Polk RtiA9's vs Vandersteen 3a

cienega

Thinking about moving my A9's to fronts for movie duty (separate system) and replacing them with some Vandersteen 3a's for 2 channel. Anybody ever compared the two? Just contemplating it and was wondering what some of you thought about the Vandersteen line. I'll always have some Polk in one of my systems but I can definitely see myself spending a good chunk on a speaker upgrade down the line. The 3a's would not be the final upgrade however, just testing the waters.

george daniel

the vandy 3a's are a fine speaker,,a tube pre and good high current ss amp would really make them sing,I could live with a pair for along time.Outstanding soundstage and imaging,

On3s&Z3r0s

I don't own either, but have heard both. (I do own lots of Polks and a pair of Vandy's (1C's). Vandy's always seem more neutral / laid-back / mellow to me than Polks. IMO, the LSi series is the only thing that can come close to the Vandy's in terms of being very smooth and well-balanced across the frequency spectrum. That said, for rock, electric jazz, big band orchestra stuff, I prefer Polks. For classical, acoustic jazz, stuff where you want to hear really clean vocals, I prefer the Vandy's.

The 3A's are not a bass-shy speaker. Anything smaller from Vandersteen would not be able to compete with the A9 for bass, but I think you'd be ok with the 3A. If you have a chance to listen to them first I'd take some tunes that have a good sharp, distinct bass component and see if they make you happy.

The Vandy's will probably be more picky about placement than the A9's. Vandy's like to be a good distance from walls (like 4 feet) in order to sound like they should. And they're not the prettiest things ever. You have to go up a couple of notches to get a pretty speaker from Vandersteen. So if you don't want big fabric wrapped boxes in the middle of your room, then maybe Vandy's not a good fit.

But, all in all for my musical tastes if it came down to those two, I'd put the A9's in the home theater and go with the 3A's for 2 channel. Just one dude's .02.

Cheers!

Hawkeye

I own a pair of 2CE's which, if I didn't buy after my ML's, could have found a permanent home. As mentioned above, you need to place them well off the front wall and they can use some sub support. The mids and highs are to die for but the bottom I thought a bit lean.

Gordon

cienega

Thanks for the replies. I do own a tube pre and a pretty powerful amp so maybe it would work. I realize they are no match for the Polk's in the looks department but at this point I only care about the sound. I should mention that I am looking at the 3a signature series which I have heard is a good improvement over the regular 3's. They even have the tweeter that is in the 5's.

On3s&Z3r0s

If you can afford them and don't mind the aesthetic and placement issues, then I'd definitely go for it. The 3A sigs are exactly the speaker I would buy if I had a good room to put them in. (My wife has put the kibosh on big speakers in the middle of our living room.) I think both Polk and Vandersteen are awesome from a price / performance perspective. And hell, if you're keeping the A9's in your HT, then you still have those to listen to when you want... easy win / win.