Legacy SE versus Vandersteen Quatros

Legacy Focus SE 18Hz +/- 2db
Vandersteen Quatro 24 Hz +/- 2 dB

I reviewed the Focus SE for Dagogo.com

Its not how low you go its how well you go low and that what Vandersteen owners have discovered. Can you tune the Legacy to your room? Oh I know..............NO.

The Quatro is side-firing and would make a mess of the low end if it were not tuned. I'm not particularly impressed with the bass of speakers which side-fire their low end drivers. A significant amount of nuance in the lower frequencies is lost.

For those who say it doesn't matter which direction the woofer points, I'm not buying it. I have used side, down, rear and forward firing woofers in speakers and all alternative directions to front firing are not as pleasing to my ear. The bass simply sounds flabbier, less distinct and uncecessarily involves the room more. So, yes, it's a good idea for Vandersteen to work to control the drivers blasting the bass toward a side wall.

So the Whisper has bass that comes from front and rear, that must "involve" the room............right? How is it you note you dont like a speaker that fires from side or rear and yet you own one? Yes its Dipole bass but its still "involving" the room no doubt.
What experience do you have with the Quatro? Have you spent years listening to it? Because I have spent years with both speakers.
I know your a fan of Legacy, have reviewed and I assume recieved some tasty discounts on the models you bought after glowing reviews, thats cool and nothing wrong with that. But I dont owe anyone anything, I didnt get a discount of any sort on either speaker and I am not in it for anything more than honest experienced opinion.
Maybe you can get the boss at your review site to actually review this or any Vandersteen speaker. Surely such a well respected and otherwise well reviewed speaker is something you could learn more about to honestly discuss.
So there the OP has it, several opinions to mull over.............good luck on whatever you decide, like I said Legacy is a good speaker, Vandersteen is just beyond it IMO.

Doug, was your posting the -2db frequencies for both speakers suppose to be saying something about quality? I found that odd (especially for a subjective reviewer), unless you were replying to someone's question, but I did not see it. That sort of stuff seems meaningless in evaluating the qualitative differences between the two speakers, especially when one of them is -2db at 24hz. They do seem to be very different types of speakers in terms of sound, I would think what would gravitate to one or the other rather easily if you could hear both.