Vandersteen speakers

bluecomet

I would like some opinions about Vandersteen 3A speakers. Has anyone heard these and how do they compare to Polk SRS speakers. Thanks.

cienega

I recently picked up a pair of Vandersteen 3a sigs on Audiogon and am still playing around with placement. At first I was a little disappointed before I got them into proper position but now I am very happy with them. I did a ton of research on Audiogon and much of what is said about pairing with other components and recording quality seems to be true. What I did not find to be true is that they are too laid back. They can get deceiving loud without being harsh - a speaker you can listen to all night long (which I do). It's kinda funny - it doesn't seem like you have it up that loud but if you walk outside for instance, and then come back into the room, it sound as if someone turned up the volume while you were gone. It may have something to do with the phase correct design.

I cannot compare them to SDA's as I have not heard them but I can tell you I just spoke with Steve McCormack (McCormack amps) and he owns Vandersteen 3a sigs which I found very interesting.

george daniel

They are different from SDA's of course,but from my limited experience with them,they have very good-tight bass,and throw out a very good soundstage ,I thought the detail could be better but it might have been the upstream components,,certainly a very respectable loudspeaker.Good luck.:)

erniejade

I have a set of 3A i recently picked up also. I also have a set of sda 1.2's

The vandersteen in bass cannot keep up with the 1.2's. Mids and highs depends on the music. On many pieces I prefer the 3a's over the 1.2's but,my 1.2's are stock and from what I have read and been told by several members here, if I do the RDO tweeter upgrade, that will smoothen the 1.2's out so then it might be a completely different story.


The vandy's do have decent bass, smooth mids and smooth highs. They do not get fatiguing at all. Placement / hight setup is is key also on them. I think they recommend 35" is the hearing level and if you are above 35" to your ear, you have to tilt them back to put you back in the sweet spot. The vandy's also throw one heck of a image, a surprisingly wide sound stage, sometimes almost too wide sounding and makes some music seem too unrealistic. It depends on the recording.


If you place the speakers too far apart, the sound seems to get lost in them. My room is 24 feet long and i tried them at 10 feet and they sounded bad to me. 6 feet was the magic number for my room. The speakers are very forgiving and on the warmer side.

So far I am impressed with the sound out of them. The only thing i do not like is spade only. no banana's and they recommend bi wire for better sound. Right now I only have a jumper made of totem tress speaker wire ( I also have this on the 1.2's for a jumper)

The 1.2's are more in your face especially in the bass area. again, some of the harshness I have i am told once i replace the tweeters with rdo 194, that will go away and it will be more smoother.

My question to you is, how much room or how big of a speaker is ok in the house? If you need a sleeker smaller looking speaker ( the vandy's are NOT small and weigh in at 90 lbs without the sound anchor) then the vandy's are the way to go. If you dont mind a bulkier speaker the 1.2 or 2.3 or 3.1 with RDO's are the way to go.

bluecomet

Thanks for the insight. I will have to go check them out. It seems they get many positive reviews. I have a set of 1.2's and I will tell you changing out the tweets to RDO 194's will greatly improve the high's in these speakers.