| May 1, 2010
Vandersteen Audio Model Seven Loudspeakers
"Nothing’s Shocking."
Walking the halls of the High Performance Audio section of
a Consumer Electronics Show brings to mind that Jane’s Addiction classic. The panoply
of six-figure systems, and a near ubiquity of $20,000 components, make generating any
genuine buzz next to impossible. At the January 2009 CES, however, the Vandersteen Audio
suite was hopping with the debut (in prototype form) of its Model Seven loudspeaker. With
a bright-red automotive finish and a price of $45,000/pair -- nearly three times that of
the Model 5A, the firm’s flagship for the last decade -- the Seven propels
Vandersteen into new territory. Even the limitations presented by show conditions
couldn’t quell the enthusiasm generated by the prototypes, and the glimpse they gave
of the Seven’s ultimate capabilities. Subsequent "viewings" of the first
production pair, at both the 2009 Rocky Mountain Audio Fest and the 2010 CES, confirmed
the Model Seven’s status as a major achievement. Would it be shocking if this $45,000
statement product from an industry icon not only vaulted the performance bar set by
Richard Vandersteen’s earlier efforts, but also continued his +30-year tradition of
class-leading value by challenging the competition at many multiples of its price?
"There’s no such thing as a free lunch."
Applicable to many engineering disciplines (especially
those in high-performance audio), this maxim attributed to Milton Friedman thoroughly
encapsulates the dilemma facing every speaker designer. Designing a loudspeaker entails
myriad considerations, each fraught with consequences: What type of enclosure should be
used, made of what materials, and what size? What kind of drivers -- how many, and how
configured? What about crossover points and slopes, frequency ranges, efficiency,
aesthetics, retail price? And every one of these choices has a financial consequence.
Richard Vandersteen’s overriding vision is to create a
perfectly accurate -- and therefore, from his perspective, perfectly musical --
re-creation of an input signal’s waveform. Accordingly, Vandersteen speakers
incorporate first-order crossovers, time-aligned driver placement (just one driver per
frequency range), and minimal baffles. Because his approach places an especially high
demand on the drivers’ capabilities, as driver technology has evolved and advanced
over the past 30 years, so have Vandersteen speakers.
Driven to extremes
Rather than sidetracking this review with an extended
description of the technical aspects of the Model Seven’s cones, drivers, and chassis
construction, please see "Searching for the Extreme: Richard Vandersteen of Vandersteen Audio: Part
One" and "Part Two," for a technical Q&A session with Richard Vandersteen
I conducted last fall.
But briefly: Conceived as the ultimate expression of the
ideal of perfect waveform replication and realized through advances in materials science
(as applied to driver and enclosure technologies), the Model Seven represents a quantum
leap for Vandersteen Audio. The fulcrum of this advance is Vandersteen’s breakthrough
in driver technology. Following a decade of research and development, Richard Vandersteen
recently realized his goal of creating drivers that offer what he says is truly pistonic
operation throughout the extended frequency envelope demanded by first-order filter
networks. The technology -- trademarked by Vandersteen as Perfect Piston -- centers around
a new cone structure (for which a patent is pending). The cone consists of a balsa-wood
core machined to the optimum shape and size for its intended frequency range, then
laminated on both sides with a layer of ultra-high-modulus carbon fiber for a strong,
superlight, inherently antiresonant structure. The tweeter, midrange, and midbass cones
are all made using this trilaminate construction, to provide what Vandersteen claims is
ultralinear operation throughout the primary operating range and passbands, with
vanishingly low levels of distortion at all realistic output levels. Additionally, due to
such consistency of materials, an essential coherence among the drivers is attained at a
level Vandersteen says is unavailable when drivers made of different types and/or
materials are used together in the same speaker. There’s only one downside to
Vandersteen’s new driver technology: cost. Vandersteen says that each pair of cones
-- exclusive of the other driver components -- costs more to manufacture than the $995
retail price of the Model 1C, Vandersteen’s entry-level speaker model. Given all
this, the obvious challenge was to reimagine the perfect Vandersteen loudspeaker from the
ground up.
While the Seven follows the basic Vandersteen recipe that
proved so effective in the Model 5A -- a four-way speaker with a sealed enclosure with a
separate chamber and transmission line for each driver -- the materials used are vastly
different. Rather than the traditional wood or fiberboard, the Seven’s enclosure is
made primarily of carbon fiber, the essential ingredient in Vandersteen’s Carbon-Clad
enclosure panels. He begins with a carbon-fiber frame and bracing structure, to which he
applies body panels, each a nine-layer sandwich of three sheets of carbon fiber bonded to
high-density fiberboard, followed by a central damping agent and mirror-imaged layers of
HDF and carbon fiber, to create a strong, superstiff, inert package whose
constrained-layer damping gives it great resonance-killing properties. The crossovers,
too, have received a makeover. After investigating all ne plus ultra options, Vandersteen
settled on Gertz foil inductors and Duelund capacitors. Only the powered, fully balanced,
push-pull subwoofer system so effectively employed in the 5A has been carried over to the
Seven, to imbue it with both excellent bass performance and extraordinary flexibility in
speaker positioning. Speaker placement can be optimized for mid-frequency performance and
domestic considerations, leaving it to the subwoofer’s built-in, 11-band parametric
equalizer to dial in the bass and correct most bass/room interaction problems -- an
elegant, all-analog solution.
