Vandersteen Audio Model 7 Loudspeaker (TAS 206)

Richard Vandersteen has accomplished many things in high-end audio, but building a loudspeaker that is competitive with the best in the world regardless of price heretofore has not been one of them. Instead Vandersteen has spent the last thirty-five years creating high-value, no-nonsense speakers that anyone can afford. For example, his Model 2 (now the 2Ce Sig.II.at $2195) is probably the best-selling audiophile-quality loudspeaker of all time. Moreover, for the first 22 years of the company’s existence, Vandersteen’s most expensive loudspeaker cost just $3695 per pair. Working at the edge of the art was clearly not Vandersteen’s forte.

And then to everyone’s astonishment, Vandersteen showed up at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show with a loudspeaker that played in an entirely different league. The Model 7, priced at $45,000 per pair, featured novel driver and enclosure technologies—and sounded stunningly great. Even under show conditions, it was apparent that the Model 7 was something special. Now that I’ve had the 7 in my home for the past six weeks, I can say that the great sound it produced at CES was just the tip of a fabulous iceberg. This is a world-class product that invites comparison with any other loudspeaker, regardless of price or technology.

The Model 7 is both avant-garde and conservative. Its balsa-wood and carbon-fiber drivers are cutting edge, as is its carbon-fiber-clad enclosure. But these innovations are based on Vandersteen’s long-held commitment to time-and-phase coherence, as well as on the physical platform and overall architecture underlying the Vandersteen Model 5 (see my review of the Model 5 in Issue 118, June/July 1999).

Both loudspeakers are four-way and share the same 12” powered push-pull woofer. Both also use a 7” mid/bass driver, a 4.5” midrange unit, and a 1” dome tweeter. The rear-firing tweeter is a .75” alloy-dome in both products. As with the Model 5, the 7 features an eleven-band fixed-frequency equalizer, accessible via a row of tiny rear-panel trim pots, that operates below 120Hz, allowing the speaker’s low-frequency response to be tailored to the room. The 7 also shares with the 5 outboard passive high-pass filters (small boxes inserted between the preamplifier and power amplifier) that roll off low frequencies. This low-frequency rolloff is the inverse of a bass-boost in the woofer amplifier, resulting in flat response.

But that’s where the similarities end. The 7 features entirely new drivers (except the woofer and rear-firing tweeter), crossovers, and enclosure. The loudspeaker, which has a very modern look, can be painted in any automotive color—also a departure for Vandersteen.

The key development that made the 7 possible is a new driver technology that Richard Vandersteen spent the past ten years developing. All the drivers except the aluminum-cone woofer and the rear-firing tweeter are made from a sandwich of balsa wood clad with carbon fiber on both sides. In the case of two midrange units, the cone is a whopping 1/4” thick at the apex. Vandersteen claims that these drivers are the first to deliver perfect pistonic behavior throughout their passbands. The crossovers are all first-order, which maintains the time-and-phase coherence that is a hallmark of every Vandersteen design.

Sensitivity is a rather low 85dB (2.83V) with a 4-ohm impedance. The 7’s simpler crossover (a benefit of the powered woofer) makes its impedance more resistive than reactive, presenting an easier load to a power amplifier. Still, you should plan on driving the 7 with a hefty amp. (See the “Technology” sidebar and my interview with Richard Vandersteen for more technical detail.)

Listening

The Model 7 is amazingly great in so many areas that it’s hard to know where to begin. This isn’t a speaker that improves upon its predecessors in just one or two performance areas, but across the board.

Nonetheless, I’ll start with the 7’s greatest achievement, its stunning purity and clarity through the midrange and treble. Even in an era in which significant advances in dynamic-driver technology have produced greater transparency, higher resolution, and lower coloration, the Model 7 stands out for its complete lack of dynamic-driver “sound.” The 7 strips away a layer of coloration and artifacts, revealing an absolutely glorious purity of timbre that must be heard to be believed. These speakers seem to disappear as a source, not just spatially, but in their freedom from a type of sound we’ve become inured to from dynamic loudspeakers. You simply don’t hear the cones when listening to music through the Model 7. In fact, this loudspeaker is electrostatic-like in its clarity, transparency, and complete absence of boxiness.