Vandersteen VLR Speaker Review

[voodooless]

By the way for a very similar price you can get also a pair of active Seas coaxial monitors with FIR DSP from a known German manufacturer (KS Digital is the sibling company of the known Backes & Müller active home hifi loudspeakers):

https://www.thomann.de/de/prod_pdfreview_54513-mm59118_sr201706040.pdf

Interestingly, they have the same kind of directivity issues:

The issues are pushed up quite a bit higher in frequency though, so that is a major plus.

 

[uwotm8]

Vandersteen VLR coaxial bookshelf speaker. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $1,815 a pair

Actually... Starting at $3,200 pair

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers | Vandersteen Audio

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers

www.vandersteen.com

Now I'm scared and woted for GREAT

 

[uwotm8]

they have the same kind of directivity issues

Well as fas as only KEF did something to make coaxials great again, others (even Morel have some Dynaudioaxials, and there's a ton of SB Acoustics-grade or even these in JBL 104's) are all the same, spiky and uneven

 

[tomtoo]

No bass and rollercoaster mid to highs. Expensive. It must be audiophile.

 

[amirm]

Actually... Starting at $3,200 pair

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers | Vandersteen Audio

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers

www.vandersteen.com

Where are you seeing that? I see $1,850 which is what I wrote in the review.

 

[thewas]

Interestingly, they have the same kind of directivity issues:
View attachment 216332
The issues are pushed up quite a bit higher in frequency though, so that is a major plus.

Almost all coaxials except the current Genelec and KEF ones have some upper dispersion issues, although the above KS one at around 10 kHz (similar to the Kali Audio one) cannot be compared and is by far not as problematic and audible like the directvity missmatch of this Vandersteen between 1 and 4 kHz which could be corrected to a big part with a better crossover design.

 

[Sokel]

The simple fact of the woofer being “on” the baffle instead of flush is an almost immediate sign that the response will be jagged. Even moreso with the frame being cut to fit on the sides

I was always wondering about that,lots of speakers have their woofer on baffle instead of flush,JBL's for example and lots more.
Being only woofers (not coaxial) is the point I think.

 

[DanielT]

... round to to round over the edges....

For completeness, such fine horizontal first reflections are obtained if you round the edges properly:
(see attached pictures)

faktiskt.io • Visa tråd - 1: Frekvensgång, 2: Spridning, .. Spinorama?

Plus flush mounts elements.

Tip:

 

[DanielT]

Where are you seeing that? I see $1,850 which is what I wrote in the review.

MAYBE the same? The model they call VRL Wood:
(Same except finsh, the surface that is)

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers | Vandersteen Audio

Vandersteen Audio High End Speakers

www.vandersteen.com

 

[uwotm8]

Where are you seeing that? I see $1,850 which is what I wrote in the review.

Actually I got how it works!
1)

2)

3)

 

[poxymoron]

Shameful really to have such poor performance for such a high price. I know we see this all the time, so it's nothing new, but at least other poor performing overpriced speakers might be something you enjoy looking at (think most of enjoy looking at attractive speakers). With the grill on, these remind me of my old Mission 780SEs, which I bought for IR£230 back in 1994. The Missions probably performed better.

 

[F1308]

The simple fact of the woofer being “on” the baffle instead of flush is an almost immediate sign that the response will be jagged. Even moreso with the frame being cut to fit on the sides

But most people will think they are so heavily engineered on purpose, a must have to grant the aerodynamics...
Perfectly round woofers are nearly everywhere, if at all allowed to be seen behind the curtains grills provide most of the time.
A visual trick and that's all.

 

[Rick Sykora]

Richard Vandersteen is an early advocate of design based on measurement. So would have expected these to align better with ASR’s philosophy. Makes me wonder whether the grille is an integral part of the design and might need to be tested with it in place. @amirm was your testing done with the grille on?

 

[raindance]

I believe the grill is supposed to be in place when in use.

I'm surprised about the flat in room response; in my room (I had the VLR Wood) they weren't bright, but there were obvious holes in the response, making certain things sound weird.

BTW there is fairly decent bass only if you place the speakers against the wall and the manual talks about intentionally shelving the low frequencies with this use in mind.

Some folks were a little hurt by my scathing review of these speakers on ASR, but they're really bad.

Looks like my estimate of 82 dB per watt without measurement was pretty darn close!

 

[beagleman]

"I rank the Vandersteen the second most broken speaker I have ever listened to or measured."


@amirm

Would be curious what your top 5 worst offenders are?

 

[peniku8]

The simple fact of the woofer being “on” the baffle instead of flush is an almost immediate sign that the response will be jagged. Even moreso with the frame being cut to fit on the sides

Jesus, you can even see the wood panels through the paint. Not only is it performing terribly acoustically, but the build quality is also worse than most DIYers' first attempts...
They would be bad at 180$ a pair, let alone 10x that price.

 

[tvih]

Richard Vandersteen is an early advocate of design based on measurement. So would have expected these to align better with ASR’s philosophy. Makes me wonder whether the grille is an integral part of the design and might need to be tested with it in place. @amirm was your testing done with the grille on?

It looks like a regular ol' cloth grille though? The effect should be basically nonexistent.

 

[Holmz]

That impedance curve, good Lord. I've heard Vandersteens were hard to drive but that's ridiculous. @amirm , do you have one with the impedance axis zoomed in more so we can better see what's going on?

Going down to 2 Hz seems a bit of overkill, and that skews the data right off of the plot.
There is over 4 octaves of garbage on the left, 2-4, 4-8, 8-16, And 16-32 Hz.

- 20 Hz would be too low.
- And 40 is probably better in general.

 

[Jim Shaw]

Occasionally, we need an accurate measurement of a speaker like this Vandersteen model to drive home the rule that price means almost nothing in how a speaker performs. And, just as important, the mistaken notion that our ears alone are worthy judges of accurate sound playback, especially when we know the device's price.

On the opposite end of the quality vs. price scale are all the attempts to make a fine hat from a dead cow's udder. We see just as many of these, coupled with the glowing words of the tinkerer/inventor.

Some audiophiles cling tightly to the notion that they can simply buy their way to accurate music playback. Bless their wallets. Others among us have a lifelong compulsion that they can luck into a good speaker design using inexpensive parts and some wood butchering. Bless their table saws and glue clamps.

For me and my homestead, I believe in peer-reviewed measurements and double-blind listening testing.
Unfortunately, we have no ready source for the double-blind comparative information.
Et sic est.

-Just one man's view.

 

[itz_all_about_the_music]

Richard Vandersteen is an early advocate of design based on measurement. So would have expected these to align better with ASR’s philosophy. Makes me wonder whether the grille is an integral part of the design and might need to be tested with it in place. @amirm was your testing done with the grille on?

And possibly "...meant to be put onto a bookshelf close to the rear boundary. " as stated in the manufacturer's website. In my observations here, @amirm has not gone back to retest anything unless there's a formal pushback from the manufacture on the results of his initial test(s).