Snell C/V Speaker Question

Oops, they are Snell CIV not C/V.

ive have a pair of CV's for about three years now.im running them with a bryston 4bst amp which is 250 per channel.ive actually considered other speakers such as Martin Logan....and honestly the soundstage of the snells were much better not to mention the dynamics..the better electronics i upgrade to the better the snells sound.i would give some hard thought before passing them up.....snell is now a whole different company and the guy who designed the C series is now at revel.hope this helps you out.

Still think you should check out the Alons. Good luck with the trade. You're safe with the Vandies. There is an upgrade to the 3s that is well worth it.

I owned the Snell C/V's until fairly recently. I was generally very pleased for the two years that I owned these speakers. I now have a pair of Vandersteen 3A Signature's. A friend of mine has Vandersteen 3's and otherwise, has nearly exactly the same system as I do insofar as electronics. The Snell's are a decent system, somewhat colored, but they do have a clean, beautiful and present midrange. The highs are a little rolled off at the extremes and the bass can be a little sloppy and loose. The dynamics are very good to excellent. I ran these speakers with two different Class A solid state amps of 100 watts/channel (Pass Aleph 4 and Plinius SA-100 Mk III) and there was no problem with either one in a room of exactly your size. The Vandersteen 3, not the Vandersteen 3A Signature, has some of the best dynamics that I have ever heard. While they can sound a little bass heavy, they really can move air in a way that is very engaging and in a way that very speakers can today. On the other hand, the mids and highs of the Vandersteen 3 leave some wanting a more present, detailed, highly resolving sound. If I were choosing between these two speakers, I would choose the Vandersteen's hands down and then work with cables, tubes in my preamp etc. to push the midrange forward and create a more resolving, detailed sound, if possible.

I haven't heard the vandersteen's, but I've owned Snell C/V's for about 3 years now, and have no plans of trading up soon. I've had the same experience as someone who mentioned above, that they need to be put at a decent distance from back (up to 3 feet) and side (at least a foot and a half) walls. I've been continually suprised - just upgraded my source and the system sounds better than I thought it ever could. I'm also using a Bryston 4B-NRB amp, which actually helped considerably over the lower-powered 3B. If you get the snells, use an amp that has very controlled bass, as the bryston does. BTW, I've never heard the C/IV's, just the C/V's.