From Vandersteen 2CE to Devore Gibbons 8 or Focal


I presently own Vandersteen 2ce speakers and I am less than pleased with the treble response in my room (too bright). I am thinking of buying (used) either a pair of Devore Gibbons 8 or Focal 836V speakers. I will have to travel quite a distance to hear either pair of speakers, so my question is in your opinion, which speaker would be a step up for me? I am looking for a smooth sounding treble which I don't get now. I listen kind of nearfield, about 7' from the speakers. Associated equipment is Classe 15 amp, Modulus 3A tube preamp and Raysonic 168 tube cd player.

Anyonw?

Robert Vartanian
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I may have missed it but have you adjusted the tweeter and midrange levels on the vandy's.
I'm the proud owner of a pair of Focal 836v speakers and have been very happy with their bass response. Just recently I hooked up my Martin Logan Dynamo 700 10 inch subwoofer to the main channel pre-outs on my receiver to allow me to "fill in the bass" in direct mode for organ and other music that has low bass. I have it crossed over very low and the volume is almost at zero and it really makes the organ sound realistic, but I'm finding that I'm less satisfied with the majority of my music with the addition of the subwoofer. I can't figure anything out specifically, but something just doesn't seem quite right. I need to do a little A/B comparisions with the subwoofer on and off to see if it's having a subtle negative effect on the music that it really isn't necessary for. I hope you have the success that you're looking for. My sub was purchased for home theater and I think I'll be hooking it up to the .1 again soon and just not using it for critical 2 channel listening in direct mode.

I'm sure your new speakers are great, but I was pulling (after the fact as I read through this thread) for the Focals.
I had the DeVore 8 speakers and Paradigm dsp 3100 sub set up in my living room. I was never truly satisfied with the sound, particularly on rock music. I bought the Odyssey Audio Kismet Reference Loudspeakers off a guy here on the Gon for an excellent price. I had never heard the speakers but I spoke with many owners of Odyssey equipment, particularly owners of the Stratos Extreme amp whcih I had purchased in April, and owners of the Odyssey Lorelei speakers of which my speakers are based upon. (The Kismet Reference are a souped up version of the Lorelei's)

Everyone talked about the amazing synergy between the components, so I took a leap of faith. I am soooooo glad I did because the speakers totally transformed my system. I am a very happy camper now.

Bob