Stand Loudspeaker Reviews

I wondered whether to use the Tweak Geek Dark Matter Stealth power conditioner, Nordost QKore ground units and QB8 power distributor, and combination of Nordost Valhalla and Odin 1 and 2 AC-power cabling that I use with the Dynaudios. The alternative was to plug the standard power cords of the T1E and MacBook Pro into the loose-fitting, 27-year-old standard AC outlet in the wall. While going the latter route would subject the system to all the noise of a dimmer-laden, appliance-rich house, it would also more accurately replicate what a non-audiophile T1E owner might hear: How many people use a $7200 power conditioner and $40,000 or more worth of cabling and power treatment with $599/pair powered speakers? Hence, for most of my listening, I went with the wall-is-all setup, with exceptions as noted.

So what did you hear, already?
I loved the sound of these speakers. Their images are fairly small, and without a subwoofer, their bass extension is modest. (Vanatoo says they're –10dB at 40Hz when the system's EQ is switched to Flat.) And while they had no trouble filling our living room with pop music, they fell short of volume on some classical selections. (For those reasons alone, I never attempted to play a Wagner opera or big symphonic works of Mahlerian proportions.) Still, taking into account those limitations, the T1E system is more than just a toy limited to use as computer monitors in a small office, a background-music source for cooking or dining, or a first system for your five-year-old. The Vanatoo T1Es are musical, superbly balanced powered speakers that serve up far more of a meal than you might expect at their price point.

As I experimented with the T1E's many options, I turned on Bluetooth in the Settings of my iPhone 6. When the Vanatoo Bluetooth network appeared, I selected it, opened my phone's Tidal app and, for the first time in my long life, streamed Tidal wirelessly via Bluetooth.

Tidal surprised me by offering up a classical advance-teaser track released by Decca that very day, with soprano Lise Davidsen singing Richard Strauss's glorious lied "Cäcille," accompanied by the Philharmonia Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle. While the distortion I heard on Davidsen's voice confirmed why Stereophile does not review Bluetooth speakers, the sound was good enough that I was tempted to open my computer and find that track so I could hear it at its best. Not only did the T1E system deliver an ideal balance between voice and orchestra, with no noticeable crossover break between woofer and tweeter, but it also presented singing that thrilled me. (As soon as the track ended, I watched a video on Tidal of Davidsen recording Strauss's Four Last Songs and immediately messaged Universal Classics to beg them to send me the files prior to the album's late-May release so that I could consider reviewing the recording for the print edition of Stereophile.)

Would Davidsen have sounded different on my six-figure reference system? No doubt. When I used 24/96 WAV files of mezzo-soprano Marianne Crebassa singing Debussy's three sensual Chansons de Bilitis (Songs of Bilitis) on her and pianist Fazil Say's album Secrets (Erato 564483) to compare the sound of the T1E to that system, the high-priced spread delivered far more richness and greater timbral complexity on Crebassa's voice; considerably more treble brilliance and midrange fullness on Fazil Say's piano; and depth and air for days. But what I did hear through the T1Es was nonetheless so musically compelling that I sat in rapt attention through the songs, enjoying every minute.

Despite the T1E's limitations, many of the essential and distinctly individual aspects of three different voices—those of Frederica von Stade, Jane Bathori, and Maggie Teyte—were revealed by these extremely musical speakers when I compared their recordings of Les Chansons de Bilitis to Crebassa's. The T1Es may not have reproduced all of their undertones and overtones, but they conveyed the unique heart of each of these great singers' soul-touching instruments.

My hubby passed through the living room on his way upstairs, commenting as he did so on the different recordings. But because the von Stade was recorded at too low a level, by the time he got where he was going, I couldn't turn the volume up loud enough for him to hear her clearly. (This in a house where we're used to having music fill virtually every space.) I even went into T1E's Customizable Settings and defeated volume compression, which is designed to ensure that speakers don't distort when volume rises above a certain level—but I still couldn't get them to play louder.

