Richard Vandersteen doesn't appear to believe in stews or stirring. Vandersteen loudspeakers stay on the market for a long time, with infrequent updates. Consider the Vandersteen Quatro loudspeaker. The…
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"Stirring the stew" is what I've heard it called when a company introduces a new version of a product every three or four years. When a new product is launched, sales generally rise rapidly to a maximum and then slowly decline. If the stew is stirred every few years, plotting the product's sales volume against time results in a sawtooth wave, without sales ever dropping close to zero.
With the low-frequency performance optimized, the next step was to fine-tune each speaker's tilt-back with its three spiked feet—two at the front, one at the back. Whereas the original Wood gave its flattest measured response on the woofer axis, I found that sitting with my ears level with the Wood CT's midrange driver gave the most even treble balance. (The higher I sat, the more the top octaves started to stick out.) Then it was time to adjust toe-in: Each speaker ended up offset 10° to the outside edge of my head.
Listening
Despite its relatively modest size, the Quatro Wood CT…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT
Description: Three-way loudspeaker with integral powered subwoofer. Drive-units: 1" dual-chamber, carbon-fiber sandwich, composite-dome tweeter; 4.5" woven composite-cone midrange unit; 6.5" woven, composite-cone mid/woofer; two 8" paper-cone subwoofers. Crossover frequencies: 100Hz, 900Hz, 5kHz. Crossover slopes: first-order, 6dB/ octave. Subwoofer amplifier: built-in, 250W, with 11-band room-response compensation. Frequency response: 24Hz–40kHz, ±2dB. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms (±3 ohms). Sensitivity: 87dB/2.83V/m.
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Sidebar 2: Associated Equipment
Analog Source: Linn Sondek LP12 turntable with Lingo power supply, Linn Ekos tonearm, Linn Arkiv B cartridge, Channel D Seta L phono preamplifier.
Digital Sources: Roon Nucleus+ music server; Ayre Acoustics C-5xeMP universal player; PS Audio PerfectWave DirectStream D/A converter; Ayre Acoustics QA-9 USB A/D converter.
Power Amplifiers: Lamm Industries M1.2 Reference (monoblocks).
Cables: AudioQuest Vodka (Ethernet), DH Labs (1m, AES/EBU). Interconnect: AudioQuest Wild Blue (balanced). Speaker: AudioQuest William Tell Zero Bi-Wire (with M5-HPAs…
Sidebar 3: Loudspeaker Measurements
I used DRA Labs' MLSSA system and a calibrated DPA 4006 microphone to measure the Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT's frequency response in the farfield and an Earthworks QTC-40 mike for the nearfield responses. I left the loudspeaker's grille in place for the measurements, as it provides the necessary acoustic boundary conditions for the drive-units.
Vandersteen specifies the Quatro Wood CT's sensitivity as 87dB/2.83V/m. My estimate was 83dB(B)/2.83V/m, which is lower than average but within experimental error of the 83.5dB/2.83V/m I measured for the…
Sidebar 4: Amplifier Measurements
I performed a full suite of measurements on one of the Vandersteen M5-HPA amplifiers (serial no.0138), using my Audio Precision SYS2722 system (see www.ap.com and the January 2008 "As We See It"). I usually precondition a power amplifier by running it at one-third the specified power into 8 ohms for 60 minutes. However, the M5-HPA turned itself off after 30 minutes. At that time, the side panels next to the heatsinks were hot, at 118.2°F (48.2°C), while the top panel was only slightly cooler, at 110.9°F (43.9°C). I waited a few minutes then turned the…
Photo of the Portland State Chamber Choir: John Atkinson
"The crying rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause."—Bob Dylan, "Lay Down Your Weary Tune"
I remember as a toddler sitting in the kitchen on a highchair, watching my mother smoke a cigarette, apply red lipstick, and tune a turquoise table radio from one news station to another. Between the strange, nattering voices, the radio emitted a sharp hissing sound. That's my first memory of human voices coming from a little box.
I did not understand how the voices got into the box. But I saw a wire that went…
Austrian loudspeaker manufacturer Trenner & Friedl has a thing for coaxial drivers. They're used in at least three of the company's eight loudspeaker models, including the diminutive Sun bookshelf speaker and the large floorstanding Taliesin. In these models, T&F eschew more conventional stacked drivers for a putatively time-aligned, wide-frequency range coaxial design.
I first encountered T&F's approach when I reviewed the above-mentioned Sun, which proved to be the best small loudspeaker experience I've ever had. And I do mean small, as in 8.25" high by 6.25" wide by 5.5"…
Once they were situated in my main listening area, I pushed the Osirises backward and forward and in and out over a period of days, winding up with the speakers exactly where John DeVore put his O/93s some eight years ago. I measured 40" from the speakers' rear panels to the back wall and 72" from the front edge of the Osirises' cabinets to my listening seat. Toeing them in to fire directly at me, so that the sides of the cabinets were unseen, provided optimal imaging and frequency extension.
I set the speakers on "Anti-Vibration Isolation Pads" measuring 6" by 6" by 2" and weighing 12…
Sidebar 1: Specifications
Description: Coaxial-driver, vented, floorstanding loudspeaker. Drive units: 6.5" paper cone woofer, coated with oil lacquer. 1" horn-loaded coaxial compression tweeter driver with titanium diaphragm. Frequency range: 38Hz–30kHz. Sensitivity: 88.7dB/2.83V/1m. Nominal impedance: 8 ohms.
Dimensions: 33.50" (850mm) H by 14.25" (360mm) W by 14.56" (370mm) D. Weight: 55lb (25kg).
Finishes: Walnut natural, walnut amaranth, walnut blazed.
Serial numbers of units reviewed: 538A, 538B. "Handcrafted in Austria."
Price: $8500/pair. Approximate number of…