Vanatoo Transparent One

http://www.amazon.com/Vanatoo-Trans...20095&sr=8-1&keywords=vanatoo+transparent+one

http://noaudiophile.com/Vanatoo_Transparent_One/

Does anyone have experience with these?

I'm looking to replace my DIY Kit AV123 X-LS Encores with something more desk-space-friendly. Those seem to be the best non-absurd-price speakers out there that are compact yet still play well. I especially like the all-digital design: these speakers don't convert to analog before amplifying (see: d2audio i2s amplifiers), which means that there are less places along the signal path that could introduce distortion, and increased energy efficiency.

Would love to hear your thoughts!

They offer a 30 day trial period via both Amazon (which follows Amazon's normal return policies) and their site.

These look awesome on paper, but information on them in the wild is sparse.

I would say they are worth a try.

I looked at these a while ago. Never heard them, but they do look promising.

If you need a home for those encores, I can provide it! Got a good sized room they would like.

TESLA said:

They offer a 30 day trial period via both Amazon (which follows Amazon's normal return policies) and their site.

These look awesome on paper, but information on them in the wild is sparse.

I would say they are worth a try.

Click to expand...

Yeah, so I've found. Will probably pick up a set around Christmas time when I'm less busy and have a chance to play around with them.

spaceman said:

I looked at these a while ago. Never heard them, but they do look promising.

If you need a home for those encores, I can provide it! Got a good sized room they would like.

Click to expand...

PMed you!

I looked into them a while ago vs. the AudioEngine A5+ and Emotiva counterparts. I did not do the 30 day trial but instead was lucky that a coworker took a leap with them and let me use them over a weekend before I made my decision. My impression is that they were perfect desktop speakers and the ease with which I could link sources to them was fantastic. Gaming, near field movie watching flanking a 27" LCD was as good a desktop experience as I could want. They were desk friendly and appeared to be well made. I literally do not have a bad word to say about them.

The sound was much more to my liking (tightness, crispness, musicality--sorry I lack the language to describe in specifics what I liked better) vs. the AudioEngines which I did get to demo in a quiet room at some local-ish reseller.

I never got to try the Airmotiv 5s, although they seemed like the likely alternative to the Vanatoos; instead I took a blind leap with Emotiva Stealth 6s instead, as I wanted something that could reach lower and project better for a HT setup (since I sometimes move speakers to the living room for everyone to enjoy) and the Vanatoos just didn't seem to project well out into a 20' by 25' room. The Stealth 6s indeed sounded better to me (at the cost of more desk space and a much higher price.) Since then, the Stealth 6s have moved permanently into the living room and are now joined by a pair of Stealth 8s and the desktop is now headphone-centric. But if I went back to desktop speakers, the Vanatoos would be at the top of the list.

Got them.

They're awesome. Better than the AV123s. Very compact. Lots of inputs. Pretty much the perfect desktop speakers - I should've upgraded right to these from my old M-Audio AV40s as they're around the same size.

The Vanatoos seem to be a weird compromise. Powered but passive and very poor analog connectivity. No RCA, no XLR. Luckily it has toslink and USB options which are probably the best for desktop anyway.

Would be interesting to hear them.