I brought this to the attention of Gary Gesellchen, who replied, "The T1E is set up such that the loudest signal that can come in over any of the digital inputs crests just short of clipping the amp or overdriving the woofer when everything is set to nominal. This max signal resides in a fairly narrow band in the bass, where the bass boost from the amp matches the purposefully recessed speaker response to produce a flat overall sum. You can drive it into clipping by cranking up the tone controls, but all by itself it stops just short.

"Classical has a wide dynamic range, and unlike most pop music, is thankfully (usually) recorded with little or no compression . . . often the loudest passages never get close to 0dB because the recording engineer never wants to clip. . . . It's the combination of a cautious recording engineer and a cautious design engineer conspiring to limit output levels." In short, the T1E can only play so loud. You can customize settings to drive pop music louder, but you'll have less luck with classical and sensitively recorded jazz.

Days before, I had thrown at the T1E system two pop reference tracks, Yello's "Electrified II" from Toy (24/48 WAV, Polydor 4782160/HDtracks) and Will.i.am's title track from #thatPower, featuring Justin Bieber (16/44.1 FLAC, Interscope Records UICS-9136/7). Thanks to Roon Radio, Tidal, and Qobuz, I also served up a 24/48 stream of Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper's "Shallow" and "Music to my Eyes" from the movie A Star is Born; Agnes Obel and Lena Platonos's "Bloody Shadows from a Distance"; and Dire Straits' "My Parties." (I had Dire Straits on my brain, given how many times they're played at hi-fi shows.) I also played several classical reference tracks, including "Sleepers Awake" from Yo-Yo Ma, Chris Thiele, and Edgar Meyer's Bach Trios (24/96 WAV, Nonesuch 558933) and Eric Whitacre's "Lux Aurumque" from male vocal ensemble Cantus's While You Are Alive (24/88.2 ALAC, CD Baby 5637240534), the latter superbly recorded by John Atkinson. In every case, I heard the essentials of what I had hoped to hear. In particular, on the Bach, every note of Meyer's bass was present, albeit modestly so, and all three instruments sounded beautiful.

Comparisons
We compared the sound of the T1E system and MacBook Pro plugged directly into the wall to having them plugged into the Nordost QB8 power distributor, which was connected to the Tweek Geek Dark Matter Stealth power conditioner, whose power cord was an ultraexpensive Nordost Odin 2. Two Nordost QKore grounding units were also connected to QB8 and computer. On the tracks from Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, the extras produced rounder-sounding guitars and significantly quieter backgrounds, from which Cooper's voice rose cleanly. The sound was not only warmer and more color-saturated, but it was also so much fuller, rounder, and more dynamic that I had to turn down the volume. In addition, bass was considerably stronger and highs less bright than without treatment.

"The vocals are much more tightened up and refined, and the voice more defined," said the spouse. "Directly into the wall, the sound was grayer."

Grab your standard list of audiophile attributes and check all the boxes. Big surprise. The point is, plugged directly into the wall, dirty power and all, the Vanatoo T1E powered loudspeaker system delivered remarkably musical and satisfying sound.

Lacking prompt access to comparatively priced competitors from Audioengine and Edifier, I resorted to comparing the Vanatoos to my Dynaudio Focus 200 XD powered loudspeaker system. Fed and connected by a mix of Nordost Valhalla and Odin cabling—the setup requires two power cables, two digital cables, a USB cable, and a USB-to-S/PDIF converter, which increases cost considerably—the Dynaudios played far louder without clipping, and produced bigger images and notably more and deeper bass, detail, and nuance. They probably would have excelled in soundstaging and dimensionality as well if my digital cable had been long enough to allow me to space them farther apart. Nonetheless, the Dynaudios sounded a bit drier than the Vanatoo T1E system.

Do you get it?
If you've skipped directly to this conclusion, I need to say it one more time: The compact Vanatoo Transparent One Encore powered loudspeaker system will likely shatter your expectations of what a $599 powered loudspeaker system can deliver. Connect it to a computer source via a quality USB cable, feed it files via your streaming service app of choice or quality music playback software, and you will discover a well-balanced, surprisingly neutral, astoundingly musical playback system. If you're looking for an affordable, almost-all-in-one system, and you can live with Vanatoo T1E's limited low frequency extension, volume, image size, and resolution, I can't imagine that you'll be anything other than delighted by what you hear.