The Vandies with a Bryston are incredible.
Vandersteen 3A's
Bryston 4B
Acurus ACT-3 (a little noise hen cranked)
Sony 5-DVD changer... need to improve this

Looking for another Bryston (3 channel amp), turntable, tuner...

I LOVE my Vandies and Bryston!

These are the best speakers I've ever owned, by a long shot. I find them to defy any effort to find fault with their performance. Yet, they do everything without calling attention to themselves. I own a pair of Totem Arros, which are exciting speakers, but they SHOUT their strengths and call attention to themselves. While I owned the Vanderstee 3a's, my CD collection doubled. Rather than get into a lot of audio babble, let me just say that they are extremely pleasurable speakers to listen to music through. For the price, I don't think it gets better.

The Vandersteen 3A is a very impressive speaker. I first had the Model 1B many years ago, then upgraded to the 2C and recently purchased a used pair of the Model 3A. The difference between the 2C and 3A is vast, from bass to treble. The sound might best be described as relaxed. It never sounds like the speakers are struggling to play music, it just flows. Very musical. The treble has air to it, while the midrange sounds natural. The bass goes deep by itself, and I augment that with a REL Storm subwoofer, playing 30 Hz and down. (Note: with the REL, the speakers still connect directly to the amp with no crossover added in the signal path; so, the Vandy's still play using a full signal.)
The soundstage is excellent, with very good dynamics. As with most speakers, positioning is important to attain the best performance. The speaker angle (on the stands) should be tested to see what works best in your room, as well as distance from the wall, center, etc. Mine are positioned about 3 feet from the front wall, toed in ever so slightly just missing the center of the sweet spot.

For home theater, the results are equally impressive. The speakers play very loud without distortion and the Vandersteen center channel VCC-1 integrates very well. I use an upgraded McCormack DNA-1 Deluxe (SMC Audio Rev A) amp to drive the Left/Right and an Adcom 2535 amp to run the center and surrounds. Since I listen to music 80% vs movies 20%, I concentrated on the mains. For my listening room which has a cathedral ceiling 18 feet sloping to 9 feet, a subwoofer is highly recommended (probably recommended for any home theater application).

One other interesting item. I was always of the school that cables make little or no difference. Well, this is very wrong. In fact, this can make the biggest difference in a system. Don't dismiss cables as being a waste of money. If you don't believe, borrow some from a dealer or friend and try it. I found AudioQuest/AudioTruth to provide nice results.

I'm sure there are certainly better speakers available (some for mega-bucks), each having their own trade-offs, but the Vandersteen 3A is certainly a worthy investment into musical enjoyment and can now be upgraded to the Signature model. When I called Vandersteen to inquire about this, I was transferred immediately to Richard Vandersteen which was a very satisfying experience.

I recently auditioned these speakers while I was searching for some new speakers in the $1500-$3500 range. The dealer also had some B&W Nautilus 804's in the same room. I have to say these speakers sounded very poor in comparison to the N804's. They sounded midrange heavy and were inexact and imaging poorly. Their only good point was that the highs were very smooth, and in general the speakers were more laid-back than the Nautilus which are too "forward".
Givn the positive reviews here I was quite surprised. There may have been some problems with the placement at the dealer, but they seemed like a good store.

I ended up getting some Vienna Acoustics brand Mozart speakers. If you look at my audioreview of those you will see comparisons with other speakers I tried.

Wow. The level of detail is amazing. I love most everything about their sound (except that they're not the most beautiful things I've ever seen). Full upper and mid range, reasonably good bass. Matches great with Krell KAV line. I definitly reccomend them.

Clarity, ease of upgrading.

Bass problem due to the "new" metal woofer that seems to be difficult to drive unless you have a strong solid state amp. Avoid using with tube amps.

This is a fine bread and butter, no nonsense amp with much value for the money. Looks great as a piece of furniture, sounds clear and is a fine workhorse which does almost everything well - for my tastes namely large orchestral classical music. Best to avoid using with tube amps due to tough to drive bass woofer within the speaker. Best results with Mark Levinson amps.

Similar Products Used:

Quads, Proacs, B&W

I have recently upgraded to the 3As from a 16 year old pair of Vandersteen Model 2Cs. I am very pleased with them. You have to work a little to get them placed correctly but when you do, the sound is truly spectacular. The listening height is critcal with these (as with all Vandersteens) as you have only a 6 to 8 inch verticle window for optimum performance. NEVER audition them in a store while standing! I have them on the 18 ft wall in a 13' X 18' room and found the best placement by using the "Third Dimensional Placement" technique outlined in the owner's manual. I have not had the oportunity to audition many of the speakers avalable today but found these to be the closest "Natural" sound. Too many systems today rely on HOT high frequencies to grab your attention. In fact, I was at the symphony last night and you really must go to realize how WARM a good rochestra/hall truly is. The soundstage is wide and the bass is powerful but accurate. As with any good speaker, you can change the sound drastically with the associated gear, but you could spend mega bucks on electronics before you get all that you can get from these speakers. I would love to hear from anyone that has heard the 3A Signature series. You can have your 3As upgraded for $700 by Vandersteen. Mike
CD = Pioneer Elite PD-65
AMP = Ayre Accoustics V-3
PRE = Audio Research LS2BMkII
Inner Connects = Audio Research Litz wire
Speaker Cables = Audio Research Litz wire

I listened to these at a Maryland dealer driven by a Sunfire Theater Grand pre-pro and Sunfire Cinema Grand amp and Krell CD player(dealer's default set-up). After listening to a variety of music (Horowitz Rach 3 1978, Fleisher/Szell Beethoven 3, Dire Straits Romeo & Juliet, Clapton at the Royal Albert), I found that the dynamic range was very good and the bass was well-balanced and had good impact. However, the Vandersteen's didn't fully bring out the emotional experience of the music. This may have been a listening room problem (there was more acoustic damping than I could shake a stick at), but the mid-bass and mid-range tended to lose definition and clarity and consequently the imaging suffered.

I have an old review on the 3 A's (12/97) on this site. I just

had them upgraded to signature models, and a great speaker is even

GREATER. The tweeters on the upgrade are from the model 5's, and

they sound more extended, cleaner, and definitely kill the bugaboo

that Vandies are dark or too laid back. But they ain't harsh or hard,

still very natural. Imaging and soundstage are better with new crossover.

I think that the Vandersteen 3a is one of the most transparent speakers I haveever listened to. The fact that upgrades can be done on the existing speakers also makes them a great value. The bass is smooth and clean and the treble is
clear and transparent with out being "bright" or "edgy".

On the down side the 3a is somewhat lacking in the mid-bass (for my tastes) and
I wish Vandersteen would come up with more attractive cabinet.

I drive them in bi-amped configuration, using a Linn Majik for the woofer/accoustic coupler and a Linn LK100 for the tweeter/midrange.

Overall: Excellent value. A must listen.