THE VANDERSTEEN 1 B
Glimpsing the High End
the absolute sound
The High End
JournalTM
Fall, 1993
How many times have you been told by non-audiophile friends, "Gee, these speakers sound wonderful, but what did you say they cost?" It's easy, especially for someone used to listening to a Macy's rack system, to fall quickly in love with the sound of top dollar loudspeakers. Put the novice listener in front of Apogee Divas or Duntech Sovereigns and the sheer size of the beasts alone will cower him into submission. Tell him the price however, and he's ready to have you committed.
Put the same novice listener in front of mini-monitors - such as the Spica TC- 50 or the Celestion 5s - and listen to the reaction. Most likely, he won't really notice the speakers' outstanding ability to focus or present a dimensional soundstage. What he usually notices is the inability to provide authoritative bass, and the musical weight of a rock band or full blown orchestra. He probably won't like the speakers.
An experienced audiophile easily recognizes the sonic virtues of a good mini-monitor. Most audiophiles know what to listen for, what is missing, and what they must have for musical satisfaction. So, what if you need more than mini-monitor sound? That brings me to the Vandersteen 1Bs.
The Vandersteen 1 Bs are a good compromise between a full-range loudspeaker and a mini-monitor. They won't make Apogee or Duntech shake in their boots, but the Vandys do a credible job of filling a room with music at prices close to that of a mini-monitor.
At $695 the pair, the 1 Bs are a two-way design using custom made time-aligned drivers: a 1-inch, damped (dual chamber) alloy dome tweeter with ferrofluid voice coil cooling and an 8-inch curvilinear polycone woofer (with a die-cast basket). The speaker incorporates a first order crossover network with a crossover frequency at 2.8 kHz with a 6 dB per-octave-slope. The Vandersteen 1 Bs have a small footprint, measuring 12w x 10d x 36h inches and weigh 45 pounds each, making them a good choice for apartment living. I highly recommend adding the Vanderstands ($85) or the Sound Anchor stands ($125).
One's first impression of the a loudspeaker usually has to do with its tonal balance and attendant colorations. All loudspeakers have a unique character, but some are easier to live with. If a speaker's character is somewhat consistent across the frequency range and avoids major nasties, the listener can, to some degree, enjoy the music. The Vandersteen 1 Bs do a good job of meeting this first threshold. The speaker's character is consistent across its bandwidth and major nasties such as congestion and harshness are surprisingly missing from this lower budget loudspeaker. The character of the speaker tends to balance the line between analytical and romantic. However, achieving this balance takes a lot of blood, sweat and RoomTunes. (I'll discuss speaker placement and how I achieved this balance later in the review.)
The 1 Bs, while somewhat edgy in the lower highs, are open and airy. Listening to Lowell Greer play Mozart's Rondeau in E Flat on the natural horn [Harmonia Mundi HMU 907012] offers a glimpse of how open these speakers can be. On this recording, the work and art of a natural horn player changing key is apparent. The speaker convincingly conveys the nuances of this horn mounting its way up to the next note by muting the bell. The robust sound of it firing toward the rear of the concert hall is clearly evident and the attack and decay of each note is precise and accurate. The 1B's ability to communicate these microdynamics is one reason why this speaker is exciting to have in the listening room. Further, its ability to handle macrodynamics such as fast transients and dynamic swings make this speaker seem almost planar. It doesn't compromise good electronics.
The 1 Bs present an abundance of detail. They delineate complex musical passages, even when playing individual melodic lines at forte and pianissimo simultaneously. Of course, retrieving such detail requires the 1Bs to be matched with top-notch electronics capable of delivering the detail. While the 1 Bs present a detailed and open sound, they can get slightly congested in the upper mid to high frequency range, especially playing recordings with vast instrumentation. The speaker is also rolled off in the high frequencies, leaving the timbre of some instruments, such as violin, slightly dull. The brassy sound of cymbals, while generally correct, is somewhat smeared with just a hint of spit. The 1 B's overall bass performance, though not as dismal as most mini-monitors I've heard, is what separates this speaker from its brother, the 2 series, and other full-range designs. When playing test tones, the speaker is more capable of producing lower frequencies than when it plays real music. I know this seems strange, but I believe it has something to do with loading up the room with a steady tone (i.e., 30 Hz). Play, however, the bass drum beats during the fireworks on H. Owen Reed's La Fiesta Mexicana [Reference Recordings RR- 38CD] and they hit you in the gut more like an old Sugar Ray Leonard than a young Mike Tyson. You can feel it, but it won't knock you out.
