For Vandersteen owners & lovers: Which other brands do you like?

@islandmandan My wife’s mom struggled with dementia, but those of us around her struggled much more, especially her dad and that seems like where you are. I hope you have access to resources to help you (in addition to your stereo) so if things progress and make it even harder on you that you have help. I pray it doesn’t come to that for you, but I know how hard it can be and God Bless for whatever you’re going through because I know how hard, and how heartbreaking, it can be to watch someone you love slowly slip away and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. It’s a cruel and evil disease, and I only hope you the best. Reach out for support/family is the best advice I can give, and keep rewarding yourself with the wonderful gift of music as it can be a refreshing oasis for you because you need to keep caring for yourself in addition to your wife. Again, I completely identify and appreciate what you’re going through, and you seem like a supremely optimistic and courageous man, but don’t take it all on your own shoulders because it’s likely you just can’t at some point. You have my sincere thoughts and prayers, and my wife is a social worker and obviously gone through this with her mom who has sadly passed, but if you need any advice on support services that you and/or your wife might need please reach out to me. For example, when her disease progressed and my father-in-law needed a break and she needed stimulation/support a bus would come pick her up and take her to a place where she got stimulated and interaction with others, and it was all funded by NY State. Anyway, sorry to drone on here, but just know that you are not alone in this and there are people/services that can help improve both you and your wife’s quality of life if needed. Yours in life and music.

Tim

@patrickdowns figured I’d throw in my input.

I had 3’s for 30 years with sending them in for upgrades 3 times, the last time a full upgrade to Signature 3 spec on all parts. ( Richard’s answer when I asked what would be different before I sent them was “ the only thing you will get back from your speakers is the wood, the frame and maybe the cloth”) 

I was thinking about the switch to Treo’s and went and listened to them ( New Jersey dealer, well thought of) and after my audition I went to look at some finishes in another building with him ( basically deciding on what I was going to buy)  and he had some Harbeth SLH 5 Anniversary speakers set up that he had on commission. I had never heard Harbeths so I asked for a listen. 
I ended up buying a pair of the Harbeth SLH 5 Anniversary about two years ago.

I loved my Sig 3’s and liked the Treo’s which to my ear had similar sound but just cleaner with more detail.

The Harbeths are to me even more detailed and incredibly realistic while being not fatiguing in any way. The first day I had the Harbeths they seemed almost too detailed, it was like the Sig 3’s had been more blended…? But after a few hours I haven’t looked back in any way.

The real input is to just get what sounds right to you. Just give your ears a touch of time to adapt if the sound is different at first. For me hearing the Harbeths that first time they just seemed effortlessly detailed and they just stuck in my brain.

Enjoy!

If I was you I’d be on the lookout for two used 2wq subs as there are really good deals out there on those subs now, and two very good subs is almost always better than one great one.  And IMHO the 2wq was and still is a damn good sub, and two of’em?  End game stuff to me. 

Hard to argue against @soix logic ^here^.

…

I was thinking about the switch to Treo’s and went and listened to them ( New Jersey dealer, well thought of) and after my audition I went to look at some finishes in another building with him ( basically deciding on what I was going to buy)  and he had some Harbeth SLH 5 Anniversary speakers set up that he had on commission. I had never heard Harbeths so I asked for a listen. 
I ended up buying a pair of the Harbeth SLH 5 Anniversary about two years ago.

…

The Treos, I believe, are more tolerant to being shoved against a wall than the model 2 or 3… I unsure about the Harbeths, but if you like em, then that is great.

zimick

I ended up buying a pair of the Harbeth SLH 5 Anniversary about two years ago.

I've listened to the Harbeth 30 and 40 at Gig Harbor (WA) Audio (a fine store to visit)... sweet speakers! That "BBC sound" is special. It is interesting that their enclosures are pretty live, and are part of the sound they create much like the body of a guitar, with the resonances. Or so I have read. Richard V builds the cabinets for the Treo CT and Quatro (and the others I assume) with a box in a box, to eliminate as much cabinet resonance as possible (again, what I recall reading). Two different approaches, both right for each maker. That is the fascinating thing about speaker design. Magico takes it to the extreme, CNC milling their cabinets out of aluminum and using carbon fiber. VERY expensive, but they get an inert cabinet.

Someone else pointed out that the Treo is designed to go very near the front wall. which is something I need. The planars like Maggies do best 5-6 feet from the front wall, and my room is too small.

Cheers.

I’d try DeVore Fidelity - a little more open than Vandys and with low order crossovers.