Speaker Upgrade, Vandy 3a, Thiel 3.6 ect

Hi, Mike: Both of the speakers you are considering are excellent, but I concur that the Thiels usually present a greater challenge to the front end than the Vandy's. I currently own the Vandy 3A Signatures, which were preceded by the 3A. The amplification chain is all Bryston, which yields a very clean, dynamic sound quality with the Vandy 3A Sig's. I have owned a number of Vandersteen models since the late 1980's, and none have been picky about the choice of amplifier, provided the amp was of decent quality. If your budget allows, I'd try to find a set of used Vandy 3A Signatures (used price is often in the $2500-2700 range). I believe the upper-mids and highs produced by the 3A Sig's show a real margin of improvement over the 3A's that fully justifies the extra expense.

An occasional comment I have noted from owners of Vandy 3A Sig's is that they sound "polite", which may be a problem caused by either room acoustics or the power amp being used. My listening room is rather small, so I listen in essentially a near-field environment, but I can say that my 3A Sig's have NO problems with dynamics or transparency. I believe the 3A Sig's, when matched with a good quality preamp and power amp, will compete effectively with speakers that are much more expensive. The 3A Sig's feature the same tweeter used in the Vandersteen Model 5, plus an improved crossover and matched mid-range drivers. So, you are getting many of the quality improvements of the Model 5 for 1/4 to 1/3 the cost.

I use my Vandy 3A Sig's as the front speakers in my HT setup, combined with a Vandy VCC-1 Signature center channel and Coincident Technology Triumph Signatures in the rear channels. The 3A Sig's have proven excellent in both HT and pure audio use. The 3A Sig's are driven by my Bryston 4B-ST power amp (in bi-wired configuration, using Kimber 8TC speaker cable). The center and rear speakers are driven by a Bryston 5B-ST amp. I suspect that your ATI amp should work nicely with the Vandy 3A's or 3A Sig's.

I could write at some length about the 3A and 3A Sig, but I will simply summarize and say that I have found them an excellent speaker for my listening tastes (jazz, classical, and blues, with occasional rock) and for HT use. At used prices, you would have to spend at least twice as much money to do better.

I agree with the others. Both the Vandys and Thiels are excellent speakers, but the Vandys can be very tough from a placement perpective and they may even be a bit too polite on the top end depending on your tastes. Thiels aren't an option with your current electronics and will require big dollar upgrades to do them justice, although the results are stunning.

I guess the best real world recommendation I could make in your situation would be the Joseph Audio RM-25si, which you can get under $3k used and are fairly forgiving of placement and upstream equipment although they will significantly reward improvements in both areas. Another great recommendation would be the Soliloquy 6.2, which is a little smaller in stature than the RM25si but can be had new for around $2500 and I think represents better value overall if it meets with your tastes.

A major reason I recommend these two is that they are both soundstaging champs that literally disappear in a room. I would think coming from an omnipolar design this would be an important consideration for you to avoid disappointment. They are also both very efficient so will work well with what you have or just about anything else you might upgrade to in the future, including tubes if you ever want to go that route. Just thought I'd throw in a couple options in case the Thiels or Vandys turn out to be too much of a struggle. Best of luck.

Tim

Excellent repsonses above, I'll only add my 2 cents - these are phenomenal speakers which can support anxillary equipment costing many times more than you'll ever pay for 3.6's even new. My electronics are just past the line of acceptable for these speaks and they can be magical with a good source recording, with a bad recording you get just that, with a good recording you get tonal accuracy that is really satisfying. They are also very dynamic but need lots of power. Any weakness upstream is EXPOSED! I had 3A sigs before and they were excellent but I prefer the Theils - good luck...

Thanks for everyone's helpful responses. I just got a crazy idea that I may try to explore.

One of the things I don't like about my Mirage OM-10's is the lack of low end. I see that the old m3si can be had for under 1000 used. I may try to pick a set of these and see how I like them. Old reviews on these speakers were very positive. The other advantage of going this route is that the m3si's have a better chance of integrating with the rest of my HT setup(all mirage stuff)

the other thing I will have to do is try to listen to a bunch of other speakers to try to discern what different solutions offer.

Thanks again.