opinion on vandersteen 5


Friend of mine called me last week from Vegas (ces show)He heard Vandersteen model 5 hooked on couple of VTL,s (rest of the system unknown)he claims best sounding speakers he ever heard?? ...anybody had the chance to listen them, and your impression's...Thank you!
eldragon
I heard them a couple of years ago at the Stereophile show in NY. I think this was a prototype then, it's probably undergone some changes. They were driven by the Cary 805 sig. SE amps and used the Kimber Black Pearl speaker cable ($15000). The sound was incredable. I am not a Vandersteen fan and have never been impressed with any other speaker by them. This was different though. It was musical, detailed with excellent imaging and a huge sound stage. Expensive though.
The model 5 is the best Vandersteen ever made. The model 4A (very limited production) was the only other Vandersteen even close. The really great news about the model 5 is that it's subs are powered by its own enclosed amp. That means you can invest in a smaller and higher quality amp that only has to drive the (easier) top end of the speaker. One of the guys in my audio group uses the Vandersteen 5's, and is running them on a pair of mono bloc Bel Canto's (tube 845 based). he gets great sound, and plenty of headroom in spite of the moderate power. By the way, I was at the show, and heard the set up with the VTL amps. The CES is a terrible place to try to make a comparison. Imagine, if you will, countless hotel rooms, all electrically wired pretty much together, all using CD players and amps and preamps, all connected to a mutual power source, and playing into a listning room small enough to pass for a mini van. (Often with the head boards of the removed beds, still in place). Its much better to find a friend or dealer and hear them yourself. In over 17 years of going to CES, good sound is indeed rare.