All this in a room-friendly package -- a tapered and
beveled shape just 44"H x 14"W x 20"D that’s visually much more
compact than the 5A -- that makes the Model Seven a "real-world" dream for
audiophiles, their spouses, and interior designers alike. And the Seven can be finished in
any PPG automotive finish now available -- my review samples were clad in royal blue
livery. Reflecting the luxury status of any recreational product costing $45,000/pair, the
Seven is shipped in a form-fitting, hand-sewn sleeve, to protect the luster of the finish
-- a fitting touch. To add icing to the cake, the Seven’s thoroughly modular design
enables drivers, crossovers, and amplifier modules to be replaced whenever enough advances
in technology have been made to justify an upgrade.
System
The Vandersteen Model Sevens energized my listening room
for almost two months this winter. Starting from the speakers and working backward, the
Sevens drank an elixir of electrons from the well of my 300Wpc Ayre Acoustics MX-R
monoblock amplifiers (tethered by a 1m, internally biwired pair of Cardas Clear Beyond
speaker cables). Source selection and volume control were provided by Ayre’s
transcendent KX-R preamplifier, the sources being either my VPI Scout turntable with
Aesthetix Rhea Signature phono stage, or my Ayre D-1xe DVD/CD spinner. All interconnects
were Clear by Cardas. The source components and preamplifier resided in my Harmonic
Resolution Systems MXR rack with M3X shelves (along one sidewall), with the monoblocks on
older, made-to-measure HRS M3 platforms placed immediately next to the speakers. Power was
delivered via Cardas Golden Reference AC cords and Ayre’s L-5xe passive power
conditioners.
Dynamite
I’ve never had so much fun auditioning or reviewing a
speaker -- or any other audio device. Whether listening to the duets of Ella Fitzgerald
and Louis Armstrong, the piano concertos of Chopin, or the recent reissue on 180gm vinyl
of René Leibowitz and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s The Power of the
Orchestra (45rpm LPs, RCA Living Stereo/Analogue Productions VCS-2659), I was drawn
into each. H.G. Wells would be impressed by the time-machine qualities the Model Seven
brought to my listening.
The Model Seven presented a purity of timbre that I’ve
only rarely experienced with hi-fi. Instrumental overtones and fine distinctions of voice
were presented with beguiling perfection. My copy of The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans Album
(45rpm LPs, Fantasy/Analogue Productions 9489) had never sounded more alive. Evans’s
meticulous production was sublimely presented through the Sevens, showcasing the frequency
extremes, resolution, impact, and three-dimensional soundstage captured on these discs.
The speaker’s supreme coherence was enhanced by its sound remaining very open and
uncolored. Such qualities are perhaps an offshoot of Richard Vandersteen’s
self-professed sensitivity to pitch. Because he’s jarred by even slight
discontinuities of pitch, his speakers prioritize the characteristics of timbre,
coherence, and naturalness. The tight spacing of the Seven’s three primary drivers,
and their uniformity of cone material, must be at least partly responsible for much of the
seamless consistency of the speaker’s sound.
One trait sometimes attributed to Vandersteen speakers is
"politeness," a backhanded compliment perhaps meant to confront a perceived lack
of dynamic energy. I’ve always felt my Model 5As to be very dynamic (dynamic
being the contrast between the noise floor and the volume level that can be achieved
without gross nonlinearities destroying the sound). Nonetheless, Vandersteen speakers are
subject to the challenges and stresses that first-order designs place on their drivers. As
a result, limitations in earlier driver technologies may have resulted in compromises that
favored musicality over unrestrained dynamics.
Any such limitations have been eliminated in the Model
Seven -- it is simply the most dynamic speaker with which I have had long-term experience,
with a remarkable ability to almost instantaneously bound from ppp to fff.
It is interesting to note that this extreme dynamic facility is produced by a speaker with
a fairly low claimed efficiency: only 83.5dB. It will take a fairly powerful amplifier to
drive the Sevens to the very high SPLs some listeners prefer (single-ended-triode tube
amps are out of the question), but regardless of overall volume level, the Seven was every
bit as dynamic as any high-efficiency horn speaker I’ve heard.
