Vandersteen VCC-1

Thank you for all of the responses! Does anyone have any experience with any other centers that might blend well in a home theater system with vandy 2ce's as front mains?

Hi, Albert:

It's always good to hear from someone with a fine system that it's possible to assemble a high-resolution system for a reasonable amount by buying on A-gon. Most of my system, including all of my speakers, pre/pro, and power amps, were acquired from sellers on A-gon. The money I saved allowed me to build a much better system than I could otherwise have afforded. I realize that it's hard to avoid personal bias, but I found your comment about the Vandy 3A Sig's gratifying, They can form the foundation of an excellent, reasonably priced audio system. Getting a used pair simply makes the price-performance ratio even better.

Since you have a friend who is a Vandy dealer, you should by all means audition the VCC-5. If you do, please make a follow-up post and tell the rest of us what you think of this center channel speaker.

I have a good friend who is a Vandersteen dealer. Maybe I will ask to borrow one for an audition. Given my satisfaction with the small one, I’m sure your recommendation is a good one.

On the subject of Vandersteen, This evening my wife, son and I had dinner with the parents of one of his school mates. The father is the guy who‘s running his CD player into the Jolida 502B and Vandersteen 3 A Sig's I got for him here at Audiogon.

I can’t get over how nice his system is for so little money. Sure mine is better, but damn, I got his entire system for about the price of one of my Purist Audio Dominus Power cords.

People should be coming here in droves to put together reasonably priced audiophile systems.

Albert: Given your wonderful sound system, you ought to audition the VCC-5. I auditioned the VCC-5 (which is way too big for my system, but I wanted to hear it anyway), and it is the best center channel I have heard -- by a substantial margin. It ain't cheap at $2k, but I think it would be phenomenal with your Soundlabs.

Just goes to show that everyone's experience is different. I use the Vandersteen VCC-1 on top of a large rear projection Pioneer TV, just as Sdcampbell describes. My Vandersteen sits between Soundlab Ultimate Ones, so the description given by Mmowry should make my VCC-1 sound absolutely TINY, given the radiating area and dispersion pattern of the big Soundlabs.

My Vandy is driven with Atma-Sphere OTL, so it might have some advantage over others who have been disappointed with the VCC-1's performance, but in my system it is absolutely wonderful!

We stopped our Tuesday night music session (with LP only) to play the Nora Jones and Bjork DVD video's. Everyone in the room was amazed at the sound and one of my regular guys always says, "Man, I've GOT to get one of those dialogue speakers, they’re incredible."

I can't understand how we can all be so far apart on the same speaker.

I had, until about six months ago, a pair of Vandersteen 2 CE's and a VCC-1. I was and still am a big Vandersteen fan. However, I was never very impressed with the VCC-1. Dialogue seemed to be glued to the speaker and the presentation seemed rather small. I also didn't think it blended very well with the 2 CE's (possibly due to the limited bass extension). I guess if nothing else, at least it matched the look of the 2 CE's. If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have purchased the VCC-1. Although I am not sure what I would have purchased instead....

I use a VCC-1 with my Vandy 3A Signatures (and a pair of 2Wq subs), and I have been very pleased with it. However, honesty compels me to tell you that a good friend of mine, who used a VCC-1 with a pair of Vandy 3A's, did NOT care for the sound of the VCC-1 and eventually sold it. I think our different experiences were due to 2 factors:
1. we have quite different living rooms;
2. I have my VCC-1 mounted on a stand, below and in front of the plane of my direct view TV, whereas my friend had his VCC-1 sitting on top of a large rear projection TV, with the front edge of the speaker flush with the plane of the screen.

I have found that the VCC-1 blends very nicely with my Vandy main speakers, and I suspect it will do the same with yours (I also owned a pair of 2CE's, so I have experience with them).

The VCC-1 is occasionally found for sale on A-gon for around $300, which makes it a very good used value.

I do not have a home theater system, but from what I have read in various sources it would probably be to your advantage to go with the VCC-1. You will get a better presentation with the Vandersteen line-up than mixing the speakers. They were "made" for each other. I plan to go with the VCC-1 and someother surround speakers when its time to make the step.