the Paradigm S8s (v3) are very good speakers.

The Vandy dealer compared the Treos to the Paradigm Tributes. The Tributes ate the Vandy's lunch. But again, I'll be generous and open minded. I suspect the room was the culprit.

Equipment synergy and room effects are sooooo important. It's difficult to make generalizations.

In my case, I think the DEQX tamed my Sig 8s and crummy room. Perfect ... NO. Better ... YES.

Ctsooner, I will have to find my way to Johnny R's shop. He is an ARC dealer and knows more Vandies than Richard (sic). As I said above, I suspect that I didn't hear the Treos at their best.

Other speakers on my radar screen are Magico S-5s. They are phase coherent but not time coherent. That's where the DEQX does its thing.

And even with the best Vandies, they may be perfectly time coherent, but they will sound like crap in a crummy room.

Will need to talk to Johnny R.

Just had retinal surgery. This exercise will have to wait for a bit. Also, my next tweak may be upgrading my ARC Ref 150 to the SE. It's a process.

Thanks CT. I generally recall that AC's listening rooms are pretty carefully set up. My listening room/basement is disaster.