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New (to me) Speakers!
I browse Audiogon regularly, looking at new postings and postings in my area and I also hit the local audio and HT shops regularly, just to listen. Friday I saw a pair of Vandersteen 2C's on Audiogon, in my own zip code. I sent an e-mail to the guy, asking if he would be willing to demo them for me, and got a response that evening, with an invitation for come by Saturday morning. At the price he was asking I wasn't expecting much, but I figured it was worth a shot.
Well, it turned out to be one of the better shots I've taken in a long while. The 2Cs are about 7 years old, but are in excellent condition and sound better than they look, even with the lousy placement he was forced to use in his home. We spent about 2.5 hours playing a bunch of different material, but I already knew I was going to buy them after the 1st 30 minutes. The rest of the time was spent just showing each other different music that we weren't familiar with (he's classical, I'm rock and some jazz). We really had a good time and I helped him bring in the B&W 803's that were replacing the 2Cs after we had loaded them in my truck.
The 2Cs are replacing a pair of Paradigm Monitor 90Ps that I've had for about 4 years. The Paradigms have done good service, particularly for HT, but I've always felt they were lacking for music. The 2Cs will never have the punch that the 90Ps, with their built-in subs, have, but there's no question they are a far more musical speaker than the Paradigms. A good example is the sound of an acoustical guitar when a string is plucked or a cymbol clash. IRL the note seems to hang in the air, slowly decaying away. With the 90Ps that slow decay wasn't there, it is with the 2Cs. I think this may be what is commonly referred to as 'air'. But whatever you want to call it, the 2Cs have it, the 90Ps don't and it makes an amazing difference in the realism and quality of the sound.
It was an impulse buy, but so far I don't regret it in the least. The 2Cs are definitely an improvement over the 90Ps for music, which is much more important to me. Given my budget situation right now, I could not have afforded to spend more for anything newer and I think I would have had to spend quite a bit more to get anything better.
FTR, his source was a Denon 2800-MKII (as a transport) with a Golden Theater GTX-1 processor handling the DAC and an Adcom 6000 power amp. My equipment is a Carver SD/A-360 CDC (analog out), Yamaha RX-V596 (as a pre) and Sherbourn 5/1500A power amp. Source material was all CDs (he wasn't hooked up for 24/96 stereo) and for reference included Supertramp's Crime of the Century (remaster), Diana Krall's The Look of Love, Mighty Sam McClain's Give it up for Love, John Coltrane's The Very Best of John Coltrane, Mason Williams' The Mason Williams Phonograph Record (remaster), and Leonard Bernstein's (w/NYC Philharmonic) production of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings. Stuff I brought along just because I like to listen to it included Goo Goo Dolls Dizzy Up the Girl, Tears for Fears Songs From the Big Chair, and Fleetwood Mac's Rumors, among others.
Dan
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
--Benjamin Franklin
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