Vandersteen Treo vs 3A Sig as upgrade

A final follow up.  I've replaced the 3A's with a year old pair of perfect and beautiful rosewood lacquered Acoustic Zen Crescendo MKII's for half price (!).  Not a fair comparison but they destroy the 3A's and steamroller the Treos.  They've got that warm musical sound similar to Vandersteen so it was an easy transition.   

I am sincerely happy, wlutke, that you found what you were looking for! Congrats!!!!

Congrats Wulke, but we all hear differently.  I auditioned the Zen's and found they lacked coherency for ME.  I also know of a few guys who didn't like the Zen's nearly as much as the Steen's.  The fact that you love them is awesome.  Neither of us is right or wrong and that's the beauty of audio. We all get what we love. I trust my ears and you trust your's.  That makes it all good.  

To make statements like 'steamroll' and 'destroy' just makes no sense to me when comparing speakers.  I guess these words also mean different things to each of us.  Enjoy your Zen's as I love my Quatro's and Bob loves my former Treo's.  I think he chose the Treo's over the Zen's too, but I can't remember fully. I know it was someone I was talking to when selling the Treo's to upgrade to Quatro's.  Oh well....it's all good in audio

ctsooner - 

The Treo and 3A Sig do not compare on any level with the Crescendo 2, price or performance wise.  "Destroy" and "steamroller" were not meant in a harsh way given the cost difference and "In another league", as over used as it is, I feel has lost its impact and only hints at the difference.  Funny you find the Zens are not coherent.  Reviews rave about exceptional coherency and, in fact, music just flows in the room without aberration.  Different room, different gear, different ears.  I could have settled for Quatros but I found it difficult to get past having to plug my speakers into the wall, add a high pass filter with an option of one (1) brand wire pigtail and equalization that requires the speaker never be moved again without Vandertoning.  That's just me, not a put down on the Quatros.  I'm sure they're amazing for the money.  BTW congratulations on your purchase!  

You have already made it clear that you will give up resolution vs air moved in the room.  That's cool and I know many who do this and most don't even notice it when listening to mostly rock.

I realize the Treo is not for you.  Not enough air moved.  As for reviews, they are nice, but again, I'll trust my own ears.  

All I said was that your statements of 'do not compare' and the rest just lose you any credibility in your response.  None of us can make statements like that as it's audio and personal.  When I said the Zen's weren't coherent, I said this:   I auditioned the Zen's and found they lacked coherency for ME.  Did you notice I said for ME.

As for the Quatro's being a semi active speaker, I love it. Nothing beats being able to tune the bass to the room and placing the speaker in the best place to do all the great things it does like disappear and play music in a point source sort of way.  I don't worry about the crossover part either as mine is built directly into my integrated amp.  Easy for some companies to do, like Ayre.  Plenty of great choices depending on what you like to listen to.