Having now returned to my stalwart Model 5A references, I
find it is the Model Seven’s dynamic contrast that I long for. The Seven has exposed
to my ears, for the first time, the limitations imposed by Vandersteen’s approach in
the Model 5A -- I now recognize in my benchmark speakers that touch of
"politeness" ascribed to earlier Vandersteen designs. Listening to Julie London
intone "Cry Me a River" on her debut album, Julie Is Her Name (45rpm mono
LPs, Liberty/BoxStar BSR 3006), through the Sevens was a revelation, as her sultry tones
tease the spare arrangement. As much as I enjoy listening to Diana Krall, I now hear her
as only a modern facsimile of London’s originality. While listening to the same track
via the 5As was still immensely enjoyable, gone was the bowl-you-over quality I’d
experienced through the Sevens. London was instead a half step back, separated from me by
an almost invisible pane of glass -- or perhaps a sheer sheet of silk. The Model 5A
may be more forgiving of some recordings, but it just couldn’t match the glory of the
Sevens with good, and especially great, records. At the end of the day, perfectionist
audio is about teasing out from the source material every last strand of potential, and
that was the Seven’s forte.
Contributing to the liveliness of the Model Seven was its
unprecedented lack of distortion, enabled by the pistonic capabilities of the drivers as
symbiotically coupled to Vandersteen’s remarkable Carbon-Clad enclosures. Without the
smear and slurry that even microlevels of distortion can impose on the music, the Seven
retrieved and resolved low-level details with ease. Its ability to communicate nuances of
performance -- instrumental decays, the space around instruments -- put it in a class with
few peers. They communicated subtleties even in "wall of sound" recordings,
making the deconstruction of intertwining elements not only possible but easy (so long as
one is inclined to reengage the right brain’s analytic abilities at the expense of
the left brain’s enjoyment of the overall experience). A perfect example occurred
during "Gigantic," from the Pixies’ Surfer Rosa (LP, 4AD/Mobile
Fidelity Sound Labs MFSL 1-296). Kim Deal’s lead vocal sits front and just right of
center, a cacophonous instrumental blizzard surrounding her on the soundstage. Half a
dozen steps back, however, just left of center and lurking under the maelstrom, is Black
Francis’s falsetto accompaniment -- perfectly discernible through the Sevens, and
with its voyeuristic complexities intact. The Pixies’ loud/quiet dynamic was
raucously reproduced by the Sevens, with nothing "polite" or forgiving within
earshot.
Many loudspeakers, especially when fed mediocre program
material, fall apart if driven to ever higher output levels -- like salt rubbed in a
wound. Through the Sevens, deficiencies in recordings remained evident, but those problems
in the sources were not compounded by transducer-induced nonlinearities that could
otherwise exacerbate and highlight the trouble spots. Bad recordings of good performances
remained incredibly enjoyable through the Sevens because of the speakers’ composed
accuracy, rather than because they hid or smoothed out problems.
A note of caution for those who like to play it loud: Based
on my experience with the Model Seven, I’ve come to believe that when a
listener’s brain tells him or her to "turn it down," it is reacting to the
nonlinearities (i.e., distortions) that tend to proliferate when speakers or
associated electronics are pushed to deliver high decibel levels. Because such
nonlinearities were essentially absent from the Model Sevens’ output -- I heard none
-- potentially ear-damaging volumes didn’t trigger in my own cranium the usual
command to "Turn it down!" During several listening sessions, I realized how
loudly I was playing the music only when I tried to talk to someone. Please practice
discretion in setting decibel levels. You have been warned.
Better is better
In an era when statement products seem to be designed on
the principle that bigger is better, but too often turn out to be merely bigger boxes with
more drivers, it’s refreshing that, in developing the Model Seven, Richard
Vandersteen has retained his philosophy of bringing out a new model only when it has been
justified by advancements in technology and creativity. The Model Seven goes about its
business in ways deceptively simple, and similar to the ways top athletes make the
extraordinary look easy. Experiencing the Model Sevens in my living room today reminds me
of my college days, watching basketball player Grant Hill from courtside -- better is
truly better.
Others may well prefer a larger-than-life sound or a more
dominating physical structure, but it is the Model Seven’s aspirations and
accomplishments that I so admire. Unquestionably, $45,000 is a lot of money to spend on a
pair of speakers, but understanding the cost of its component parts, I know it to be a
more than fair price. If produced by many manufacturers following industry-standard ratios
of cost to MSRP, I’m told that the Model Seven would likely be priced above $80,000.
In any event, I prefer the sound of this speaker over
others I’ve heard that cost $70,000, $110,000, even $180,000/pair. In short, it
represents tremendous value. One dealer recently told me that the best $6000/pair speaker
you can now buy is the $2200/pair Vandersteen 2Ce II. In keeping with the Vandersteen
tradition, some might now say that the best six-figure speaker you can buy is the
$45,000/pair Vandersteen Model Seven.
It’s lucky that I’m a goal-oriented person.
Meeting my new goal will require 45 large.
. . . Peter Roth
peter@soundstagenetwork.com
Vandersteen Audio Model Seven Loudspeakers
Price: $45,000 USD per pair.
Warranty: One year parts and labor (extended to five years parts and labor on timely
submission of warranty card).
Vandersteen Audio, Inc.
116 W. Fourth Street
Hanford, CA 93230-5021
Phone: (559) 582-0324
Website:
www.vandersteen.com
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