having owned vandy 1 and 2ci's over the years and have moved to a higher resolution / transparent design. i have heard the 3a's in a friends house and they are nice but sound like a bigger 2 ( still laid back in the mid for my taste). they are nice but not as musically involving as some other speakers that i have heard.
i haved always enjoyed vandies and found they do their best with high resolution gear ( i went with pse studio V mono blocks amps at richard vandersteen's reccomendation). but they have seemed to be lacking coherency in the midrange ( top and bottom are fine).
a similiar design by alon has cured me of speaker "upgradeitis". they are similar in design - sealed bass enclosure but the mid and tweeter are on a open baffle.
the alon II(mark 2) or 5 are worth looking at in the used market.
the alon's offer a very musical, seemless and revealing presentation behind the speakers and do a great disappearing act. if you have heard a magneplanar then you know what i an talking about ( but with bass and dynamics!!!!!!) the cohearency of the speakers is amazing !! you are presented with the whole sonic picture and the sounds comes from a nicely layered soundstage that is huge and the images have smooth edges.
they are also very revealing of everything ( not bright... but revealing to speaker cable changes, interconnect changes etc, loose binding post etc..)
they are a dipole and need a room to breathe( the design is very similar except the back of the tweeter/midrange is open- a dipole). the bottom end of the model 5 is closer to the vandersteen 3 ( the alon 5 is a amazing speaker from top to bottom). the bass of the alon model 2 mkII goes to 40hz.
i would give them a listen if you have the room for them ( they need to be 4-5 feet out in the room to breathe) they are one of the few box speakers that sound/image like a planar (huge soundstage with height).
the vandies are nice and have always been a awesome deal for the money.... but the drawbacks have been a lack of resolution/cohearency/transparency in the midrange.that is where they give it up. the thiels get the midrange right....but it isnt a fair comparison - similar models have costed about $1000 more...
hope that helps !!!
mike
i haved always enjoyed vandies and found they do their best with high resolution gear ( i went with pse studio V mono blocks amps at richard vandersteen's reccomendation). but they have seemed to be lacking coherency in the midrange ( top and bottom are fine).
a similiar design by alon has cured me of speaker "upgradeitis". they are similar in design - sealed bass enclosure but the mid and tweeter are on a open baffle.
the alon II(mark 2) or 5 are worth looking at in the used market.
the alon's offer a very musical, seemless and revealing presentation behind the speakers and do a great disappearing act. if you have heard a magneplanar then you know what i an talking about ( but with bass and dynamics!!!!!!) the cohearency of the speakers is amazing !! you are presented with the whole sonic picture and the sounds comes from a nicely layered soundstage that is huge and the images have smooth edges.
they are also very revealing of everything ( not bright... but revealing to speaker cable changes, interconnect changes etc, loose binding post etc..)
they are a dipole and need a room to breathe( the design is very similar except the back of the tweeter/midrange is open- a dipole). the bottom end of the model 5 is closer to the vandersteen 3 ( the alon 5 is a amazing speaker from top to bottom). the bass of the alon model 2 mkII goes to 40hz.
i would give them a listen if you have the room for them ( they need to be 4-5 feet out in the room to breathe) they are one of the few box speakers that sound/image like a planar (huge soundstage with height).
the vandies are nice and have always been a awesome deal for the money.... but the drawbacks have been a lack of resolution/cohearency/transparency in the midrange.that is where they give it up. the thiels get the midrange right....but it isnt a fair comparison - similar models have costed about $1000 more...
hope that helps !!!
mike