Fig.4 Vandersteen 2Ce Signature, lateral response family at 50", from back to…
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Fig.4 shows the Vandersteen's lateral dispersion. There are persistent notches at 1.6kHz and 3.2kHz, and some roughness in the responses in the mid-treble, perhaps due to early reflections from the top panel and the dowels that support it, but the 2Ce's radiation pattern is generally even and well-controlled. In the vertical plane (not shown), the speaker's balance doesn't change significantly between the midrange and tweeter axes. At 4.8kHz, however, a suckout develops level with the top of the speaker.
Manufacturer's Comment: Vandersteen 2Ce Signature
Editor: I'd like to thank Stereophile for the generally favorable review of the Vandersteen 2Ce Signature speakers published in the October issue. I seldom respond to reviews because they are simply a statement of one person's opinion, but this one calls out for comment because the measurements published don't accurately represent the performance of the product.
I strongly support the Stereophile policy of providing a comprehensive set of objective measurements along with each subjective loudspeaker review. I think that John…
In a sidebar to his review of the B&W DM302 speakers in the October 1997 issue (Vol.20 No.10), Wes Phillips mentioned a handy tool he uses for speaker setup—a laser level. The one Wes used was originally intended for construction work, not tweaking one's speaker placement, but now there's one available specifically for that purpose: The 770 SA-S Laser Sound Alignment System by Checkpoint Laser Tools.
Much like the anonymous one used by Wes, this cool tool consists of a torpedo bubble-level precision-machined out of aluminum, with a miniature laser that shines its beam out of one end…
Robert Deutsch added some thoughts in November 1998 (Vol.21 No.11):
When it comes to positioning loudspeakers in the listening room, you can never have too much accuracy. The ideal is to position each speaker in such a way that the distance to the listening seat is exactly the same, and the speakers have exactly the same vertical orientation and angle of toe-in. Once the speaker-to-listener distance of the two speakers is closely matched (you'll need a measuring tape and the help of an understanding Significant Other), you'll need to adjust the toe-in. The amount of toe-in is partly a…
Sidebar: Description
Checkpoint SA-S P-770: Laser setup tool for positioning loudspeakers.
Price: $139 (770 SA-S), $169 (P-770 SA-S).
Manufacturer: Checkpoint Laser Tools, 3112 Kashiwa Street, Torrance, CA 90505-4011. Tel: (310) 891-1550. Fax: (310) 891-1551. Web: www.checkpoint3d.com.
You've probably seen the ad in Stereophile: a very personal account by Avantgarde-USA president Jim Smith, describing how, during a 30-year career in high-end audio, he had become increasingly disappointed with conventional loudspeakers' ability to communicate the emotional impact of live music, and how he found the answer with the Avantgarde horn loudspeakers. It's advertising copy in the best I-liked-it-so-much-I-bought-the-company tradition—with the exception that Smith did not actually buy Avantgarde Acoustic, but did become their North American distributor.
Stereophile's policy is…
The Avantgarde Uno is technically a hybrid: a sealed-box cone subwoofer supplements the horn-loaded midrange and tweeter modules. The midrange driver is a 4" unit with a 2.5" dome, covering the range from 220Hz to 3500Hz, and was developed especially for the Uno. In the original Uno, the tweeter's sensitivity was lower than that of the midrange, which required a network to lower the midrange sensitivity by 1.5dB.
The Uno Series Two has a new tweeter that matches the midrange in sensitivity, so that the midrange is now driven directly by the amplifier, with no electrical crossover. The…
I initially set up the Unos in the living room, just to give them some playing time until the arrival of Jim Smith, who had offered to come by for a visit to help carry the speakers upstairs to my listening room and check that they were working properly. The Uno is heavy (the subwoofer alone weighs 100 lbs) and awkward to get ahold of, so taking them up the narrow set of stairs to my listening room involved a certain amount of weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
Once in the listening room, they were placed in what is my more-or-less-standard position, along the long side of my 16'…
A friend who admits to preferring levels considerably lower than the typical audiophile—and who promptly asked me to reduce the volume from the blow-the-man-down demo level—said that he was most impressed by how the Uno maintained a dynamic feel even while playing at a "background" level. At every level, the ebb and flow of musical expression—ie, microdynamics—was communicated with a precision that went beyond any other speaker I've had in my listening room.
Dynamics are all well and good, but a loudspeaker can't be described as a high-fidelity device unless it's able to produce an…
As it happened, most of my listening was with Cary 2A3SE monoblocks (much beloved by Sam Tellig), which are prototypical SETs. They certainly have the genre's famed midrange magic, with a wonderful liquidity and a sense of space and openness. Although the rated output is only 5Wpc, they played quite loud enough for me, and the sound was so musically right that I can well understand the devotion that some audiophiles have for the horn/SET combination.
However, if I start to get analytic about it (there I go again...), I have to admit that the bass was somewhat on the mushy side, and there…