The only pair of speakers I ever regretted selling were our Vandersteen 4, although if we still had them our cat(s) would have shredded the brown nylon fabric covers by now, and they also would be decorated with dried dog slobber (we own a 170-pound English Mastiff who slings everywhere). Oh, well. I did not like having to use Vandersteen's external crossover for bi-amping and tri-wiring, but it was fine. The sound was glorious no matter the size of the room or where we were sitting. We "upgraded" to a used pair of large Genesis III, still excellent speakers, of course, just harder to place to achieve the right soundstage. We use them now with an 18" Velodyne sub, but sometimes they are just too revealing of the harshness of early digital recordings. I can adjust the treble on the speakers, but it is hard to disguise the "nails on a chalkboard" sound of massed orchestral violins on 1980s and 1990s digitally recorded classical CDs. Accuracy is not always a good thing! Our upstairs system was purposely chosen to be more forgiving, based around a pair of old ProAc EBS speakers. They are not ideally placed, but we lie in bed and just enjoy the music. Both systems use Wadia CD players, which easily sound as good as $6600 worth of separates we tried (a CEC belt-driven transport and several different brands of expensive DACs), tubed Audio Research preamps (with remote volume control - a must!) and Levinson amps. I sold the huge Vandersteen 4 to a woman who runs a music academy in her cavernous great room overlooking the northern California coast, and even placing them under the stairs and running them with a mediocre mid-fi integrated amp, they filled the entire room with amazingly wonderful sound. I've heard the inexpensive Vandersteen 2 at a friend's house and, while not in competition with $6,000+ plus speakers, they too were very musical. I don't know if second-hand Vandersteens are available in Europe, but they are quite engaging and tend to disappear, leaving you to enjoy your music. I wish I could say that of our Genesis III. They are absolutely stunning speakers on well-mastered recordings, but far too revealing of poor source material. Congratulations on marrying a woman who shares your love of music and fine audio! Please let us know when you find a pair of speakers that pleases you both.
