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Anyone had Vandersteen 3's upgraded to 3A Sig?

Hi,

I have a 12 year old pair of Vandersteen Model 3s that have served my system faithfully over that time and through many other system upgrades.

I have been researching my options on a new pair of speakers, since the rest of my system has far surpassed my trustee Vandy 3's (at least in terms of list price!).

As all of you know, buying new speakers online is not as easy as buying other equipment, due to the cost/risk of shipping them.

As I considered my options, one interesting idea I discovered was to have my Vandy 3's upgraded to 3A Signatures for $1600.

I am also considering adding 2 Vandy 2Wq subwoofers to aproximate the sound of Vandy 5's.

Some of my concerns are:

Shipping my perfect Vandy 3's across the country for the upgrade. I would hate to have them lost or destroyed by UPS!

Adding a crossover and more cabling into the signal path, which I try to keep as simple and direct as I can.

If anyone has experience with either of these topics, I would appreciate hearing about it.

My associated equipment:

Meridian 586.2 DVD/CD used as a transport for audio/video.
dCS Purcell D/D upsampler - Cardas Lightning RCA intercon.
dCS Elgar D/A Converter - 2 Cardas AES/EBU for 192 upsamp.
Krell KSA 150 with all new Caps - AudioQuest Amazon XLR.
Vandersteen 3's - Audioquest Dragon+ (top) Sterling3 (bot)
Sound Application CF-X - Delta MAC powercord

Thanks.
davemon

Showing 1 response by garfish

garfish
1,840 posts
 
Excellent post by Sdcampbell above, and I agree. I had 3As up-graded to 3A sigs 3-4 years ago and found it worthwhile for the reasons Scott gives (above).

At the time, Richard Vandersteen flatly told me that when speakers are shipped to them via UPS, most of the time there is some damage. Vandersteen repairs the damage, does the work requested, and returns them via a trucking company that handles them much better. I agree with Scott too re: if you don't have the original 3A boxes, get a set from Vandersteen.

I now have Vandy 5s (and love them), but I think Scott's assessment is right on regarding the 3A/3Asigs and using subs with them. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig
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