Vaughn Loudspeakers Zinfandel

I bought these speakers a few years ago here on audiogon. They work beautifully together with my Sophia electric 300b monobloks.(im selling it too)

The only reason I'm selling them now is because I'm moving to an apartment, and I'm not going to have the room for them.

They are in perfect condition. The only reason I gave 7/10  is because the original owner made an extra hole in the bottom one of the bases to get a better connection. (So one of the speakers has 5 holes in the base instead of 4.) Anyway you can't see a hole when it is standing up.One ding on rear corner of one speaker, see picture otherwise in very good condition..

Update due to the high price off shipping (after I checked it's close to 700$ , I decided to reduce the price to 2400) 

Here is some more information about the speakers from the original seller page:

Original pair of Zinfandels that are updated with powered bass drivers, current crossovers and have the same midrange as the new Vaughn Triode III. Original owner recently traded for a new pair of Cabernet II line arrays with subwoofer.

Below I have copied the recent Triode III review which will give you an idea of the incredible midrange of this speaker. 

Vaughn Triode Mk III Loudspeakers

Unheard, Unknown, But Unbelievable....

Dim the Lights and Get Ready

Think about a romantic evening with lights dimmed, fine wine and your honey snuggling at your side and you have an idea of how the Vaughn Loudspeakers Triode IIIs make you feel. The Triode IIIs have a very intimate presence and ease about them. I didn’t expect these little known babies to sing like they did, and compete with speakers twice their $8,000/pair price, but they did indeed. I kept saying to myself as they improved day after day, “Are you kidding me?” No loudspeaker at this price should sound this good. For those outside of this hobby that price tag may sound like a lot of “ka-ching,” but we know better now don’t we? Especially for a quality loudspeaker that does it all well from top to bottom. Excellent, smooth high frequency extension, check. Deep articulate bass, check. But their biggest strength is beautifully textured, weighty midrange, highlighting subtle nuances in vocals. A bit of toe-in and the Triode IIIs completely disappear leaving voices dead center with instruments hanging in the air. Only a low powered SET amp is needed, since there is a built-in 300 watt class-D amp driving a 12 inch subwoofer. Yet, the Triode IIIs are smooth as silk and well integrated from top to bottom.

Happenstance or Serindipity

I had never heard of the Vaughn Triode III speakers or even heard of the company until I saw a used NAT Plasma R preamp on the web and began exchanging emails with its owner. I happened to notice during one of those exchanges that the email was signed Jim Jordan, Vaughn Loudspeakers, so I checked out the Vaughn website. The speaker line looked interesting, especially since they consisted of high efficiency speakers using full-range drivers, but with built in amps for plenty of bass. High efficiency speakers have had a special place in my heart, since owning a pair of Audio Note ANE SPE HEs, which when paired with a nice flea powered amp takes you to audio nirvana. I was also interested in trying a speaker that incorporated a full-range driver. So I asked Jim if he would send me a pair of his speakers for review. Jim gave me the thumbs up, but explained that he was working on a new version III of his Triode model, and would have them done soon, so I waited.

The Big Day Arrives

The Vaughn Triode III speakers arrived a few months later and to my great delight they were not only rock solid in construction but beautiful to behold. The exotic bamboo finish with inlaid accents on some edges was attractive, but as I mentioned to Jim, I would have preferred the same bamboo on the fronts. However, I really didn’t mind the marbleized laminate finish that came on the front of the review sample, but just liked the Bamboo better. “Hmmm…” I thought as I unpacked the speakers. If these speakers sound half as good as they look and felt I was in for a treat. The Triode IIIs did not disappoint. Especially when I figured out that I needed to turn on the built-in subwoofer, which I thought would automatically come on in the standby mode.

Initial Impressions are Telling

Once I had the speakers correctly up and running I was immediately struck by their gorgeous midrange. And this was fresh out of the boxes. What was to come was nothing short of breathtaking. While it took a fairly substantial break-in period (300 plus hours) for the Triodes III to really sing, once they were broken in I was awestruck by the extreme musicality of the speakers. While the top end and bass were exceptionally good, the midrange absolutely took the cake. Surprisingly, the voices were textured and palpable, and the nuances in vocals were mesmerizing, even right out of the box. How many hours do these bad boys have on them? Only 50? Impossible.

