mep
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- Dec 4, 2013
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Andre Jennings and I have been talking about getting together for a year now and we finally pulled it off on Saturday, May 23, 2015, It's approximately a 3 hour drive from my house in Indiana to Andre's house outside of Cincinnati, OH. I went to bed on Friday night like it was a work night (I'm at work by 6:00 AM every day), got up at the crack of dawn and drove to Andre's house. I arrived around 8:30 AM and stayed until 4:00 PM.
When you step into Andre's listening room, there is a lot to take in and much to try and comprehend and wrap your head around. I wanted to hear Andre's baseline system vice listening to ultra-expensive gear he has in for review and that's exactly what we did. I never once itched to have Andre swap out a preamp, amp, or speakers that Andre had in for review for any component he personally owns. All of Andre's electronics have been modified by Andre. And when I say 'modify,' I don't mean 'modify' in the sense where someone goes in and replaces a couple of capacitors or resistors. Andre has a pair of the giant Rotel amplifiers (RB-1090 amps I do believe) that he has modified to be fully differential. Andre has a pair of Placette active preamplifiers that he running as dual mono preamps. Andre's phono preamps (yes, their are two of them) are Ayre units that have been heavily modified by Andre including massive outboard power supplies. Andre has two Basis turntables with identical Basis arms (Master Debut and 2800-both with vacuum hold down and power supplies modified by Andre with I believe Vector 4 arms) and the 2800 table had the Skala cartridge installed and the Debut had the Etna.
Digital was handled by a combination of a Sony ES SACD/CD player and an Ayon CD3sx (I think that is the model number, Andre can correct me if I screwed anything up here). Andre's speakers are the Vandersteen 3A Signatures with a pair of the Vandersteen 2W subwoofers. Andre also has the outboard crossovers which relieves his 3A speakers from having to produce the bottom end.
We started off the listening session with a CD that has made its rounds at shows and it basically contains snippets of a bunch of different tracks. It kind of gives you an overall flavor of what's in store. I was anxious to move onto vinyl because all PCM based digital makes me antsy sooner rather than later. As some of you know, Andre is highly skilled at setting up tables and cartridges and cartridges are a particular passion for Andre. Andre has his arms setup such that he can change the arm height in literally seconds to accommodate the thickness of each LP. And yes, Andre has a pair of calipers and measures the thickness of each LP before he drops it on the platter and he adjusts the arm accordingly. I'm not going to reveal Andre's methods for setting the arm height, but I can tell you it's super fast and exact.
So what does Andre's system sound like? Andre's system throws a huge soundstage and the speakers disappear as a source of sound. I wish my speakers disappeared to the degree that Andre's speakers do. Some people struggle with having adequate soundstage height. The worst case example is when it sounds like the singers heads are sitting on top of the amp on the floor. Andre's soundstage is large scale in all dimensions and the height is no exception. With the Vandersteen 3A speakers and the Vandersteen subs, have no doubt that this is a true full-range system that needs to make no excuses. Oh, and did i say Andre's system can play LOUD without breaking a sweat? It can, trust me. We have all heard systems that sound OK as long as you keep the volume within a certain range, but once you put the juice to it, the system just falls apart. It's really where you separate the men from the boys and the pretenders from the contenders.
Andre's system has a bottom end punch that reminds me of the sound I used to have when I was using 1/4 wavelength transmission lines subs that I designed and built. Sadly, I don't have that sound now with my Def Tech Ref subs. I think it's just a characteristic of the way the Def Tech subs were designed and I'm not sure if I left no square inch of my floor untried that I could ever get the bass quality and extension that Andre is getting in his room. The bottom line is that Andre's system is just a blast to listen to. It sounds great from top to bottom and bottom to top. The only tubes in the system were in the Ayon digital machine, but the sound of Andre's system defies simple SS vs. tube debates. The whole system just has an intrinsic rightness about it that didn't leave me wanting for anything. And that statement goes back to what I said at the beginning when I said I never wanted Andre to turn off the system and swap in other gear. Andre has a very expensive speakers in for review which I'm sure everyone will have a chance to read about when Andre is finished reviewing the speakers and his review is published. I'm not going to mention the name of the speakers or the cost. I will leave that up to Andre. The bottom line is that I was quite content to listen to the Vandersteen speaker system (meaning the 3A and subs) because it sounded so good and it was fun. I strongly feel that the Vandersteen 3A signatures represent a tremendous value and when coupled with the subs, I really think you would have to spend crazy money to beat the sound of them. I'm pretty sure you could spend crazy money and still not beat this speaker system-it's that good. And for those of you that have just bought the QRP reissue of Dean Martin that is all the rage now, can you hear Dean Martin every time he takes a breath just like he was in the room with you? I did.
Andre was a very gracious host and I appreciated the hospitality. Had I known his wife had made cinnamon rolls, I would have skipped the sausage/egg/chess biscuit from McDonalds on the way to Andre's house! The day just seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was time to head home. Now that I'm home, I'm still trying to comprehend everything I saw and heard and it makes me ponder the direction(s) that I went.
