How many speaker makers insert prominent warnings in their owner's manuals? Verbatim, "a Vestlyd plays so cleanly that your brain needn't necessarily notice that you're already redlining. Extreme headroom combined with too much partying or stadium SPL can quickly put you on a collision course with adults, kids and animals in the 'hood. Enjoy responsibly!" I kid you not. That's what it sez. And I can confirm more; somewhat. V12c and animals? I've got two dogs. They're used to their master liking it a bit louder at times and don't mind. Kids? There are none about so no problemo. But neighbors in general? Absolutely. And since the Vestlyd took over my listening space, I did upset them; for the first time ever.
Before newly minted owners get sour on their latest acquisition, these Danish power monitors didn't start out as expected. Au contraire. Out of the box, first sounds rather turned me off. In fact, nasal vocals and lame late bass had me question whether I'd connected both channels in phase. Check. Instead I faced the usual waiting game to break these large coaxials in. That didn't take long. After three days with nightly breaks, the Vestlyd proved battle-ready. Already "More than Machines" from the Bush album The Art of Survival slammed with such shove and startle factor that I couldn't suppress feeling shocked. Forgive such emotional gushing. More will follow. This wasn't just pressure but raw violence which glues music fans like me to our seat. The combo of low-tuned e-bass and drum beats propelling this track reached low but truthfully the fat paper on hand had set up expectations of still 'woofier' growl. Extreme extension clearly wasn't the primary design goal. A Canton C 309 or my grey-haired Magnat Quantum 905 seem to manage an extra half octave and present low bass with a bit more mass.
The Vestlyd difference was punch, brutal attack and taut bone-dry textures. Taking no prisoners, this meant potent gut slams sans detours. Alter Bridge's Pawns and Kings fits the same genre as their Bush colleagues. "Sin after sin" kicked off solidly Heavy Metal to underscore first impressions. Vestlyd's V12c goes loud and hard. Period. Percussion went for impact and pumping heels, growling e-bass in razor-sharp relief had my forearm hairs at erect salute. Such a response I rarely experience within my own four walls. I found it shocking how incisive and punctilious these big coaxes worked the impulse response. Perhaps that wasn't quite on par with Heco's €3K/pr Direkt now discontinued but that's niggling at a very high level. For a €650/ea. speaker, this time-domain behavior was simply flawless. Which begged the question. What happens when our foot on the gas lightens for less dynamic Sturm & Drang?
After all, the life of a real-world music fiend doesn't redline at all times. The short answer was, sure thing. Take the Jupiter-Jones ballad "So hat noch jedes Ende angefangen" from their Die Sonne ist ein Zwergstern album. The Vestlyd showed off how its "I can if let loose but don't have to" tuning works. Had I harboured secret fears that the V12c would only impress in top gear, I found that even at standard loudness limits, the musical bandwidth continued to groove with good impressions. That wasn't just true for tunes which are inherently quiet. It also worked for power cuts like the earlier "More than Machines". I know of competitors with similar potential whose sotto voce readings quite collapse. Not here. Obviously bass didn't shove with equal forward charge and soundstaging shrunk as well. This simply happened at the correct proportions for reduced SPL.