In fact, they sounded so good from the get go, that I couldn’t resist the temptation to drop the needle on some vinyl. My first exploration of what the Triodes could do with vinyl was with Van Morrison’s regular commercial pressing of Common One. I was taken aback by the articulation in the bass on the first track of side one, “Haunts of Ancient Peace.” And the distinguishable inflections in Van’s voice were impressive even when compared to some tough competition, such as the far more expensive Revel Salon 2s, Sun Union Dragon Princes, and the ultra-revealing rebuilt vintage Quad ESL 63s. So, I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. I couldn’t wait to put some time on these babies, since they already sounded more than decent without yet settling in from shipping across the country.

I was drawn into my listening room day after day to get another taste, even though I wanted to wait until full break-in… and it kept getting better as the days went by. Where would it end? Uhhh, do I really have to send these babies back? Maybe not. Besides, I justified to myself, these speakers are way smaller, and lighter than my main two sets of speakers , even at over 100 pounds apiece. And they sound pretty good, nah, much better than good, particularly in the mids and pretty close to other tough competition in other respects, and they need more break-in. How can that be? The anticipation of how much better these speakers could get was killing me.

It Keeps Getting Better

After about 100 hours of break-in, the Triode IIIs sounded so musical that I kept running upstairs to my reference system to see if I was imagining how good these speakers were or if they really did sound more musical than I remember. CD after CD confirmed my initial impression that the Triode IIIs were more engaging than my three times more expensive reference speakers. Perhaps they were not as refined sounding but they were more engaging and simply drew you into performance after performance.

With about 200 hours on the Triode IIIs, one of my favorite female vocalists, Eva Cassidy, entered the picture, and boy did she ever. I was mesmerized by the interaction of Eva’s voice with the acoustic guitar on “Water is Wide,” track 3 of the American Tune CD. And as “God Bless the Child” began I was floored by the inflections and subtle nuances of Eva’s songbird voice. I was transported to the performance and forgot about the review. What more can I say. I had to stop taking notes and just listen and then listen again to take down my critical listening points. As the guitar solo began I could hear the echo of the venue; probably the studio walls. I was so drawn into the performance that I had to snap myself out of a trance after the echo from the pluck of the last guitar note. Track after track I was pulled into the musical performance, transporting me from my listening room into the enjoyment of the music. Little did I know, the fun was just beginning, as the first amps, heavily modded vintage Eico HF 60s (about 50 wpc into the 8 ohm load of the Triode IIIs) were great, but the sound would soon get much better with other amps I had on hand.

Let the Serious Listening Begin

Once the Triode IIIs had about 300 hours on them, and they seemed to reach maximum improvement from break-in, I hunkered down for some serious critical listening. First with the Eico HF 60s, then a prototype of the new 9 wpc Wavelength Duetta v3 Stereo 300B SET amp ($5k) that Vaughn sent along with the speakers. The Triode IIIs were voiced with a Wavelength amp, so I suspected they would sound good together. But, what I didn’t expect was how good they would sound. These babies were really singing with the Duetta. But after a day of listening I decided to try some toe-in (pointing about a foot to each side of my ears) and was immediately floored by how much the speakers did a disappearing act. The singers were now more focused with the voices dead center and instruments hanging in space around the room. It was shocking how much album after album sounded like live music not just good music coming through speakers. The Duetta added weight and texture to the midrange that was not there to the same extent with Eicos. And the presentation was ohhh sooo relaxed. Sweet.

I Put the Triodes Through Their Paces and They Rose to the Occasion

Enter the new Carver Cherry 180M mono blocks (200 watts 8 Ohm, 230 watts 4 Ohm and 215 watts 2 Ohm) that had recently arrived for review. Why not give them a listen since I wanted to put some break-in time on them. But, I did not expect what happened next. A whole new level of details, nuance and weighty depth and warmth not previously present to the same extent as with the low power SET amp. Yeah the SET was excellent and was admittedly more intimate sounding and its power more suited to the Triode IIIs, but the Cherry180Ms in some respects seemed to propel the Triode IIIs to a different stratosphere. Lovely warmth with detail gently flowing into the room, like with the Duetta but with an added umph. More weight and texture. Wooo. One caveat from the mu