Vandersteen in a HT? (1 Viewer)

[Colin Dunn]

Jason -

Thanks for posting that link to the Maggie HT review. I didn't know Outlaw was making a Maggie-specific ICBM that would give higher crossover points for the MGCC1 and MGCC2. The MGCC1 & 2 have identical frequency response specs (that 160Hz roll-off point).

That may convince me not to ditch those Maggies after all...

I didn't see any reference to the Maggie edition of the ICBM on Outlaw's Web site. I wonder if it's available only through Magnepan dealers...

 

[Kevin C Brown]

Ken- The 2CE Sigs would be about 8 ft away for the fronts, and whatever the rears would be would be about 5-6ft away.

Do you have the VSM's mounted? I asked Vandersteen about putting them on stands, and they were kind of adamant about the fact that they are designed to be on a wall.

 

[Alex F.]

Hello, again, Ken!

Amazingly, your old theater room and new room are practically identical to our current and upcoming rooms, at 15 x 12 and 21 x 15, respectively!

Yes, I would be extremely interested in how the Vandersteens work out in your new room. When you find the time, please let me know through a post here or via this forum's e-mail link. There's no rush at my end, as the house won't be completed until the end of March or early April (we plan to move the final week of April).

A Vandersteen system built around the 3A Signatures is currently at the top of our list for the HT room. My wife and I have been auditioning quite a few products over the past few months and our top choice, based on overall sound quality, evolved from the Dunlavy SC-IVA, to the Vienna Acoustic Mahlers, to the Vandersteens. The Vandersteens have a rare combination of full-range frequency response, seamless coherency, smoothness, and detail, along with zero ear fatigue.

Thank you!

 

[James Miller]

I've got a pair of Vandersteen 2's up front. Just getting into HT.

I'd prefer to keep the Vandersteens, primarily for music, and my new HT receiver does not have "B" speaker connectors, so I don't have the choice of adding satellite front l/r only for HT. To maintain consistency up-front I will need to go with the Vandersteen Center ($540)

Couple questions:

If I add another brand for surrounds (thinking about JBL studio series) will that significantly detract from my overall experience? I don't want to pony up $540 for the Vandersteen center, and another $900 for the Vandersteen surrounds. I would like to keep Center+Surrounds to under $1000 total.

Has anyone any experience with a different brand center, along with the Vandersteen front l/r? If I could get a cheaper center that still matches fairly well with the Vandies I would prefer to go that route.

If I need to maintain consistency throughout the system. (front, center, surrounds) it would likely be cheaper to just get an entire new JBL Studio set.

Any thoughts/advice are much appreciated!

 

[Ken Rivera]

Hi Kevin,

I have to agree with Vandersteen - the VSM-1s should be wall mounted. I have mine wall mounted - they look great on the wall. Since Vandersteen doesn't put tacky looking name-insignia on the speakers, they look custom when placed on the wall.

Does your room have some sort of placement problem which does not allow you to install the VSM-1s on the wall, or is it a matter of preference? With your cat problems I would think wall mounting might be a preferable situation. Actually, if you read the review from Widescreen Review for the Vandersteen Home Theater set-up, the reviewer briefly reviewed the VSM-1s as main speakers hooked-up to 2Wq subs and really liked the results. They really are good speakers on their own.

I'm sure that you could use VLR-1s for the left and right surround, with a VCC-1 as the center surround. I think that this would sound very good as well. You would have to add some $$$ for stands, which could factor into the calculation. Cosmetically, the VSMs give you a much cleaner and uncluttered look. Just a matter of preference I guess.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any other questions. Take care!

Ken Rivera

 

[Ken Rivera]

Hi Alex,

Well, seems like the 15x21,22 is a popular size. Actually, in my room the roof is actually 9.5 feet tall, but the foundation is 6 inches lower than the rest of the house. I build a "floating" wood sub-floor to provide tactile feel to the bass energy in the room. I carpeted over the floor, which gives you a net ceiling height of 9 feet.

I'll post some additional feedback once the room is complete - I have a lot of work to do! Take care.

Ken Rivera

 

[mctague]

Hey James Miller!

My Dad runs 2CEs with the Vandy center, and he saved money by doing PSBs for the rears. I would suggest going ahead with the Vandy center (front soundstage is everything to me), and whatever floats your boat for the surrounds.

I substituted a more economical JMLab bookshelf instead of their dedicated surrounds for my system. Unless your chasing di/bi polars, I think the manufacturers are gouging for some of their "surround" models.

Your mileage may vary.......

 

[James Miller]

I suspect I'll end up with the Vandy Center... (although it will definitely be the LAST step in the process) while no less costly than two new mains + center, and sacrificing brand consistency w/ surrounds, I do want to keep the "music" side of the house on the Vandy side...

Planning on going with JBL Studio 36's for the surrounds... I'm sure they'll be more than adequate for that purpose; and I believe I'd be losing music quality with JBL 310/312's for mains...

Besides, I have no room/inclination to have a spare set of floor-standing speakers on my hands, and it would be a major pain to try to sell/pack/ship them on Ebay...

 

[David Cerfolio]

Has anybody tried putting the Vandy surrounds on the ceiling? Is this possible?

 

[Jason Watson]

I found this thread and thought it might be of interest.http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...222917&2&3&4&. What a shame! I realy wanted a coulple of Vandersteen subs since I have heard that they are THE subs for Maggies. I have not ruled them out because of this, but must admit that I will look more closely when the time comes. I just cant stand nasty people when they are too far away to kick in the head

 

[James Miller]

I've called a couple times re: my model 2's. (over a decade old, and probably cost no more at the time that the model 1s do now)

Spoke drectly to Richard and was completely satisfied with the conversations and the answers he provided. Didn't make me feel all warm and fuzzy, nor did they make me feel frustrated or insulted.

In fact, I never would have given the coversations a second thought had I not stumbled across the above message, and the ad nauseum posts at the link above.

I would give 1% weight to the "personality" issue and 99% to the quality/price point of the speakers...

 

[Joe Casey]

Jason,
Don't give up that easy. I'm running a pair of 2Wq's with my 3.6's AND have talked to Richard. I'm not giving up my subs.