Vandersteen 2ci's finally sound incredible

Here's an update on my experince with the Vandersteen 2ci's. First a brief refresher as my original post about this several months ago has gotten a little long in the tooth....

When I first got them home I was pretty disappointed and didn't care much for them and after posting my opinion here was encouraged to address upstream gear and room acoustics. Well, I did and it has really paid off with these speakers. The upstream changes certainly helped, but let me go on record as saying the room treatments I performed have resulted in a profound transformation in the performance of the Vandies. All my other speakers perform better as well, but the Vandies especially revealed how much they benefit from improved room acoustics. They now simply amaze me at times and leave me wanting for pretty much nothing.

Please, have a look at what I did (sorry about the pic quality...no flash on iphone3 dammit)......and BTW the progression of the room treatments is chronicled here.....
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=391094

I started out with a pretty reflective room full of nulls and acoustic anomolies....
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....and now I've gotten to this....

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....703 superchunk broadband absorber in the corners (still need to cover), 4" of 703 in front of the water heater (still need to cover), 2.5'x8' R19 panels on front wall behind speakers, and 2" 703 panels hung at first reflection one foot out from side walls (left side wall covering up row of utility shelves constructed of two 4'x8' 1/4" plywood panels framed and hung from ceiling with eyelets and hooks .....

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....next two shots show 2.5'x8' R19 gobos used in an attempt to control some of the soundwaves going back into the rear flanking "chambers" and also a pair of absorption panels behind me to tame reflections coming off the stacked row of speakers
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.....last shot shows ceiling treatments which include a pair of 2" 703 panels at first reflection and a "prototype" deflector.
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The overall improvement in sound quality is considerable. Distortion is reduced, imaging has improved, clarity has improved, detail has improved, bass is so musical now it almost makes me cry....my only complaint is the sound doesn't seem as "big" as it did before and the soundstage presentation is confined to the front half of the room as I don't hear anything from behind or directly to the sides...but if you think about it this presentation is more realistic 'cause if you're watching a band perform the sound comes from in front, not so much the sides and certainly not from behind. I suspect this is because I've almost totally eliminated any echoes in the room and now hear only the speakers projecting sound and not the walls or any other reflective surfaces.

I can't stress enough the importance of assessing your room's acoustics before passing judgement on any piece of gear....especially speakers. I now hold a very strong opinion that spending big money on gear or cables is pointless until you get your room's acoustics under control.
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And for those that are wondering the listening rig is currently a Yamaha cdc-845 CDP, Grant Fidelity Tube DAC 09 (through tube circuit), Yamaha 31-band pro audio EQ, Hafler 110 preamp (freshly recapped), and Phase Linear 700B amplifier (with a freshly recapped Hafler 500 in the bullpen) with AudioQuest Hyperlitz Ruby audio cables and AudioQuest Hyperlitz Midnight shotgun speaker cables biwired to the Vandersteen 2ci's.

Cost of treatments is around $250 so far and for that investment EVERYTHING I own now sounds better.

BRAVO Michael- you have a real handle on the cause & effect issue of room acoustics it seems. You remind me of a sculptor that keeps chipping away at the marble blob in front of him- you are bound to get there in great fashion! The pics do a good enough job of telling the story for others to consider. Next time you swing by my place remind me to lend you my Dayton Omni Mic set up, that will help you a lot as well in plotting what going on.
Ya done good Michael- as you progress you will find your "hammer & chisel" will get smaller.
DC

dc270 said:

BRAVO Michael- you have a real handle on the cause & effect issue of room acoustics it seems. You remind me of a sculptor that keeps chipping away at the marble blob in front of him- you are bound to get there in great fashion! The pics do a good enough job of telling the story for others to consider. Next time you swing by my place remind me to lend you my Dayton Omni Mic set up, that will help you a lot as well in plotting what going on.
Ya done good Michael- as you progress you will find your "hammer & chisel" will get smaller.
DC

Click to expand...

If I've said it once I've said it one hundred times, Doug.....this is all your fault!

Next step is to quantify my results and get down to the real nitty gritty. The omni-directional mic is just the ticket so muchas gracias for offering it up.

But even if I never know what my room's response curve looks like plotted on a chart, I'll be able to enjoy listening to music in there like I've never been able to before. And I think that's what I would like to see folks take from this. You dont' have to be super scientific with your approach to room treatments to get results. Just learn the fundamentals and follow a few proven recipes and you'll almost certainly realize an improvement. :yes:

The acoustic environment is very important. Congrats on fixing yours and enjoy the speakers!

Wow, looks great, I am sure there are considerable changes and improvements there. A lot of talk about the room environment being the key to good sound is something one cannot overlook. So many people chase good sound with gear/cable swaps when some fairly simple room treatments can take things to a whole level that no gear/cable swapping will ever do. Enjoy those Vandies, and the tunes! Great job! Tim