Bookshelf Speakers — Vandersteen Audio VLR Wood

The VLR Wood is a compact speaker from the Hanford, California maker Vandersteen Audio. It is produced in the USA and intended for in-cabinet installation or stand mounting where a full-range Vandersteen floorstanding model cannot be used in the home. Use in two-channel music systems and in the front channels of home theatre setups are both foreseen. The starting price is USD 2,060 for two speakers, with duty, taxes and freight added separately, and six veneers are offered, namely maple, oak, dark oak, cherry, light walnut and black.

Key specs that matter

A single coaxial driver carries a 1 inch critically damped alloy-dome tweeter mounted within a 6.5 inch mineral-filled polycone woofer on a die-cast basket. Upper frequency extension reaches 21 kHz within plus or minus 3 dB. Sensitivity is 86 dB measured at 1 metre with a 2.83 volt input. Impedance is 8 ohms nominal and never drops below 5 ohms. A first-order crossover with 6 dB per octave slopes sets the woofer and tweeter handover point at 3.5 kHz. Speaker cables connect through barrier strips taking spade lugs up to 11 mm wide, which the manual says give gas-tight connections that do not deteriorate over time.

Engineering and use context

All Vandersteen models are designed to keep the timing and phase of the signal intact. The company explains that a cabinet this compact has no space to time-align separate drivers physically, which is why the VLR Wood relies on a coaxially mounted woofer and tweeter. Both drivers are connected in positive polarity through the first-order network. MDF forms the cabinet walls. The manual notes that the bass of the VLR is bandpass limited, and that with the aligned coaxial driver the speaker behaves the same when turned horizontal, so it can sit in a full-width cavity or behind a decorative cloth fascia. The company states the design came out of more than twenty years of research into dynamic loudspeakers.

Pairing

Vandersteen describes the even impedance as an easy amplifier load, so high quality receivers and integrated amplifiers become options alongside separates, and states that either tube or transistor amplification suits it. For multichannel use the VLR is designed to integrate with the V2W subwoofer, whose job is to take over the deep bass, and the manual shows it grouped with the VCC-2 centre speaker. When a pair joins a system with other phase-correct Vandersteen centre and surround speakers, all of them are to be connected in positive polarity.

Alternatives

Vandersteen also makes the VLR Wood CT, a compact model with the same coaxial driver layout but a Perfect Piston carbon tweeter in place of the alloy dome.