Speakers costing range of 2500-3500 per pair

I'll take the Ascend Acoustics Sierra Towers over Vandersteens any day of the week. In order to survive, Richard had to take on outside engineers to keep his company afloat during the past twenty years. Richard is not a acoustical engineer nor had an education in electrical engineering. He started out as a DIY guy building speakers in his garage in 1977. Their good speakers but over priced, and Ascend Acoustics designs superior drivers. The goofiest thing I ever came across years ago when Vandersteen updated their website, Is his article on " The truth about pistonic drivers"..when I shared the article with my high end friends they couldn't stop laughing. Great piece of hyperbole.

More than likely, Vandersteen is using "ghost writers" to answer your technical questions online. I mentioned in a recent thread I started under amps/preamps on the new Belles Virtuoso integrated of the very bad experience I had with Richard Vandersteen, having to deal with his explosive temper which he is known for. In the summer of 1998 I spoke to him on the phone and asked him a technical question regarding the 2CE,
wanting to know what the SPL/weighted db level the speaker could reach. He replied "What do you mean?" He had no clue what I was talking about and went dead quiet on the phone. I repeated the question and he yelled at the top of his lungs " I don't have time to answer technical questions" and slammed down the phone. Worst treatment I have ever experienced from an audio company in forty years.

Avoid retailers at all cost who troll around threads trying to hard sell you to lure you into their stores. Having owned a retail audio business just for two years, and a authorized Nuforce dealer at the time, here is how bracket wholesale buying works. The average wholesale discount a retailer gets for a pair of speakers is 40%. So if a retailer sells you a pair of speakers that cost $10K, he pockets a profit of $4K. The discount is higher, 45 to 50% if purchased in volume. This is why many speaker companies set their retail price very high since they have to sell their speakers at a high discount to retail stores, so you wind up buying an overpriced speaker. Factory direct is the better way to go. I have not bought from a retailer in 24 years.

Weird that an Aria owner can’t spell the name of his speakers. I can’t imagine how one would end up deciding between them and Spendors. To say that’s an apples to oranges comparison is an understatement.

Anyway, folks need to get out and audition more speakers. I have a hard time imagining anyone would pick them unless they’ve had a very slim diet of auditions. IMO, yes, just my opinion, the Arias are competitive in the $2K realm, nothing more. I had a chance to buy a demo pair for $2K. I listened to them with a couple well regarded amps, with many genres of music, but they just didn’t have anything that justified their price. I have experience with several less expensive speakers that were better to my ears, including Revel Concerta2 F36s, Monitor Audio Silver 8s, Vandersteen 1Cis, KEF LS50s and Maggie 1.7s (the latter two in all aspects but bass). Of course, this is just my opinion, but that was my honest assessment. I will say they are a great looking speaker.

Also, the speaker manufacturer cost to make a speaker, average formula 
is four to one of the factory wholesale cost. The retail wholesale cost for a $10K speaker is $6K. The total manufacturer cost to make that $10K  speaker including packaging and out the door, is $2400.00. This is why the majority of speaker companies build their cabinets with MDF panels,
since MDF is dirt cheap, and will not standardize bamboo panels as an alternative, since it would reduce their profit margins.