Six months ago I demo’d couple dozen speakers over several months and my three favorites were Spendor (which I bought) and Vandersteen and Dynaudio (the runner ups). So if you like Vandy then I suggest also demoing Dyn (already on your list) and Spendor.
I liked the Spendors just a bit more than the Vandys for the very reason you desire - they were just a little more exciting sounding yet still rich and lush and delicious in the mids like the Vandys. I was comparing D7 to model 3,fwiw. Blues and jazz my go-to genres.
The A2s new are in your price range, sound fantastic, and look pretty sexy too! I spent a long time listening to the A2s and was really impressed. A4 or A7 used would be even better!
Heard Focal in that price range too, nice, but quite different sounding. But Focal was probably in my top 25% as I think back. I’ll say that you can definitely get a ‘bigger’ sounding Focal for $2.5k than you can Spendor for that price. Might be a factor for bigger room.
Good luck!
I liked the Spendors just a bit more than the Vandys for the very reason you desire - they were just a little more exciting sounding yet still rich and lush and delicious in the mids like the Vandys. I was comparing D7 to model 3,fwiw. Blues and jazz my go-to genres.
The A2s new are in your price range, sound fantastic, and look pretty sexy too! I spent a long time listening to the A2s and was really impressed. A4 or A7 used would be even better!
Heard Focal in that price range too, nice, but quite different sounding. But Focal was probably in my top 25% as I think back. I’ll say that you can definitely get a ‘bigger’ sounding Focal for $2.5k than you can Spendor for that price. Might be a factor for bigger room.
Good luck!