They have hundreds of hours on them; they’re broken in.
Yeah, I’ve had my Atma-Sphere MA-1’s since 2002, after which I stopped chasing amplifiers. I’ve had them updated by Ralph three times, as well as having done some driver tube rolling. I think I’ll update those tubes maybe once more, just to see, but the amplifiers are so fast and transparent and suit my Vandersteen 5A Carbons so well that I think I’m done. The bass is handled by the active subwoofers in the Vandersteens, so I don’t hear the loose low bass that was apparent before I got these speakers.
I had the A/C installers put two ducts in my smallish listening room so I don’t get overheated in the summertime. As you say, they run really hot and are super inefficient, but I’ve been living with them for over twenty years and still love the way my system sounds. They keep the room comfortable during the winters in Pennsylvania, too.
It’s always exciting to wade into a new project, and really disappointing when it doesn’t work out the way one had envisioned. Good luck on the next one!
— Chris
I had a pair of 5As (not Carbons)…
…in 2011, and a pair of 7.2s in 2023.*
I had at the ‘5As the time my hearing was getting bad (or I had poor hearingaids).. Bought both pairs used, but they turned out to be the very same color.. I never did fall in love with the VS poweramps in this pic.. The 7.2s are my favorite point-source moving-coil speakers, but I don’t make a point of searching out highend loudspeakers to listen to.
I LOVE the sounds of line-source speakers systems and especially dipoles, as both produce more-accurately-taller soundstages and the latter also sound simply more spacious–so back to my SoundLabs.. They suffer only one ‘fault’ that I can find–their fussiness for poweramps–and I got lucky to have solved that last year with the Pass XA60.8s; I have another used pair of those on the way.
(1) My memory for details is so bad that the only way I can date this stuff is to look at the pics I took of them.
I’m certain I’d love the Vandersteen 7’s, but given my age-diminished hearing acuity I’m fairly sure that the difference between those and the 5A’s wouldn’t be worth the price for me. I don’t know that I’ve ever actually heard a line-source speaker, though I might have a few decades ago. I know that those folks that love the way they sound, like you, really love them,. It’s probably akin to how I feel about the sound of my Atma-Spheres.
Anyway, Happy New Year! Enjoy the music.
— Chris