[jeffreybehr]

I got to thinking about centerchannel speakers and saw how inexpensive V'steen's VCC-1 is--$599 RR.  Read the manual and discovered that RV's attitudes about CC speakers are closer to mine than anyone's I've read.  I've said many a time that the purpose of a CC speaker is to increase voice intelligibility while NOT having a tonality that sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb.  My current CC, an Eminent Technology magnetic-planar LFT-12...

...(NOT the current hybrid, 3-way version) is NOT tonally similar to my 5As--the '12 is much thinner sounding and would not be suitable by itself for music, altho it sounds quite OK blended at a low level with multichannel (NOT 'multi-channel') music.

Seems RV also thinks that full-range CCs make little sense, and he seems to HATE MTM-type CCs that spread the drivers horizontally as so many do.

So is anyone using a VCC-1?  I can buy a new one quite inexpensively, but I'd love to see some opinions first.

[C17FXR]

Just moved up from a VCC-1 to the VCC-5 myself. Haven't had the opportunity to put it to use yet though. Dropped an interconnect across the speaker connections sent my DNA-HT1 into protection mode. Have it at the shop getting repaired now.

Anyway what I did to make my VCC-1 more full range was used a Vandersteen X-2 crossover(100K) into the center channel feed just as you would for the 2Wq's.

Then made a connection to the unused input on the pair of 2Wq's I have connected to my 3A Sig's. It helped fill in the lower region just fine.

Once my DNA returns I plan to hook the VCC-1 back up and compare the two and see which I prefer.

Not sure I will move the VCC-5 out though, I can see a pair of 5A's in my future, when that happens the 2Wq's will move to the back to make my surrounds full range.

[jeffreybehr]

Preliminary impressions are very positive.  On music it sounds MUCH more like the 5As--and that's GOOD--than I had thought it would, and on voices, it's quite articulate without being thin.  Compared with the VCC-1, the ET-12 sounds thin and...well...metallic...sort of clangy.  (I know--these descriptions are pretty lame, but they're the best I can do.     )  Since mine is many feet from the closest wall, I'm NOT using the Proximity Compensation, which reduces bass considerably.

I read the specs including the dimensions, but I was still suprised how small this is...roughly 9 X 12 X 10" (HWD).  The top and the outer edges of the bottom are veneered in oak; mine is quite light, and today I rubbed some stain on the bottom to see how it would look.  Here it is tonite resting on the stand I built for the ET-12.


I've been looking for the right CC speaker for maybe 20 years.  Those I tried even included the $5K+ VonSchweikert Visiun.  (Was THAT a waste of money!)  Little did I know one was there all the time, just waiting for me to find it...and for only $595RR!!!!!!!!!!!!!

...but I gotta' find some darker stain!

[Dan Driscoll]

I have a VCC-1, mated with a pair of Models 2C's and IMO the voice quality of the VCC-1 is excellent when we're watching movies. It also works very well for multi-channel music, noticably better than the Paradigm CC-350 it replaced. I have the compensation turned off, as well.

[nature boy]

I have a VCC-1, mated with a pair of Models 2C's and IMO the voice quality of the VCC-1 is excellent when we're watching movies. It also works very well for multi-channel music, noticably better than the Paradigm CC-350 it replaced. I have the compensation turned off, as well.

I agree with Dan's assessment.  The VCC-1 matches extremely well with 2CE's in my HT system.  I also have the compensation turned off.  Very good voice quality and handles loud scenes very well.

NB

[jeffreybehr]

My friends know I'm incorrigible in respect of tweaking...improving...audio equipment I buy, and consistent with that, I have dismantled my VCC-1.

The bottom and the input-terminal plates unscrew, and one can then get to the staples holding the sock on.  The driver unscrews and lifts out, and one can then remove the polyfill stuffing.  The maybe-4X5" crossover board is screwed and siliconsealed to the inside of the back wall, and there's another smaller board mounted inside a side wall.  I asked my friend to remove the board and trace and draw a schematic.  (E-mail me at jeffreybehr(at)cox(dot)net if you'd like a copy.)

It's a Vandersteen-typical simple/complicated network...complicated due to the compensation devices/networks.  The separate board contains 2 RCL networks that are wired around the drivers.

The main board.


The driver.


The tweeter.


The tweeter with the B/MR cone depressed.


New driver wiring, stuff I already had--23g. Neotec OCC-silver-in-Teflon plus 20g. 4-9s silver in Teflon tubing on the tweeter and a combination of Handmade Audio quad silver (24g.?) plus 18g. OCC-copper on the B/MR.  All is strain-relieved with hotglue.


Most interesting to me in the x-over is a 33-Ohm resistor across the input terminals.  The system is indeed, as VA indicates, bandwidth-limited in the bass, with hundreds of microFarads of 'lytic caps in series with the B/MR driver.  The Proximity Compensation switch removes some of that capacitance to increase the hi-pass filter point, by perhaps a couple octaves.

Have ordered parts to replace all most caps and resistors, plus, this time, the lo-pass inductor on the MR.  Most of the capacitance will be SoniCap 'prolylenes with some SoniCap Platinum bypasses.

Isn't this obsess...er...hobby fun!?!?!?!?

[jeffreybehr]

Forgot to write that probably I'll move the basic hi-pass filter out of the VCC-1 and into the CC poweramp, an old Marantz MA-500 monoamp...

...that I've already improved.  About 50 Hz ought to do it.  Then I'll use the Proximity switch and some of the original nonpolar 'lytics to move that filter point up an octave or 2 for bassy voices.

(The outer amps of the trio are for surround channels.  That on the right was for the bass section of one of my Avanti IIIs that I actively filtered and amped.)

[jeffreybehr]

Got the HP filter built into the MA-500, 72Hz, this time.  Removed both crappy input jacks and installed 2 good RCAs, so this one now has full-range and high-pass inputs available all the time.  The full-range input-coupling cap is a 4.7/50 Blackgate N-series.


Added some Herbies' TenderFoot energy-absorbing feet and an outrigger...

...with one TenderFoot at the rear and it keeps getting better. 

The VCC-1 crossover-upgrade project is finished, and with NO caps of any kind in series with the MR driver, it sounds cleaner, and I'm quite satisfied with the sound.

Cosmetically it's not finished; I've decided to paint the top and bottom plates the same color as my 5As, Porsche Arctic Silver.  More pics later.

[jeffreybehr]

Have decided to install a switch in the hi-freq.-comp network to be able to eliminate the upper-MR/lower-treble boost it provides; with mostly-TV broadcasts, the sound is too 'sharp'.  Am again using one of my Marantz MA-22s on the centerchannel.  After buying and installing the 2 pairs of all-Class-A, 30-into-8 Marantz MA-24s...
http://www.dutchaudioclassics.nl/?strPage=Info&strBrand=Marantz&strType=Marantz_MA-22_Music_Link_power_amplifier&blnSefURL=true
...the '22 was too-good-sounding not to use.

As you can see on the right, the cosmetics of the VCC-1 still aren't finished.

Here are the Marantz amps on the left side of my system.

The '24s are biamping my 5As, with the two 5A-required hi-pass filters built into a pair of the '24s.  Have changed the 3 long ICs (to left, center, and right) to Neotec with Xhadow RCAs, all assembled by the goodguys at Sonic Craft.  I had the L/R cables each terminated with 2 outlet RCAs.

The L/R cables are NEI-3001 while the CC cable is NEI-3004.

The system's sound quality continues to improve and sounds REALLY good.