When you step into Andre's listening room, there is a lot to take in and much to try and comprehend and wrap your head around. I wanted to hear Andre's baseline system vice listening to ultra-expensive gear he has in for review and that's exactly what we did. I never once itched to have Andre swap out a preamp, amp, or speakers that Andre had in for review for any component he personally owns. All of Andre's electronics have been modified by Andre. And when I say 'modify,' I don't mean 'modify' in the sense where someone goes in and replaces a couple of capacitors or resistors. Andre has a pair of the giant Rotel amplifiers (RB-1090 amps I do believe) that he has modified to be fully differential. Andre has a pair of Placette active preamplifiers that he running as dual mono preamps. Andre's phono preamps (yes, their are two of them) are Ayre units that have been heavily modified by Andre including massive outboard power supplies. Andre has two Basis turntables with identical Basis arms (Master Debut and 2800-both with vacuum hold down and power supplies modified by Andre with I believe Vector 4 arms) and the 2800 table had the Skala cartridge installed and the Debut had the Etna.
Digital was handled by a combination of a Sony ES SACD/CD player and an Ayon CD3sx (I think that is the model number, Andre can correct me if I screwed anything up here). Andre's speakers are the Vandersteen 3A Signatures with a pair of the Vandersteen 2W subwoofers. Andre also has the outboard crossovers which relieves his 3A speakers from having to produce the bottom end.
We started off the listening session with a CD that has made its rounds at shows and it basically contains snippets of a bunch of different tracks. It kind of gives you an overall flavor of what's in store. I was anxious to move onto vinyl because all PCM based digital makes me antsy sooner rather than later. As some of you know, Andre is highly skilled at setting up tables and cartridges and cartridges are a particular passion for Andre. Andre has his arms setup such that he can change the arm height in literally seconds to accommodate the thickness of each LP. And yes, Andre has a pair of calipers and measures the thickness of each LP before he drops it on the platter and he adjusts the arm accordingly. I'm not going to reveal Andre's methods for setting the arm height, but I can tell you it's super fast and exact.
So what does Andre's system sound like? Andre's system throws a huge soundstage and the speakers disappear as a source of sound. I wish my speakers disappeared to the degree that Andre's speakers do. Some people struggle with having adequate soundstage height. The worst case example is when it sounds like the singers heads are sitting on top of the amp on the floor. Andre's soundstage is large scale in all dimensions and the height is no exception. With the Vandersteen 3A speakers and the Vandersteen subs, have no doubt that this is a true full-range system that needs to make no excuses. Oh, and did i say Andre's system can play LOUD without breaking a sweat? It can, trust me. We have all heard systems that sound OK as long as you keep the volume within a certain range, but once you put the juice to it, the system just falls apart. It's really where you separate the men from the boys and the pretenders from the contenders.
Andre's system has a bottom end punch that reminds me of the sound I used to have when I was using 1/4 wavelength transmission lines subs that I designed and built. Sadly, I don't have that sound now with my Def Tech Ref subs. I think it's just a characteristic of the way the Def Tech subs were designed and I'm not sure if I left no square inch of my floor untried that I could ever get the bass quality and extension that Andre is getting in his room. The bottom line is that Andre's system is just a blast to listen to. It sounds great from top to bottom and bottom to top. The only tubes in the system were in the Ayon digital machine, but the sound of Andre's system defies simple SS vs. tube debates. The whole system just has an intrinsic rightness about it that didn't leave me wanting for anything. And that statement goes back to what I said at the beginning when I said I never wanted Andre to turn off the system and swap in other gear. Andre has a very expensive speakers in for review which I'm sure everyone will have a chance to read about when Andre is finished reviewing the speakers and his review is published. I'm not going to mention the name of the speakers or the cost. I will leave that up to Andre. The bottom line is that I was quite content to listen to the Vandersteen speaker system (meaning the 3A and subs) because it sounded so good and it was fun. I strongly feel that the Vandersteen 3A signatures represent a tremendous value and when coupled with the subs, I really think you would have to spend crazy money to beat the sound of them. I'm pretty sure you could spend crazy money and still not beat this speaker system-it's that good. And for those of you that have just bought the QRP reissue of Dean Martin that is all the rage now, can you hear Dean Martin every time he takes a breath just like he was in the room with you? I did.
Andre was a very gracious host and I appreciated the hospitality. Had I known his wife had made cinnamon rolls, I would have skipped the sausage/egg/chess biscuit from McDonalds on the way to Andre's house! The day just seemed to fly by and before I knew it, it was time to head home. Now that I'm home, I'm still trying to comprehend everything I saw and heard and it makes me ponder the direction(s) that I went.
Sounds like you guys had a blast and told you the Dean Martin was amazing. Not to mention he has the best players backing him including Barney Kessell and Red Mitchell. That album has been seeing a bit of play time here too! Even if it makes me feel like my parents. :snicker:
