I personally was the guy looking for the best sound under 25k too. I auditioned sooooo many speakers. I went crazy over the course of a few years. I ended up with a speaker I never would audition in the past. I got Vandersteen Quatro's (after a year or more with Treo's while I saved money).
I feel it's their best value speaker. I put it up against still competition in the 35k and under range like the new Paradigm 9H (also a semi active) and the bigger Wilson's, the Magico S3 for around 30k, B&W and Sonus Faber to name just a few.
I felt it was the most coherent speaker. Sounded like the point source speakers I auditioned and it had the best tonality, pace/timing and rhythm. It just did things correctly. As I bring in better components, I hear the differences (good and bad) in spades. I'm in shock as how good things sound in my room how with the tunable bass. I now realize how important it is to be able to tune the bass in my room. Bass is the most expensive part of the chain for all products and to have ability to tune is sweet. I have heard the digital correctable speakers and it's nice, but I still can hear it in the chain. I don't hear the analog type of correcting that Vandersteen employs. There was another manufacturer who does something similar in analog and not digital and I didn't hear any problems there either.
So much depends on your room. I know folks always say what type of music to you listen to, but should that really matter? So many of us just listen to music and don't care what 'type'. A great speaker, especially at these prices, should do it all.
I wonder if this is why we see so many folks buying and selling on Audiogon. They buy into what others say and don't go listen on their own. Yes, I love Vandy's as do many of us, but folks need to go listen on their own and be sold or not. JMHO
I feel it's their best value speaker. I put it up against still competition in the 35k and under range like the new Paradigm 9H (also a semi active) and the bigger Wilson's, the Magico S3 for around 30k, B&W and Sonus Faber to name just a few.
I felt it was the most coherent speaker. Sounded like the point source speakers I auditioned and it had the best tonality, pace/timing and rhythm. It just did things correctly. As I bring in better components, I hear the differences (good and bad) in spades. I'm in shock as how good things sound in my room how with the tunable bass. I now realize how important it is to be able to tune the bass in my room. Bass is the most expensive part of the chain for all products and to have ability to tune is sweet. I have heard the digital correctable speakers and it's nice, but I still can hear it in the chain. I don't hear the analog type of correcting that Vandersteen employs. There was another manufacturer who does something similar in analog and not digital and I didn't hear any problems there either.
So much depends on your room. I know folks always say what type of music to you listen to, but should that really matter? So many of us just listen to music and don't care what 'type'. A great speaker, especially at these prices, should do it all.
I wonder if this is why we see so many folks buying and selling on Audiogon. They buy into what others say and don't go listen on their own. Yes, I love Vandy's as do many of us, but folks need to go listen on their own and be sold or not. JMHO