Listening to Gary Karr's Adagio d'Albinoni l King Records co. K33Y 336], I could hear the wood of the double bass resonating with a realism I wouldn't have thought possible from a lower priced loudspeaker. The bass performance on recordings of small ensembles using cello, and even double basses, has a great sense of warmth and bloom. However, the 1 B lacks the punch necessary to convey an orchestra playing at full tilt, and the bottom octave is all but nonexistent. The use of RoomTunes, Comer-Tunes and Monoliths solidified the mid bass and certainly helped in digging out the upper part of the lower octave.
The 1 B's soundstaging is credible. While they don't quite have the sense of real depth, such as presented by the Stax F-81s, they are one of the most coherent soundstaging speakers I've heard when it comes to recreating a layer in the stage. In good orchestral recordings, the percussion section is presented far back into the stage followed by the brass and the strings with just the right amount of space in between. Too many times I've heard speakers place the percussion section back into the stage and leave the brass section right in your lap. Soundstage width and height are convincing as well. The 1 Bs don't give you all of the hall, but more of it than I ever expected to hear from this speaker. They also do a nice job of presenting a vocalist at the correct height. Bonnie Raitt, singing the title cut from Luck of the Draw [C2- 96111], is about three foot above the speakers. Richard Thompson's guitar amplifier is clearly raised off the floor several foot and place further back into the stage. The 1 Bs convey that this amplifier was recorded in an acoustical space rather than being patched into the board like the other guitars.
In order to achieve the best soundstaging, you must take the time to place the speakers in their optimum position. Vandersteen states that the speakers should be placed a minimum of six inches from the back wall and moved forward until the best imaging occurs. I've experimented with several locations for the 1 Bs and have found that the speakers need to be out several feet from the rear wall for the optimum imaging and soundstaging. The best results I achieved were by placing them about seven feet into my room, facing straight ahead. I used RoomTunes to tune my room in for best performance. They gave me better bass control, brought the midrange into a focus that is nothing less than outstanding, and controlled some of the edginess in the highs.
After taking the time to find the 1 B's best position, imaging, another of the 1B's strengths, is brought into focus. Just the right amount of air surrounds the instruments, giving the listener the impression that real musicians are behind the instruments and not a black hole. The placement of the images within the stage is executed well. This is quite an accomplishment for any speaker, let alone one so inexpensive.
I'll present the evolution of this review. The 1 Bs first were matched with components one might expect to be sold to a 1 B owner. I used an Adcom GFA-555 amplifier, Adcom GFP-565 preamp, and MIT Zap Chord speaker cable. This combination formed a decent sounding system that was capable of giving the listener a glimpse of the High End. The overall sound of this system was far better than a department store rack system and cost about the same.
After listening to the Adcoms with the 1Bs, I decided to use the electronics I use in my reference system. I replaced the Adcoms with a Krell KSA-150, Krell KSP-7b preamp, and used Symo speaker cable. This change clearly brought the 1 Bs up a notch in every category. To see how the speaker reacted to different cables, I replaced the Symo with XLO Type 5. The XLO opened up the midrange more and created a better sense of air around the images. Even though the system sounded better, I couldn't help wonder how tubes might sound.
Instead of fretting about the situation, I hooked up a Conrad-Johnson MV52 with the XLO Type 5. Magic! The sound was much more open and airy. I hesitate to say warm and rich because of the preconceived notion that all tube amplifiers overdo this characteristic. However, the balance stuck with the MV52, driving the 1Bs presented the perfect amount of warmth and richness without being dark or syrupy. There was a greater sense of depth and height presented in the soundstage. I The retrieval of detail in some of my recording was so remarkable that I played them over and over again to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
The only area that noticeably declined was the bass; it wasn't as tight and controlled as with the Krell, and there wasn't as much extension. However, with the MV52, the 1 B's upper mid to high frequency edginess was tamed even further. This leads me to believe that the Krell, and its renowned neutrality, is less forgiving of the speakers shortcomings, and therefore not the best amplifier for the 1 Bs. The system, with the MV52, went from borderline High End to worthy of inviting my audiophile friends over to hear the miracle in budget" audio. I stayed up all night playing recordings I haven't touched in months.
