Once again, my time in the Vandersteen room provided copious pleasure. Plus, it came in two installments: listening time in the inner sanctum, and chat time with Richard Vandersteen and Brad O’Toole in the entrance chamber. If that sounds rather exotic for a two-room hotel suite, you needed to be there.
We began with “Louis Collins” from the formidable duo of Jerry Garcia and Dave Grisman. Colors were superb—a bit more vivid than in the Pass Labs room—with a most gorgeous midrange and a very fine top. The sound of Grisman’s mandolin was worth queuing up for. I thought the Lyrita recording of Holst’s Golden Goose ballet music would have benefited from a larger room, but the midrange sounded gorgeous.
At my request, we also played Sandrine Piau’s 24-bit/96kHz recording of Robert Schumann’s “Die Lotosblume.” Her voice sounded heavenly. The depiction of air and space was supreme.
Vandersteen explained that the new Quatro CT Evo ($23,900/pair) has side-firing woofers, rather than downward-firing ones. Its crossover point has been moved up to 200Hz. “It gives you better counter-force cancellation, which stops movement that could affect the tweeter and midrange,” Vandersteen said. “Because the structure is more rigidly held, you get lower distortion.”
The Vandersteen L5-ACC Audio Control Center ($15,000), scheduled to start shipping in July, is a line-stage preamp whose complicated circuitry took seven years to develop—the software alone required three years. Built in the US, it contains no Chinese parts.
Vandersteen told me that the preamp includes a matrix button with cut-and-boost options for treble and bass. “It does not affect transparency,” he said. “The biggest button on the remote is for ‘defeat.’ You can take the tone controls totally out of circuit if you wish.” He added that there are built-in presets that improve the sound of old LPs that were designed to sound good on vintage turntables. “I have presets for loudness, old rock, and classical—but you can change all of them.”
Also heard: Vandersteen M5-HPA monoblocks with a 30" silver-and-copper biwire HPA interface cable ($21,000/pair); an Audio Research Reference Phono 3SE phono preamp ($22,500); an AMG Viella Forte turntable with 12JT Turbo tonearm ($32,000) and Lyra Atlas Lambda MC cartridge ($13,195); an Aurender N30SA server/streamer ($25,000) with MC10 master clock ($16,000); and an Audio Research DAC 9SE ($12,000). The components sat on an HRS EXR-1921-4V rack ($8175). The system was wired with AudioQuest cabling. Power conditioning was handled by an AudioQuest Niagara 5000 ($5900) and a Niagara 7000 ($11,000). Add all that up, and it was one fabulous system. I eagerly await more musical treats in my next visit to a Vandersteen room.
At my request, we also played Sandrine Piau’s 24-bit/96kHz recording of Robert Schumann’s “Die Lotosblume.” Her voice sounded heavenly. The depiction of air and space was supreme.
The Vandersteen L5-ACC Audio Control Center ($15,000), scheduled to start shipping in July, is a line-stage preamp whose complicated circuitry took seven years to develop—the software alone required three years. Built in the US, it contains no Chinese parts.
Vandersteen told me that the preamp includes a matrix button with cut-and-boost options for treble and bass. “It does not affect transparency,” he said. “The biggest button on the remote is for ‘defeat.’ You can take the tone controls totally out of circuit if you wish.” He added that there are built-in presets that improve the sound of old LPs that were designed to sound good on vintage turntables. “I have presets for loudness, old rock, and classical—but you can change all of them.”
Also heard: Vandersteen M5-HPA monoblocks with a 30" silver-and-copper biwire HPA interface cable ($21,000/pair); an Audio Research Reference Phono 3SE phono preamp ($22,500); an AMG Viella Forte turntable with 12JT Turbo tonearm ($32,000) and Lyra Atlas Lambda MC cartridge ($13,195); an Aurender N30SA server/streamer ($25,000) with MC10 master clock ($16,000); and an Audio Research DAC 9SE ($12,000). The components sat on an HRS EXR-1921-4V rack ($8175). The system was wired with AudioQuest cabling. Power conditioning was handled by an AudioQuest Niagara 5000 ($5900) and a Niagara 7000 ($11,000). Add all that up, and it was one fabulous system. I eagerly await more musical treats in my next visit to a Vandersteen room.
