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Vandersteen Seminar at Audio Connection (NJ)

Audio Connection hosted a fantastic seminar this past Saturday with Richard Vandersteen.  Richard spent a few hours answering questions and telling us about what's going on at Vandersteen.  One of the more interesting tidbits (IMHO) was Richard's focus (obsession?) on the non-pistonic behavior of cones, found in even in "hi end" drivers (but not his carbon/balsa ones).  Richard seemed to view non-pistonic behavior as causing significant losses in information, and simultaneously responsible for the heightened sensitivity of a lot of drivers (i.e., that some of those dBs of sensitivity are distortion).  He mentioned that a major objective is to bring pistonic behavior into the lower-cost designs, leading me to hope that upgrade packages might because available for the 3A Sigs.  :)    

After the chat, Johnny R had a demo running of the 7s set up with the new Vandy subs ("System 9" is what he was calling it), Vandy amps, AR Reference preamp, and Aesthetix phono-pre.  (Sorry, I missed the specifics of the pre and the analog rig; I did notice that it was a Benz LP cartridge.)  They were playing the MoFi one-step pressing of Fagen's The Nightly--it was probably the best sound I've ever heard in my 25+ years in this hobby.  The midrange and high frequency clarity was just unreal.  After "New Frontier" played, the whole room had to pick their collective jaw up from the ground.

Kudos to RV, Johnny R and the whole Audio Connection for putting on such a fantastic event, and for setting up the demo system so well.
cedargrover
audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
357 posts
 

Cedargrover,

Thanks for putting up this thread, sorry we didn't have a chance to meet. I was the one that requested some 'Dan' music and Nick came up with The Nightfly. I was in the center seat, front row and i think my brain melted after hearing that.

Also want to give thanks to John and crew at Audio Connection for hosting this wonderful event. Admittedly a lot of what RV spoke about went over my head. But his passion and commitment were the things that I connected to.

One of the things that I came away with that day is that I need to get a turntable. I think the vinyl bug bit me hard!

Cheers,

Joe


cedargrover OP
302 posts
 
Hi Audionoobie!  I'm the one who said you were a man after my own heart when you requested "Dan"!  I was right behind you during the demo!  I will make sure to say hello to you at the next seminar.

You definitely need to invest in a turntable.  Even if you don't want to invest much, you can great sound.  I have a very inexpensive Rega RP1 (I paid about $600 with the so-called "Performance Pack") and I get amazing sound from that.  Of course, the sky's the limit from there.

Best

Michael


tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,869 posts
 
glad to hear it was such a good time!
my brother reports that the event in Florida was also fantastic!!!!

Pistonic is one of the holy grail pursuits, RV work looking at the behavior of cones will be regarded as seminal someday .....the laser does not lie....many high end drivers are producing significant out of phase output compared to the input signal

i also think in some sense people like the trash that comes with cones flopping out of phase and we know for sure that the human brain equates louder with better...so in some sense many 5 a owners dont ( at first ) understand the 7.....

spend any amount of time with the 7 and you will know....
audionoobie's avatar
audionoobie
357 posts
 

@cedargrover That's crazy man!!! Glad you dug it as much as I did. I would say that $600 - $800 is what I'm looking to spend so I will def. keep your recommendation in mind.

I'm curious to see if any other Agonners were present at AudioConnection as well.....

cedargrover OP
302 posts
 
Your point is well-taken, tomic601.  As a (mediocre) drummer, I hone in on percussion because I know what cymbals and drums sound like in real life.  Same for piano from having grown up with it.  It takes a short while to ease into what the 7s are doing, but when you start to really think about what you are hearing and apply your references, there's no escaping that what the 7 is doing is right (IMHO).

audionoobie, I'm not sure if Johnny has an RP1 on display, but happy to bring mine in so you can hear it. I live 2 miles from there.
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