I seriously auditioned them against the vandersteen 2's about 8 years ago. I had listened to about 10 speakers in the 1-2k range before narrowing it down to these. I chose the vandersteens for their superior base, power handling, and ability to handle cheaper front end components. I felt the angeluses had Incredible soundstage, imaging, and produced very pure vocals. They sounded like an electrostatic. They did however have significant weaknesses. They could not play very loud at all before breaking up, they absolutely needed top end equipment to sound good, they had little base, and ,according to reviews, they needed lots of room to sound good. The salespeople had been driving them with about 15-20k worth of front end equipment. I asked them to hook them up to a ~2k front end (sumiko amp, and adcom preamp). The sound degraded tremendously. The vandersteens were much more forgiving. If you have a good (especially tube) front end and you want beautiful vocals and excellent soundstage then they are a great speaker. I would be careful to verify the drivers are still in good condition. J