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Vandersteen Model 5 Speakers - anybody have these? (1 Viewer)

J

John Morris

This past weekend I listened to a system which used a pair of Vandy Model 5 speakers. WOW! They were some of the best sounding speakers that I've ever heard. But, they were in a system which used Bel monoblock amps, a $6K preamp, and a $5K CD player, so, I'm not sure if what I was hearing was more due to superior electronics or the speakers themselves. Also, the store had the rear firing tweeters turned off. How does the rear firing tweeter affect the speaker's performance and do you use them, or turn them off?

Finally, what is the best price on these speakers that anyone has found?

Thanks for your help!
 

chris c

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Jun 30, 1997
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Was this at Audio Concepts? I heard the same setup there a number of times and it always makes me wish I had more money and space. I've heard the Model 5s with lesser electronics and they still sounded great but those BEL amps seem to be a match made in heaven.
 

Jack Gilvey

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Mar 13, 1999
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I've heard the 5's running on Cary 805 mono amps, truly amazing. You can never go very wrong with Vandersteen.
 

KeithR

Second Unit
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Mar 26, 2001
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I heard them at the HE show last year on Cary V12 monos, Wadia frontend, and I forgot which preamp. Awesome tt setup as well. My personal best of show last year. Everything just jammed in that room, and a huge soundstage for lots of peeps to hear in many areas of the room.
 

Mike Matheson

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Jul 15, 2000
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Vandy Model 5's often show up on Audiogon for great deals. I also was really impressed with their sound and have been considering (salivating over?) a purchase.

Mike
 

John Desmond

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Nov 13, 2000
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90
The 5s are terrific speakers. I've heard them in a number of setups and always thought they were very natural and listenable.
 

mctague

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Nov 9, 1999
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*shiver* aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh, $8k worth of BELs could make just about ANYTHING sound good.
I would kill for just 1 of those chassis for my mains.....but the wife not letting me pull my speakers out far enough, not to mention the RPTV between the mains kinda defeats the purpose, eh? :frowning: not to mention that would probably call for a speaker upgrade.....
Audio Concepts now has a 5 channel SACD in the Ariel room to show what 5 channel music should sound like.....aaahh...
 
J

John Morris

Audio Concepts now has a 5 channel SACD in the Ariel room to show what 5 channel music should sound like.....aaahh...
Mctague: Did you do the SACD demo in that room with the 7Bs? First, they use the hybrid stereo cut and man it sounds fantastic. Then, they quickly switch to the multichannel mix... and damn! They have that system set up perfectly. The MC mix doesn't even sound like the usual MC sound, it just sounds like an incredible, live, broad, deep, perfectly imaged front soundstage. And the SACD disc I heard, The ? Brothers do the Beatles(or something like that) was perfect for the room demo. Still, I think they could use some better power in that system. I was listening at a pretty high level, and although the first 5 cuts or so sounded great, I heard some minor distortion, short of clipping, during the orchestral, busy and bloated Sargent Pepper cut. Yes, a bit more power and it WOULD be perfect! This system actually is making me re-evaluate using dipoles as my side surrounds again. They just seemed to blend oh so well with the fronts for SACD MC music.
 

mctague

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Nov 9, 1999
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Same demo, John. And yea, I think quite a bit of time has been spent setting up that room, cause it sounds GOOD. I hadn't heard that Beatle's disc, and was really enjoying the 2 channel even before we got to the 5 channel. Wow! Though I bet you can count the number of reference-level 5 channel discs out therer on 1 or 2 hands.

The Runco FP in there is nice too.

Pardon me, I gotta go run out and buy some lottery tickets!
 

Tim Baldwin

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Sep 11, 1999
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Never heard any Vandersteens sound less than great. Think I've seen em used perhaps in the 5k range? Think the 3A is the bang-for-buck champ when you can occasionally find them used around 1700.
 

mctague

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Nov 9, 1999
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While at AC, I was shown their new center: VCC- 5. Sounds quite a bit better than their normal center, which my Dad has with a pair of 2CEs. Though it should, at $2K if I recall correctly.
 

Jason Watson

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Joined
Sep 10, 1999
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139
John,

Did you find the bass at all muddy in the Vandy5 room? I was there last weekend looking for a CD, listened to the 5s, and I thought they sounded great but the bass seemed a little sloppy. I dunno, maybe it was the CD,but deeper piano notes were too bloated or something. Then again, I might just be used to planner bass with music.

Jason
 

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