Vandersteen-like "In-between" speakers


I have a pair of Vandersteen 3A signature speakers that came on loan from my brother and I have to give them up in about a month. I am using them with a McCormack DNA-225 and they sound great. I have heard from others that Vandersteen works well with McCormack.

I don't want to spend more money than I have to, but I have about $6K set aside to buy my own speakers. This amount is much more than the 3A signatures. There is no way that I can stretch to buy the Vandersteen 5 or 5A's. A friend of mine has them and they are fantastic.

Can anyone suggest a speaker in my price range, which falls between 3A and 5A, that will give me the same "flavor" as the Vandersteens and will mate well with McCormack? I listen to all kinds of music except very little classical - mostly rock, jazz, bluegrass, vocals.
motdathird
Before you pull the trigger...audition the Green Mountain 1.5i at 5k...I have a strong sense you will not be dissapointed...it is also Phasecorrect like the Vandies...good luck...call Roy at GReen mTn with any questions...he is one cool dude ....
From the Vandersteen data sheet they had on hand at CES--

Quatro Components:

Tweeter: 1 inch dual chamber, critically amped, ceramic-coated alloy dome wteeter. 5kHz-30kHz.

Midrange: Patented open basket 4 1/2 inch midrange with a curvilinear filled polycone. 900Hz-5kHz.

Woofer: 6 1/2 inch woven fiber cone, and a precision formed magnet assembly, with a copper Faraday ring. 100 Hz-900Hz.

Subwoofer: (2) 8-inch carbon loaded cellulose cone subwoofer with a long throw motor assembly. Built-in 300 watt amiplifier with multi-band room response compensation. 20Hz-100Hz.

Specs:

Frequency Reponse: 24Hz to 30kHz +- 2dB.
Sensitivity: 87dB @ 1 meter with 2.83 volt input.
Impediance: 6 ohms +- 3 ohms.
Crossover: 100Hz, 900Hz, 5000Hz, 6dB per Octave.
Physical: 43" high, 10" wide, 19" deep. 110 lbs.

I talked to Richard and he said that he was releasing this speaker as a replacement for people who are using 3A sigs with 2 subs. In that regard, the price is almost spot on, plus you get the added bonus of the bass contour controls.

Hope that helps!
Part of my concern with using subs is practical. It is another connection to be made and more wire to buy. Also, I've always understood that sub placement can be tricky in a lot of rooms, especially using two. But, the right placement can work wonders. I wonder if these Q's will be a tradeoff. Some sort of convenience for lack of flexibilty of positioning.
The room compensation controls on the back of the Quatros and MOdel 5s will allow you to place the speakers anywhere in the room. You then use the controls to level out the bass response. It's an amazingly effective answer to "Where do I place these so the image AND have bass response?".
when i was in the market for speakers vandy 3 a's were high on my list. Being a 1-b owner i was looking for more speaker but similar voicing. I discovered Dunlavy athenas (alethas) and the search was over. Great at low volumes, solid bass, very open detailed highs that are never harsh (as long as you avoid silver in your cd interconnects), beautiful mid range, holographic imaging. In short, for the $4500 i spent on them they seriously outperformed the 3as and other much more expensive speakers (including aerial 10Ts). They are also fairly easy to place and don't need to be out very far from the rear wall which can be a nice bonus.

Now that Dunlavy closed shop some folks think they don't sound good anymore and are giving them and their box shaped sibling the cantata away for prices as low as $2500. Personally i could never dream of selling mine except for vandy 5s and i'm not sure the upgrade can justify the expense.