I have a pair of Vandersteen 3A speakers and drive them with a Sunfire amp.I am very happy with the mid range and tweeter, which produces exceptionally clean and clear vocals. I am somewhat surprised that the bass is not as
loud as it seemed to be in the retail store,where I first heard it play.
I beleive it would be hard to obtain a better speaker for the money.

Deep, tight bass. Ability to play very loud.

none I can think of.

I found that I must post a follow up to my original review. I have added a Sony SCD 777 Super Audio player, new Svetlana tubes to my amp, and Transparent Ultra XL IC's and Speaker wire. My listening impression...Hoooollly Shhhhhit. The 3A's now have real bass slam, image much deeper and wider and have a presence that sounds much more real. They are the best speakers I have ever had the opportunity to own. Bought these used for $1250 and you should see the smile on my face tonight. Been listening all afternoon and evening with no fatigue at all. My setup consists of a PS Audio 5.5 preamp run in passive mode (about $300 on the used market) and a 20 year old Audio Research D-90B tube amp (available used for $800-900. Although the entry price is cheap the sound is world class. To anyone interested in these make sure you Bi-Wire with good cables and can provide 90-100 watts/channel. If you are rich enough for a SACD as a source these speakers will not dissapoint. I have them in a well damped medium size room with 8 foot ceilings. With the lights out it becomes hard to tell what size room that you are listening in...yes, they soundstage that good. I think I will be keeping these for quite some time.

Similar Products Used:

Spendor 2/2, Quad esl, DCM time windows, Accoustat 2+2, B & W DM6, Magnepan.

Natural Bass, wide open sound

laid back midrange and top end

Bought Vandersteen 3A's in my first foray into high end sound. Coupled them with a Classe CAP-151 integrated amp, a Classe 1.5 CD player, and Audioquest Forest/Indigo biwired speaker cables. I found that while the Vandersteens have a beautiful wide open sound, the bass and lower midrange dominates. I understand this is how they are supposed to sound but I just never felt the magic of a stinging guitar solo or majesty of a winding sax. Also felt that voices didn't sound totally natural. I thought it might be the electronics but I borrowed some very high end Audio Research electronics from my dealer but it didn't help much. You should also know that Vandersteens are extremely room placement sensitive. have to be at least 2-3 feet off back wall to sound good. Have decided to trade in for some Pro-ac 1.5's.

Similar Products Used:

Proac 1.5