Are more expensive speakers better?

Garfish: I auditioned the 5's in a Vandersteen preferred system (all AR gear). I feel that "most" auditions of these speakers will be somewhat hindered by the room itself and speaker placement (the subs are in the same cabinet as the rest of the drivers). I did read your posts on "the hoops that you jumped through" in order to properly set them up, but let's face it, this is not going to happen @ many shops. This can be said of many speakers, of course, but I would guess that the 5's may need a bit more attention than the norm. The subs, by the way, scared the crap out of me, when they kicked in on a piece (we were listening pretty much in the near field). It had been quite a while since I had listened to a full range system.

In keeping with the thread, "proper setup" and the room are @ least 50% of the sound of any decent speaker, IMO. You really need to "live" with a speaker in order to benefit from (in excess of 80% of) what it can do under these conditions.

Dekay; you are "right on" regarding set-up of the V5 speakers, ie because of the "in room" adjustable bass, it does take some time and effort to get it right, but when done right, I think most would agree that it is certainly worth it. Yes the bass can be spectacular, and to me HQ bass was a BIG selling point of this speaker (I don't have room for separate subs).

Also in keeping with this threads subject, as I moved up expense wise in the Vandersteen line of speakers, music got better. But the improvement wasn't linear, and by far the biggest improvement came when going from the 3Asigs ($3500.) to the 5s ($11.5K)-- that's the way it should be, and that's the way it was. R. Vandersteen builds honest value into his speakers at each price point. I would also admit that there is some music that I still much prefer on the 3A/3Asigs rather than the 5s. The 5s are a much more revealing speaker; the 3As more forgiving. Cheers. Craig

Craig, I was really thinking about getting some Bose speakers for my waiting room, (so I can steal back the PSB 300i pair there now for another use.) I am really insulted. Brought to tears. Charlie

p.s. Just kidding. I love you man. Can I have your Bud Light?

danvetc: you don't think bose speakers will hurt your patients' ears? -cfb

No.
The Golden rule.
Its better to be smart than rich when buying Audio gear.