Vandersteen 2Ce Signature II

After a small bit of research, it appears that the 3A Sig midrange driver is not different than the 3A.

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Good point, but I'll be happy to have near 3A Sig performance in a smaller and less expensive package!

Rufipennis wrote
"Good point, but I'll be happy to have near 3A Sig performance in a smaller and less expensive package!"

I can't take credit for figuring it out. It was someone else that I was talking to about this. But I agree, very similar performance in a smaller, cheaper package would be nice.

Looks like the original 2ce Signature will not be discontinued. Here is a Q&A from the Vandersteen website:

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John (12/18/06): Around August I purchased the 2CE signatures new and would like to know what options I have to upgrade them to the 2CE signature II?

Answer: HELLO JOHN, THE 2CE SIG WILL CONTINUE AT $1545.00. IT WOULD BE WAY TO EXPENSIVE TO UP-GRADE ALL THE COMPONENTS CHANGED IN THE 2CE SIG II. THE PRICE OF THE 2CE SIG II IS $1995.00. IF UPGRADEABILITY IS AN ISSUE I SUGGEST YOU LOOK INTO A PAIR OF 3A SIG'S WHICH ARE UP-GRADABLE

I finally got my Jan 07 Stereophile yesterday. Art Dudley's review was very positive. More and more I'm thinking these could be my next speakers. The only thing that gives me pause is the frequency response measurements. John Atkinson found he could geta smooth upper midrange/treble repsonse by measuring on the mid-range driver axis, but that also resulted in a lower midrange suckout. He suggested a higher listening axis would fill-in the lower midrange trough, but in turn causing the treble suckout. Weird. After Richard Vandersteen's rebuttal to the measurements from the 2000 review, I'm surprised that Vandersteen did not specify the microphone height (nor did JA ask, apparently).
I wouldn't really care about this (especially because JA measures at 50" and Vandersteen recommends to listen at >8'), but JA also did an in-room 1/6 octave response: the midrange and bass didn't measure very well. I'm not sure what to make of this other than I need to listen for myself.

Rufipennis-

You do need to listen for yourself. Over the years I've owned a lot of different speakers, Martin-Logan, a couple different Magnepans, NHT, Epos, but once I heard Vandersteens that was it. I've owned the 1 series, the 2 series & now a pair of 3A's, they are great speakers. I can listen to them all day, they're VERY non-fatiguing, yet nice detail.