Vandersteen 2Ce Signature vs 3A

Yes and Yes, I had the 2ce and loved them I wound up getting a 2wq which helped the bass alot. The bass wasn't quite tight enought for me, not the fault of the speaker I just have a hard room and still better han 90% of the stuff out there in that price range. Where this speaker excelecd was the mids. Listened to some 3sig last year that someone had and they were wonderful. They are a bit more refined meening the mids are ritcher sounding and the bass was also better if I had them I would not of needed the subs.

Now let me also add some of my experance here that might be helpful. I started out with a Denon 3805 receiver drove the speaker fine sounded grate. Switched to a ar pre amp and adcom 5503 amp. Wow, more sound and soundstage. Put on some Kimber cable by wired and hero innerconnects grate improvement. After that added quicksilver v4 tube amps. made everything smoother and more tubey. This was all to the 2CEsig. What I am trying to say here is even teh 2cesig will be very responsive to high end equipnment. I do perfer the 3sig in every way to the 2cesig but the 2ce sig are one heck of a speaker, but all depends on what you are driving them with.

I never compaired a 3a to a 2ce sig but I would say they are probably about the same in the mids the 3a may have a bit more bass. the 3a to the 3a sig the mids are more refined.

Bang for buck the vandies are the best if you like the sound it is very smooth, detailed and refined. Theil is also good but more $$$ for a similar sound. You just need to listen and see what you like the best. But to get the sound of the 3's you are looking around 10K+ new. I looked for other things because I didn't like the look wnated more wood. But the sound finally sold me.

The distance thing you are going to run into with all speakers not just vandersteen. Some smaller speakers might do a little better but won't sound as good as the vandies overall and vandersteens image so well that I think if you are tight in the space by just a little it is still going to be better than most of the stuff out there.

What amps are you running and cables? These also make a big difference in the imaging. If the amps are not up to the 3a level you may want to look into them instead of the speakers. I put a set of quicksilver v4 on my 2cesigs and wow more open and a better image.