Vandersteen 2ci used. Good speaker/bargain?

Geez Wattnatt, I don't think Viridian was showing total ignorance at all by just stating what was published. So far as Stereophile goes, Vandersteen used to advertise in their magazine, not sure if they still do and I can't possibly see any reason why they would falsify test results. I think you are being maybe a bit defensive but to what end I'm clueless. One thing I do agree with you on though is that there is nothing I am aware of comparable for the price, I owned a pair of 2C's for many years and loved them, great full range speaker for the money and a lot more for that matter.

The best I ever heard the 2ce sigs and the 3a sigs was with ARC tube electronics. This includes over the years many different amplifiers including Threshold SA-1s, the best of the SS and wonderful in their own right, McCormack, Nad, Krell KMA100's, McIntosh MC-60's highly modified, ARC M-100, ARC D-115 MK2 and ARC VT100,(the best). The last, with the VT100 was at a dealer's showroom. The set-up and attention to placement was impeccable and both these speakers sounded the best I've ever heard Vandersteen 2 and 3 models ever including several shows and in my listening room, they were really dialed in. It proved to me, again, how great these speakers are but more importantly their potential relative to the price of admission and the space they will be used in.

"It is in their interest and the interests of other advertisers in their publications to diminish what Vandersteen has been able to produce and offer at such a low price!!"

I don't get this statement at all. To what end does Stereophile gain anything to deliberately diminish or falsify a product's test results that is or isn't advertising in their rag, because they somehow are being pressured by other advertisers? Sounds like another lame conspiricy theory to me. You really think they are going to deliberately yield to a concerted effort by multiple manufacturers as if there might be such an effort, to the extent of manipulating measured data? It just doesn't fit or make any sense. You don't really believe any of this do you John Rutan? Is your "amen" to that statement? If it were true and that cat ever got out of the bag the credibility of the magazine would go into a tailspin if it became common knowledge. Measurements, depending on the methodology used and explained should be ONE damn thing to believe in if not the vanilla flavored listening impressions of some of their reviewers.

Adam you might try reading the WHOLE thread before you put your foot in your mouth and ramble on about egos. You are coming into the game too late to act as referee. No one is saying anything about the value of the speakers and what R. Vandersteen and John Rutan know. The issue is the published measurements and the motives of a magazine, at least that is my issue.

Viridian, I hear you. Sometimes I forget that not everyone has been visiting this site as long as we have and it may not be common knowledge to all readers who they are if they don't make it clearly known. It is an important point though. The point being, some may ask, is to keep the forum from becoming a free promotional tool under the guise of being "Joe Average" participant rather than having a vested interest. On the other hand I do welcome their participation in these threads for the knowledge and experience they can provide.

Any dealer or manufacturer that enters a thread concerning a product in which they have a vested financial interest in promoting should CLEARLY STATE what that interest is.

Thanks to you Adam for your thoughtfulness, no hard feelings really :)