Vanatoo Transparent One Encore (Powered Speaker)

[AnthonyH]

I think that the intended use for these speakers is for PC monitors. On a stand (or a stack of books) to minimize the reflection off the desk, they have good performance on axis and a LOW-DISTORTION response down to 40 Hz. Good low frequency performance is a real benefitor this use because it's hard to find a good location for a subwoofer. These also perform pretty well as TV speakers, connected via TOSLINK - even without a subwoofer in a fairly large room they are loud enough for me and in a small room sitting fairly close they are impressive. They do have an option for dynamic compression of the bass but I haven't felt the need for it.
With a digital input, there is no analog signal anywhere inside the box until the Class D amplifier output and this ought to be better than converting from digital to analog and then converting back to digital inside the speaker. I'm not convinced that I can hear a difference, though.
To sum up, this is an outstanding PC speaker and I recommend it for that use. Whether it's the best choice for a TV speaker at $600 for a pair probably depends on the interaction of your room with the off-axis speaker anomalies. Of course, if you can afford it, you will be better off with Genelec 8030C or Revel M105 at twice the price. But the Vanatoo is better than any soundbar and is competitive with other small TV speakers.

 

[heflys20]

They just released an improved version of this speaker:

Transparent One Encore Plus

One of the great things about being a small company is that it allows us to be close to our users. The people who answer the phone when you call, and reply to the email you send, are the same people who design the speakers you buy. We hear from you, directly, every day. You tell us what you like...

vanatoo.com

I'm intrigued to see how it measures. Hopefully they send a pair in.

 

[amirm]

The waveguide should improve the directivity error fair bit.

 

[C. Cook]

Kind of wish Vanatoo would make a bigger speaker.

 

[Rhodo]

Just got these, the Transparent One Encore Plus version. Subjective review: They sound amazing to my ears, really rich sound with all the music I've thrown at them, good sounding at low volumes too. Build quality seems great, they are very heavy for their size and all the on speaker controls have a nice feel to them.

The bass response is really amazing for their size and I can hear it down to 35Hz on sweeps, it's not big boom-y subwoofer bass but it's there and it's not messy at all. There's enough that I ended up putting them on foam to keep them from rattling everything around them.

The passive radiator effect is really interesting, sitting about a foot away from the wall these have a nice open sound stage, but push them up close to a wall and it closes up and becomes a bit canned. That's with the DSP set to 'flat' so that's likely totally expected for these, just a curious kind of effect.

Overall pretty blown away but how nice music sounds on them!

 

[poppy]

Can someone upload the latest firmware? The link vanatoo website is broken.