Vanguard Scout
A fantastic melodic bookshelf speaker with high (SAF) Spouse Acceptance Factor
The Vanguard Scout is a compact 2-way bass reflex ported speaker with a 5.25 inch treated paper cone woofer and a 25mm silk dome tweeter in lovely rosewood veneer cabinet with a satin finish, I have been listening to it in my small working from home space for the past few weeks and I thought I would share my opinions in this review.
I have been a fan of what Vera-Fi Audio has been doing for a while. I love how they are building high-end audio equipment but at prices which normal people can afford. This pragmatic approach to audio is exactly what I believe audio companies should do.
In this review I will try to give you a sense for what you get for with the Vanguard Scout for $299 and how it compares with some similar priced but more “massive market” speakers from the likes of Polk, Q Acoustics and a few others.
I would like to thank Vera-fi Audio for providing the Vanguard Scout as well as their Veralink-amp their ingenius monoblock amplifier for the purposes of this review.
You can read more about the Vanguard Scout on their product page here
Note: I created a separate review for the Veralink-amp here.
Now let’s get into the details for what you can expect from the Vanguard Scout.
Unboxing and initial visual impressions
Opening the box, you find the speakers securely nestled within custom-fit foam inserts, ensuring they remain stable and protected:
Taking the Vanguard Scout out of the box immediately reveals how well these speakers are built.
This is no “cheap” box speaker, the Vanguard Scout is well braced and quality of the lovely roseword finish really
gives an immediate sense of the high end:
On the back you find decent quality binding posts and a good-sized port:
Features
The internals of Vanguard Scout incorporates several high-end features that contribute to its performance:
- Driver Configuration: The Scout features a 5.25-inch mid/bass driver and a 1-inch dome tweeter for a balanced and dynamic sound.
- Cabinet Design: The cabinets are constructed from high-density fiberboard with internal bracing to reduce resonances.
- Crossover Network: The advanced crossover network ensures seamless integration between the drivers, resulting in a cohesive sound.
Since the Vanguard Scout is a small desktop speaker it obviously pairs very well with the Vera-fi Veralink-amp
Monoblocks amplifiers. It is almost a feature of the size of the Speaker and the size of this little amplifier:
But as I mentioned above, I will cover that in a totally separate review as it deserves its own review.
Sound Impressions
So my approach is always to listen first using my long audiophile playlist and when I think I hear something special (or maybe do not hear something I think I should) I spend some time focusing on that aspet of the audio. I do not believe in burn in (other than giving myself a few hours with the playlist while working) but I do ultimately believe you should apply some room correction or treatments to get the best possible sound, but I do that after spending a few days listening. These impressions are from those initial few days before any EQ or Room correction. You will see in the measurement section later that I did play with both EQ and Room correction but that was to sort of give the sound the ‘icing on the cake’.
Bass
The Vanguard Scout bookshelf speakers deliver an impressive low-end response, especially considering their compact size, I played around with placement a little during my first day and moved the Vanguard Scouts nearer the back wall to give the bass a boost, I also experiment with port stuffing but decided it didn’t need it in my evaluation listening space.
The bass was tight and controlled, offering a satisfying punch that handles various genres well without overwhelming the other frequencies. On tracks like “Billie Jean” by Michael Jackson, the bass line is distinct and impactful, driving the rhythm without muddying the mix.
Midrange
The midrange performance of the Vanguard Scout is a standout feature. Vocals and instruments are presented with clarity and warmth, making them sound natural and engaging. Listening to a track like “Hotel California” by The Eagles, the guitars and vocals come through with excellent detail, allowing every nuance to be appreciated. Because of how I felt that song sounded I decided to switch to some classic 70’s music that is more midrange centric, so some albums from both David Bowie and Elton John were played for a few hours, and they sounded fantastic. If you are a fan of ‘classic rock’ I would have no problem recommending this speaker.
Treble
With my treble test tracks, the Vanguard Scout sounded well-tuned, offering a safe and non-fatiguing listening experience. This was especially important to me as my wife hated my Q Acoustics 3020i (without EQ) in that room which I plan to use the Vanguard and as you will see in the measurement section that speaker has exaggerated treble.So the Vanguard Scout for me needed to deliver a non-fatiguing experience and it certainly delivered on that promise.
It does provide enough sparkle to keep the sound lively but maybe lacks the treble sparkle that my Kef LS50 Meta provide, but at 1/4 of the price this is not surprising.
Soundstage and Imaging
For a small bookshelf speaker, the Vanguard Scout impresses with its soundstage and imaging capabilities. The speakers create a spacious and well-defined soundstage, allowing you to easily pinpoint the placement of instruments and vocals. This is particularly evident in live recordings like “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd, where the sense of space and instrument separation enhances the immersive listening experience.
The imaging is precise, making these speakers an excellent choice for both music and movie enthusiasts.
