Variety for the budget audiophile
Let’s say you have $3K to spend on speakers. What will you buy? One of the hundreds of OK sounding box speakers? Maybe a Vandersteen or a dipole speaker like a Magnepan? I have owned the Vandersteen 1B and 2CE, the Magnepan MMG and 1.6QR (and reviewed the .7i; see review here), and the Eminent Technology LFT-8A (and reviewed the LFT-8B; see review here). I have some experience with affordable speakers.
How about a full-range speaker? No, not that full range meaning a speaker with a frequency response of at least 20Hz to 2000 kHz, but full-range as in a speaker utilizing one driver. Full-range speakers, didn’t they die off with console stereos? For most music lovers, a speaker having only one driver is not the first image that comes to mind when thinking of a stereo. Perhaps it should be. Full-range speakers are pretty sounding, tight, and clean, especially as regards the center imaging. Their big problem is bass response. They are usually shallow in bass extension because the driver is kept to a size that accommodates frequencies from dozens of Hertz up to thousands of them. Many serious audiophiles use smallish full-range speakers with 4-6” drivers because they have little choice. They live in space constrained apartments that do not allow for big speakers.
Many compromises intrude upon the budget audiophile such that SOTA sound remains out of reach. One of the beautiful aspects of the hobby is that there exists a variety of speaker genres on a wide price spectrum. Dipole, horn, open baffle, line source and quasi-line source, dynamic, omnidirectional, and hybrid speakers can be found not only for tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, but also for a few thousand. Each of these genres of speakers exhibit characteristic attributes due to the drivers employed, whether costly or affordable. There are substantial qualitative differences between entry level models and SOTA speakers, but the idiosyncrasies of each genre cannot be easily replicated by the other genres of speakers.
This article is about an affordable full-range speaker that performs. It is also about a companion a dipole subwoofer for enhancing the full-range speaker’s performance. The subwoofer also is fitting for use with particular smaller to medium priced and sized Magnepan dipole speakers. The full-range VPE Electrodynamics Crystal Dipole cost $3K/pr and a pair of the Model 1 Powered Dipole Subwoofers cost $1K each. The speaker systems total is $5K, which is reachable for many. As someone who spent about a decade trying to get SOTA sound for a pittance, I find the Crystal Dipole and Model 1 Subwoofer to be products very worth of the budget audiophile’s time. Is it worth the time for audiophiles higher up the equipment food chain? Let’s find out!
Arising from DIY
There is a DIY sensibility to the Crystal Dipole and Model 1. The principles of the company, Don Bingaman, Jeff McCabe, and Jim Moellering are retirees who don’t need to make a killing in audio. Their Model 1 Sub was born out of the desire to supplement smaller Magnepan speakers’ shallow bass response. The Crystal Dipole was inspired by Nelson Pass’ experimental full range open baffle speaker designs.
Before I get rolling on discussion of the Crystal Dipole and Model 1 Subwoofer, this is not the only speaker VPE makes. Their upper end model is the Airfoil, a large $18,000/pair hybrid open baffle array and active subwoofer design that includes a control unit, the miniDSP HTx active crossover and in-person setup. The upper portion of the Airfoil requires two separate stereo amplifiers. For those who do not wish to shop for complimentary amplification, VPE can provide two Schiit Vidar Amplifiers and all connecting cables for an additional $2,000. The Airfoil is nearly on the opposite end of the spectrum from the Crystal Dipole in terms of genres of speakers. You can see contact information and an image of the Airfoil at the company website, https://www.vpeelectrodynamics.com
The following is not buyer beware, but buyer be aware, that is, realize the difference between a company like VPE Electrodynamics, a cottage industry speaker maker, and the big boys. VPE speakers and subwoofers are made to order, and they do not come off a huge factory floor. They are not supercar finished but are clean and solidly built. An example of their being made at the intersection of sensibility and performance is seen in the Magna Riser Stands included with purchase of the Crystal Dipole. These are the same stands sold to owners of Magnepan MMG and LRS Speakers to lift them and improve performance. The Crystal Dipole has been designed to spatially and logistically fit into a similar space as the smaller Magnepan speakers. It also is amenable to most equipment pairings that could conceivably be used for Magnepan speakers. All this makes for an interesting comparison between the magnetic planar and the full-range technologies!
Speaking of DIY and stands, do you want to know a secret? I’ll go against about 98% of the industry and reviewing colleagues with this revelation. The much-lauded aftermarket footers, risers, and stands; there’s not so much that impresses me about them. I have done the comparisons with cones, footers, amp stands, even with tubed equipment; this analysis excludes analogue sources as I am an entirely digital listener, and I make no declaration on efficacy about these products regarding analogue sources only. The truth is that I use rubber hockey pucks as my isolation devices. The reason is that in direct comparison, pricey specialized footers and isolation devices fail my Law of Efficacy. The difference between them and hockey pucks is marginal to non-existent. I stopped reviewing such products many years ago because they are in my experience insipid to advance an audio system. My assessment of their efficacy, the big deal about them, why they work is because they physically elevate the speaker, the effect of which can be heard!
Whenever you raise the speaker, you have changed the soundstage and typically a raised soundstage sounds more impressive. I’m uninterested in entering a debate with rabid Maggie fans – I know, I used to be one of them – so please don’t bother trying to pick a quarrel with me on this. The material is not that big of a deal. There is some legitimacy to the solidity of a structure. After all, to use my Landscape Orientation for speakers up to 4’ tall, I had Sound Anchor Stands build me the custom versions of stands meant for big studio center channel speakers, and their strength and inertness is appreciated. The metal of the Magna Riser Stands is thinner than that of Sound Anchor products, but you would be hard pressed to tell a difference between them when employed with a speaker like the Crystal Dipole (if Sound Anchor made such a stand). I suspect that in direct comparison, as with so many other supposed enhancements, the thickness of each stand would fail the Law of Efficacy, but the height of Magna Riser Stands as opposed to much shorter footers would pass the Law of Efficacy. In other words, the density or material of each stand would not be discernibly different, but the height of the stands would be. Building hundreds of systems and conducting direct comparisons has taught me things that contradict many received wisdom and conjecture.
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