Vandersteen Quatro CT

The differences?  Let me think for a second.

Ok, in a nut shell the CT is smoother, but still fully retains the Vandersteen's 'suddenness".  The staging and imaging are just a tad more accurate.  The changes are subtle.  I'd say a 10% gain, but when you have such a highly revealing systems, it's worth it to most people.  The gains are at the top end, but strengthen the coherence too based on my opinion.  Magic is the word I think of when listening to them set up correctly in a good room.  I've never heard them sound their best though as they keep getting better with better equipment.  That's what I love about Vandersteen's.  They give you what you pay for in the rest of your system.  His home made Carbon Fiber tweeters are just very special.  I have heard the new diamond and beryllium drivers from others and they just don't hold a candle to the carbon fiber drivers in my humble opinion. I know it's about implementation, but those B&W diamonds will spit on difficult passages and to me are fatiguing.  I'd rather speak with the salesperson after 3 minutes of listening and that's with their top rated gear on them.  Aways excuses from B&W fans against me, but even the sales person as the last store agreed with me and said he didn't like the new 803's either.  With the Ceramic tweeters that the wood and my Treo's have you get detail out the wazoo as well as a sweet enough high end, but I know what's out there is better and I want it.
That's why I'm selling my Treo's right now because to me the Quatro is the best value in the line as it's much closer to the 5 CT than it is the Treo CT or regular Treo.  

I carried both Thiel and Vandersteen when Thiel was still Thiel.  I was a dealer, sort of retired now but going to do some low key stuff with existing customers.  I love the new Vandy stuff.  Does everything I love about my 5A's but there's an immediacy, albeit subtle, that is addictive.  For the person who asked why Jim Thiel didn't train someone, you would have had to have known Jim.  He even programmed the CNC routers in production.  He was a friend and I've spent many hours with him watching him design and develop and realizing I will always be a speaker designer wannabe.  Same with Richard Vandersteen.  All speakers are compromises of sorts but Jim's latest design before he passed and Richard's current stuff does the coherent phase stuff beautifully but addresses some of the compromises very well.  Best to all.

Thanks for the post. Are you of the Atlanta variety?  I agree with you about Richard. I only met Jim Thiel a couple of times, but he was a special cat that's for sure.  You nailed the Vandy's to a tee.  Some on the boards are tied into their speakers and won't give a serious listen to others and that's cool.  I still audition every speaker I have a chance to and that includes those I don't usually like.  I wasn't a Vandersteen fan until Rutan forced me to give them a listen. I went to his shop all the way from CT to buy new Proacs as Richard from Proac told me to go there. once there I was captivated that Vandersteen's could sound so awesome.  Blown away for sure.  Thanks.