Specifications and Measurements
Here are the published specifications for the Vanguard Scout:
Specification | Details |
---|---|
Speaker type | Bookshelf |
Driver configuration | 5.25-inch mid/bass driver, 1-inch dome tweeter |
Frequency response | 45Hz-20kHz |
Impedance | 8Ω |
Sensitivity | 86dB/W/m |
Cabinet construction | High-density fiberboard with internal bracing |
Dimensions | 12 x 6.75 x 9.5 inches |
Weight | 12 lbs (each) |
Measurements
So let me start by saying I do not have an anechoic chamber or a $100,000 Klippel device to provide CEA-2034 measurements, I think we will have to wait for Erin’s Audio Corner to see how well this performs in a Klippel, but I did decide to have some fun measuring the Vanguard Scout and a bunch of my other bookshelf speakers in my “workshop” my converted garage space and I thought I would share some of my findings.
So my process was to use this space and measure each speaker in my test in a few different locations and
average the response:
These were the 7 speakers of varing sizes that I measured:
From left to right, there is a small Polk ES10 (more a surround sound speaker with no low end), an old Micca MB42
speaker (pretty poor as you will see), A Q Acoustics 3020i, my reference Kef LS50 Meta speaker (which I have in my
primary listening place), the Vanguard Scout, An old AEG speaker (which I originally had in this garage space before
I converted it) and a Polk ES30.
Note: I will mainly focus on the 3 in the middle, the Vanguard Scout, the Kef LS 50 Meta and the Q Acoustics 3020i.
I mainly focused on measuring the Vanguard with the grill removed:
But I did some measurements with the grills on to compare and my wife ultimately preferred the look with the grills on:
So my final result with some room correction (and EQ) was the following for the Vanguard Scout:
And this is the Distortion:
Note: This level of distortion is typical of small desktop speakers, and it is why I would either recommend a
subwoofer with the Vanguard or limit the setup to a smaller room.
This is how I have been listening to the Vanguards in the past few weeks, and it is fantastic experience, but ultimately I know even this will have too much treble for my wife for the specific space it will be setup.
So lets start with the ‘raw’ measurements in this space - comparing a few of the speakers:
Note: with raw measurements in a room you have to mostly ignore the large peaks and throughs in the bass region as anything less than 400Hz will be dominated by the Room, my measuring carefully in the same spot you can see trends with each speaker. Also, the response beyond 400hz will be more of a representation of the actual speaker response.
So from this, you can see how bad the MB42 in Red with its peaky treble and large drop off in bass (but it is a very small speaker), the small Polk ES10 in blue does reasonable well but falls off badly in the sub-bass region. Then we have the Vanguard Scout and the 3020i, the standard recommended response you be a download slope from bass to treble, but you can see the treble in the 3020i is actually higher than its midrange (hence why my wife hears some sibilance without EQ from that speaker).
The Vanguard Scout while not perfect shows a slightly better bass response
and recessed treble. In my opinion, the ideal treble response will be somewhere between these 2 extremes, so lets
remove the bad speakers and add the LS50 Meta (remember this is 4x times the price of the 3020i or the Vanguard):
So you can see the LS50 Meta has better subbass going down to 50hz, and you can see its effectively cuts between the 3020i and the Vanguard as far as the treble goes. You can also see that the Vanguard has a slightly elevated midrange giving it that midrange focus that I heard during the listening impressions.
Finally, removing the 3020i for clarity but add the 2 much larger bookshelf speakers:
You can see the much larger Polk extends lower again, but it also has that elevated Treble, while the old AEG speaker doesn’t have a low end and has an elevated treble beyond 10K.
So, I hope this section gives you a feeling for what the Vanguard Scout measures and mostly how it will sound in
your room, but as I started this section with the EQ here is a final comparison between the Vanguard with EQ and
the LS50 Meta:
This EQ obviously fills in the Room modes at 120Hz and 240Hz and by lower the midrange and elevating the
treble provides a very similar frequency response to the the LS50 Meta.
Rating
I have given the Vanguard Scout a pragmatic rating of 4. It looks great, sounds great especially the midrange and offers superb value for money with its high-end ascetics. For me, it has the highest “Spouse Acceptable Factor” of my bookshelf speakers especially when paired with the VeraLink-amp, in that it blends well with the furniture, there is no visible wires and my wife loves how it sounds.
If you are looking for extended treble from your speakers (which my wife did not want) then you should look for a different speaker, for example, the Q Acoustics 3020i offers that boosted treble or maybe use some EQ, but if you want midrange clarity the Vanguard Scout is a perfect speaker for you.
Conclusion
The Vanguard Scout is a standout in the mini bookshelf speaker market, offering both exceptional build quality and sound quality at an affordable price. If you are looking for a midrange focused speaker that sounds exquisite this could be the perfect speaker for you, especially in a smaller room.
I also think when paired with the Veralink-amp it is the perfect secondary listening space speaker. Please read my Veralink-amp review to understand how perfectly matched these are, especially with a Streamer or Preamp that supports bluetooth output.
In summary, the Vanguard Scout offers an impressive audio experience with excellent build quality and thoughtful design and gets a very strong recommendation.