Vandersteen Audio

The major news from Vandersteen this year is the upgrade of their flagship loudspeaker, the Model Seven, to the Model Seven Mk II. Modifying the placement of the Model Seven's midrange and tweeter and altering the “acoustic lens” that surrounds those two drivers on the baffle resulted in an immediate improvement in the anechoic chamber measurements. The subsequent hand tuning of the compensation network required much less tweaking than usual for ruler-flat performance. This implies more natural and coherent sound. The new construction and tighter physical integration of the tweeter/midrange interface results in a slightly different look both under the grille cloth and with the grill cloth on. Another improvement was realized by a physical alteration of the push-pull subwoofer cones in the powered subwoofer, lowering distortion even further than before and yielding longer excursion for improved power and decreased distortion in sub-100Hz frequencies. Increased materials and production costs have led to an inevitable price increase for this and some other models, but at least it's nice to know you're getting improved sound with the higher cost.