All of your feedback has been quite helpful. I should add a couple of points to clarify my position- my listening room has the speakers against the long wall, which is the only place I can put them- it's a living room about 18 feet wide. Speakers, though only 20 inches from front wall, are about 7 feet apart, and would be about 6 feet from left side wall and 5 feet from right side wall. The only other speaker I've seriously considered so far would be the Von Schweikert vr4-jr's, which I think are actually front-ported. Don't want to go to 2 CE's, wasn't satisfied w/ their sound. I do want speakers that go down to 30Hz or below; want a bit deeper bass than I get w/ my Thiels. My impression has been that stand-mounted monitors don't tend to go that low, or give a great soundstage, all other things being equal, but I'm not too knowledgeable about them. My Thiels don't sound as good as they could in current position (20" out), but are serviceable- my sense has been that Vandy's would suffer relatively more in that position... Any thoughts out there on relative sensitivity of Thiels, Vandy's, Von Schweikerts in that position, plus stand monitors that go low, w/ great soundstage? Sorry for the length here, just have a lot of questions about this...
Vandersteen's, optimum placement, room limitations
Category: Speakers
I'm thinking of switching from Thiel 2.3's to Vandersteen 3A sigs with their subwoofers, or possibly the new Quatro's (have to demo). My problem is that in my city apartment, my listening room is only 12' 8" wide. I've listened to the 3A sig's under varying conditions (once 20 inches from the walls w/ good results, once the same distance w/ terrible ones. In both cases I was able to sit more than 7 to 8 feet back from the speakers, which is the current/maximum distance in my listening space). I can't afford to put the backs of my speakers more than 18-20 inches from the walls in any case.
I currently have an Ayre CX-7 cd player and Rega P3 Turntable, Ayre K-3X preamp, and Ayre V-5x amp, w/ Ayre and Cardas Golden Reference interconnects plus Cardas Cross speaker cables. I think the sig's might be quite nice in my system, but the distance/set-up thing? I don't know...
I'd appreciate anyone's feedback on this.
I'm thinking of switching from Thiel 2.3's to Vandersteen 3A sigs with their subwoofers, or possibly the new Quatro's (have to demo). My problem is that in my city apartment, my listening room is only 12' 8" wide. I've listened to the 3A sig's under varying conditions (once 20 inches from the walls w/ good results, once the same distance w/ terrible ones. In both cases I was able to sit more than 7 to 8 feet back from the speakers, which is the current/maximum distance in my listening space). I can't afford to put the backs of my speakers more than 18-20 inches from the walls in any case.
I currently have an Ayre CX-7 cd player and Rega P3 Turntable, Ayre K-3X preamp, and Ayre V-5x amp, w/ Ayre and Cardas Golden Reference interconnects plus Cardas Cross speaker cables. I think the sig's might be quite nice in my system, but the distance/set-up thing? I don't know...
I'd appreciate anyone's feedback on this.