While I wouldn't go so far as
replacing my Apogee Duetta Signatures with the 1Bs, I wouldn't
hesitate to recommend them to a fledgling audiophile or someone
looking to build a second system. The 1 Bs are a good compromise
in speakers. They give the listener some of the weight and
authority of a full-range speaker while presenting most of the
soundstaging and imaging capabilities of a good mini-monitor.
However if you do buy the 1 Bs, three words of advice: Tubes,
tubes, tubes."
Kenneth Ihrer
Bio Note:
Kl works for Leibnitz Services, out of Sidney NSW with US offices
in Warrenton, Virginia. He is the vice president of Networking.
Temporarily he resides in McLean Virginia where he is on long
term contract with Unisys.
He plays a 1 978 Gibson Les Paul and uses a Marshall tube amplifier He also owns a Holton French Horn, on which his skills in playing have diminished in the last ten years. He has a subscription to the National Symphony Orchestra and enjoys attending other varieties of live music.
First and foremost, he loves music. The equipment comes second, an important means to an end.
TOM Comments:
I'll get straight to the point. The Vandersteen 1 B loudspeaker
is, at $695 the pair, something of an embarrassment for its
pricier transducing brethren in the High End. Not because it is
better than the $7000 ProAc Response Three, $9200 Stax F41, or
$15,000 Avalon Ascent Mk II , outstanding speakers with which I
am personally familiar), but because it is so good at $695.00
that one must wonder why we would spend 10 times as much or more
for an incremental improvement that is certainly not
commensurate. When property set-up (as described by Kl) in a
small to medium size room, the Vandersteen beguiles the listener
with its crystalline pure midband. Art Garfunkel's vocals on
"Bridge Over Troubled Water" from Simon and Garfunkel's
The Concert in Central Park [Warner 3654-2] ride over the sound
with bell-like clarity and dynamics that honor the man. Indeed,
there is little to choose between the Avalons and the
Vandersteens in the specific example (and I might well prefer the
Vandy over the ProAc - superior clarity - and F-81 - for superior
intelligibility). Do not presume that the Vandersteen is imposing
an artificial and euphoric gloss that favors Mr. Garfunkel - the
distinctive timbres of both Simon and Garfunkel are preserved
with a stunning (for the price) degree of intelligibility on
"The Sounds of Silence". Likewise, the piano is well
rendered by the 1 Be, with an acceptable (just barely) amount of
weight, and most, but not all of, the sparks and smooth hardness
possessed by the instrument. Jorge Bolet's performance of Liszt's
Totentanz[LSO/Fischer London CD 414079-21] is vibrant, rich and
authoritative and the piano is never muddled in the opening roar
of double bases.
On the subject of bass, Kl has been overly generous to the 1 Bs - they will give you full output to 60-65 Hz and a diminished contribution to 50 Hz. The bottom octave and the 1 B are strangers.
Richard Vandersteen, though, has achieved an uncanny balance here. The 1 Bs also forsake the uppermost treble and thereby preserve the essential musicality of the midband instead of offering fatiguing hi-fi pyrotechnics. Amen.
Nevertheless, Kl is quite right about the congested lower treble that gets hard and spitty when confronted with loud or dense passages. With the high treble roll-off, this harshness is intellectually annoying more than ear-bleed inducing. StiII, it imparts a strain on massed strings that is incongruous with lower frequency instrumentation. Finally, the sound stage evinced by this economic marvel is noteworthy for its consistency and precision. Yes, image height is squashed when you listen to a natural acoustic (the concert hall is compressed downward). Kl, however, is not overstating the 1 B's ability to present an accurately layered and property proportioned soundstage in the dimensions of depth and width (although with the ancillary gear we had at our disposal, the 1 B never really came close to creating a virtual soundstage - so far only the F41 has successfully pulled off that stunt in my experience). The Vandersteen 1 B has been a real eye-opener for yours truly. I am forced to wonder, "What other gems lie at our feet, ignored in our pursuit of absolutes?" Consider this jewel found and enthusiastically recommended.
Associated Equipment; Front End: Theta Pro Basic II converter, Proceed PCD transport. Electronics: Adcom GFA 555, Knell KSA-150 and Conrad-Johnson MV52 amps. Cables and Accessories: MlT Zap Chord, Symo, and XL0 Type 1 interconnects; Type 5 speaker cables.This review has been reprinted in its entirety from The Absolute Sound, with not one word censored or deleted. The Absolute Sound is the journal of High End audio and reports its findings on audio components and recordings without fear of or favor from any commercial interests. Its literate evaluations and tests take place in real space, hence, music (the absolute sound) is the measure of reference.