Vandersteen Treo vs 3A Sig as upgrade

To my ears the Treos are a step forward in the mids and a step backward in the bass (from the 3A sig). I really wanted to like the Treos but the bass is unacceptable. Since the cure is sub woofers (or Quatros at twice the price) I’ll keep my 3A Sigs. I suspect much of the improvement in the Treo mids is due to the ease of driving the small Treo woofer, unloading the amplifier, or in the case of the Quatro, no woofer to drive at all (self powered). That would explain why Vandersteen has not married the bass drivers and cabinet of the 3A Sig to the tweeter and mid cabinet of the Treo - potentially a real winner without the $7k increase - giving the people what they want instead of a magic show - look at this hand (mids) and ignore what the other hand is doing (bass).

What you are hearing is more bass with lesser quality through the 3's. Those are a great choice in the lower price range however the Treo,s do everything else much better. Just ask Richard and he'll tell you the same thing. The Treo's sound great on material that has true low information. I heard great low information yesterday playing some orchestral tracks in 192. The quality was outstanding. Do I want more?  Yes and that's why I want the Quatro. Bass is the most expensive part of audio. At these price ranges there have to be compromises. I do disagree about set up. The Treo's were really easy to set up. We just put them 8' apart and put them about 4' into the room. Roughly what every speaker in this room has been. Then we uses string and placed it to my ear and made sure my ears were equi distant from each tweeter. Then we put on the spikes and used a lazier pen to align each tweeter on the back wall. After that we took about 15 minutes to set the tilt. That part was easy. Afterwards we rechecked the tweeters on the back wall to makes sure they were properly aligned after tilt. It took two of us about 30 minutes. Maybe I could dial them in better but they wound as good as I've ever heard them in various places. The CT version is better by a fair amount but at a premium. Personally I take quality bass over quantity. These still go down into the low 30's and with the quality They  give you most are highly satisfied. That takes nothing away from the 3's which are also an amazing value. We are talking about two great values. If we were talking about the Quatro vs the 5 we'd have a similar conversation but all have to agree that we love our Vandersteens and feel we have a great speaker value. 

What I am hearing is better quality bass in the 3A Sig for rock music.  What I hear from the Treo is better mids but a small ported driver that fails miserably on rock music.  Not because it lacks low end.  It doesn't.  It thuds quite loudly.  Believe me, if the Treos had better quality bass than the Sig *on rock* I would own them.  They just don't keep the rock beat rollin'.  If the Treo lights your fire on orchestral, by all means enjoy.  

Thanks! for sharing- wlutke.
I feel that I was the only person here whom does discount the Treo and Quattro. Keep in mind the difference(s) in sound and presentation goes into that 1st order crossover. 

Interesting.  I honestly don't do much orchestral, but it does have very low bass.  I listen to much more rock and heavy metal and have found the bass to be satisfying overall, but i do want the Quatro to get better and more bass.  I heard the Quatro and 7 mk2's yesterday at Audio Connection as Richard was there visiting.  The 3's do go lower, but the Treo has better quality according the to designer of the speakers.  If you feel you are getting better quality and more bass in your 3A's, then you are as it's your ears.  jafant, that's fair that you discount both speakers, but there are so many folks who love them as I heard folks talking about switching to them yesterday.  That's why other's can sell their wares also.

The one thing I will say is that Vandersteen is about to come to market with a new sub that will only be sold in pairs and will ROCK.  As long as you have a speaker that goes down to the high 30's you can use it without losing coherency as the bass needs to overlap a full octave to achieve that.  That's why it's so difficult for anyone to properly mate a sub with a non full range type of speaker.  it is pretty interesting stuff how he mates the sub's amp with whatever amp you are using to keep the same sound signature.  Just thought I'd share and this thread is a good one to throw it out in.