Advice requested on speakers

I personally have owned over 300 different sets of speakers and in my opinion phase coherency at the listener’s ears really makes a huge difference when trying to achieve an emotional experience in your system. I personally run Zu Definition Mk4 speakers and have owned most of the speakers you are currently looking at. The Mk4's have no crossovers on 8 of the 10 octaves; they give you every tiny detail at low volumes and can play any type of music at loud volumes with ease. This is just my opinion but I always found I was just moving sideways when listening to speakers with crossovers in the midrange area. All the speakers you are looking are very good but none would my first choice.

I should probably know this, but I'll ask - what is the difference between a full range speaker and a monitor speaker, as far as listing speakers for sale on audiogon? Thanks!

I know this post is a few years old now, but I was wondering what you decided to go with. I'm looking at upgrading my speakers as well...and almost all the same speakers you were looking at are on my short list. I would appreciate your comments.

Excellent comments. Thank you all. I'll let you know how it works out.

77jovian - Just a suggestion from another serious classical listener who owned Vandy 3A's. In my room, with my equipment (which included an ARC VT100) I eventually became dissatisfied with the way the 3A's handled strings. They tended to be a little on the thin side, and too often a bit edgy. You can probably figure out this issue on the 5A's yourself by simply taking some recordings of string orchestras (meaning all strings, not full orchestras) and listening to them on the 5As. Give yourself some time, and see if they become fatiguing.

I eventually switched to Harbeths, although more recently have come to really like Spendor 1/2e's. Those are all particularly rich in the mid-range for strings.

That having been said, I have heard the 5A's recently in a very good set-up getting very nice sound on an opera disc. I was quite pleasantly surprised, and this made me curious about the most recent edition of the 5A's. And I must offer this caveat: I've never had 5A's in my house. In the shop I frequent, sometimes I've liked them very much, and sometimes I've not liked them at all. Very sensitive to set-up, and what you feed them, I gather.

I did some serious listening to the Quattros also, but I'm pretty sure they weren't the wood version. I considered buying them, but bought the 3A's instead, because I found the Quattros (at least that version) to be intolerably bright compared to the 3A's.

My very limited experience with the Sophia's would lead me to a similar conclusion about somewhat unsatisfactory string tone, but I've only listened to them a couple of times. Of all of the ones I mentioned, I remain most curious about the 5A's as possibilities for myself, in a much bigger room than I have (15 x 20).

If you are just going by local availability, then you should definitely audition with your ears and take what we have to say with a grain of salt -- listen to what your ears tell you, we all hear differently, and have personal ideas of what kind of sound most appeals to us. To me, it seems you could be happy with any of the speakers on your list, but I do like the ability to balance the bass to the room that VS offers, and I think you'll need that with a room your size - you'll need to control the bass. I would audition with a 100 watt tube amp with those VS though, I think they need quite a bit of current, even with their built in subwoofer amps.

Thanks for the suggestions. I've heard good things about both Merlins and Montanas, but they aren't available locally, so they didn't make the cut.

Blow aways the Vandies? I don't think so. I've heard the Montanas, and they are fine speakers, but for soundstaging the 1st Order Xover and phase aligned drivers of the Vandersteen create an extraordinairy deep and wide soundstage with good localization. Perhaps Montanas are worth auditioning, but don't expect them to blow away the Vandies, they won't.

you should go to the montana audio site and check out there speakers and then find somewhere to hear them. i know they will blow away the vandis. that is the only one i can compare them to i have not heard the other speakers in your list

For timbral accuracy and sound staging I would suggest you audition Merlin VSM-MXe, they are simply more timbrally accurate and resolving than Vandersteen IMHO. They are however, not as full range as either Vandersteen as they are essentially flat to 32Hz with a filter cut off at 28hz - on the other hand, with a room your size, I would suggest that the bass of the Merlin's would be very accurate and satisfying. See if you can read the Merlin review in Bound for Sound. I've owned both brands and love Vandersteens, but for timbral accuracy the Merlins are at the top of my list. I suspect for orchestral music, you might perfer the Vandersteens, but for chamber and small group jazz I think the Merlins would be the clear choice. Not familiar with the Revels.

If you can afford 5As, I would say go for it.
100wpc is more then enough for Vandys and AR is a well know preferences with these speakers.

I would also like to touch on "in room placement flexibility" with an 11-band equalizer - standard feature on 5A and Quatro Wood version speakers.
It allow the best integration to be obtained with the owner's room acoustics and you can not take it for granted if the room placement and acoustics are of any importance to you.

Just my 2c

Good luck

Mariusz