Dynaudio Contour C60 or Magico A3 or Vandersteen Treo CT

You may also ask if you can bring your own electronics to the different places in order to hear the speakers with your own gear. That may help minimize differences in setups, if you are willing to drive to the different locations to audition.

I have heard all three.  I owned the Treo's and LOVED them.  I sold them to an AG member who also loves them. I upgraded to the Quatro as I wanted the bass control and more powerful bass for my room.  The steen's are just so clear. Micro and macro detail in spades as they have no smearing.  They are one of the best I've ever heard in regards to tonality.  I listen to a lot of live music and feel the Steen's are as close in their price ranges as you can get.  The other speakers are very nice and I can see how you came to look at these three.  I agree with Tomic IRT Johny Rutan or Alan Jones.  Also the Vandersteen Treo CT's can be set within 12" of the back wall if needed.  

 @yyzsantabarbara how did it go at Sunnys ???????

I forget Sunny is back in the game.  

@yyzsantabarbara  I did not get to Sunny's in time to hear Vandersteen give his talk or Audience give theirs. I was at another dealer, Brooks Berdan,  engrossed with the Magico A3. I spent 4 hours there instead of the planned 2 hours.

I did manage to arrive in time to Sunny's to hear a few songs from the Vivid Kaya 90 speaker, about $26K. It sounded very much like the Giya Spirit speaker I heard demoed by Philip O'Hanlon at the previous LA SHOW I went to. The Kaya was a very nice speaker and sounds a bit like the KEF Blade. I was not in a good seating position to write anymore about it but you can tell it was a great sound speaker. It was driven by NAD amps worth about $10K.

I had a better position to hear the Vandersteen Treo CT driven by an all Bryston system. This was a Bryston demo, by Gary Dayton. The amp was the 4B3 and pre was the BP26. There was also an Vandersteen sub-woofer added to the mix, occasionally turned off. This was also a very good sounding system. A lot cheaper than the Vivid speaker I heard a few minutes earlier. It had a lot of bass without the sub but adding the sub really added more body to the music. I have had Bryston gear in the past and the 4B3 sounded to me like an improvement on my 7B-SST amps. I also heard the Bryston 7B3 driving some Eggelston speakers and it sounded similar in character to the 4B3 (this was after the Treo).

I was not able to able to do the listening tests with the Treo that I was able to do with the A3. I was alone with the dealer for the A3 and the Treo was demoed in an area packed with people. One test that is important to me is listening at low volumes without a loss in resolution. The A3 passed this test in spades while the Treo was not tested this way. The Treo seemed like a speaker that would fit into my smallish office. The A3 also works in the smallish space I will have, 150 - 200 sq feet. The Treo was demoed in a smaller space than the A3. 

The other characteristics I wanted to hear were evident in the A3 after some gear switching and music selections to identify them. I did not have the music choice or one-on-one time to dive deep into the Treo. So I really do not know exactly what the Treo was capable of. I do not want to get into more details on what I was looking for because someone may think the Treo was not good at these things. I just was not able to test for them in the manner I did with the A3. The music played was not good for me to hear the things I was looking for. I was also not familiar with a lot of this music.

Saying all of this. I do not have time to do more audio searching and I already spend too much time on Audiogon researching what I should get for the office. The Magico A3 is not the best speaker I have heard that I thought I could be happy with, the KEF Blade and Thiel CS 3.7 were higher up on my like scale. However, given my situation, with room, the way I listen to music and the amount of hours I listen. I have decided to buy the Magico A3. It will likely take about 6 months before I get them into my home. They are backordered and I am moving in 3 months. So I will place an order in early 2019. I am listing my existing office system for sale today to fund the A3.

Not sure what electronics I will use but I have a few analog pieces that need to come out of storage, so I am thinking of an integrated amp. I have been doing all digital for the past few years.