Vandersteen 5 vs Model 2c/2wq Combo

Garfish, my room is small, I mean very small. It is about 12x12 on a good day, but it is practically empty except for the system and I have some homemade room treatments in there. I have done my amateur best to get a nice sound in the room.

After reading my original post, I may have made a mistake in my question. Obviously, the 5a are light years passed the 2ce. It is like comparing a Honda Civic to a BMW. Maybe my question should have been; will Vandy 2CEs and a Vandy 2wq be equal in sound to a pair of Vandy 3As?

I thought I would add how I listen to music. My listening room has a walkin closet and inside this closet is my PC on a desk. I can close the door to the closet and no one will know that a PC is even there. I do alot of work on my PC and I enjoy playing music at a comfortable volume. I sort of consider the music as the soundtrack to my work. The music inspires me. The thing is, I love it when the music sounds good. I am looking for a quality of sound as opposed to the loudness of it. The music rarely gets so loud that I can have a conversation over it. In fact, I thought that all I need was to turn on some music on my PC, but that just didn't cut it. The music from my PC sucked and never inspired me to do a good job.

In the end, I would like a setup that I can live with for years with little modification. I am on a trip to upgrade and I would like to get good things and then be happy.

Hi Match..; If you're really set on the pretty big Vandersteen 2Ce/3A, they will sound very good when played at low volume settings. In fact that was a characteristic that I really liked about those speakers. The 5s have to be played louder to sound natural. In a 12 X 12 ft. room, you can't get low bass anyway-- probably no lower than about 40 HZ, but for most music that is enough.

You probably already know that square rooms are acoustically difficult to set up stereo systems in because the "squareness" creates some bad room modes/nodes. If you're set on a good sized speaker, the Vand. 2Ce sigs are excellent and would be my choice, and they do sound good at low to low-mod. volume settings in a small room.

But in my 12 X 14 ft. room, I wish I had chosen something like the small Proac stand mounted speaker (don't remember the model number), and a small sub to get greater bass solidity. Good Luck, and Cheers. Craig

No one seems to like the Vandersteen 1c around here? If you have a budget crunch they are one of the best values in speakers under the price of 2's and sell for real bargain prices here on Agon. There is a pair of 1b's on now for $325, and 1c's can be had for a bit more. 1B's or 1C's wont take up any more floor space than a monitor on a stand and you dont need to spend lots of cash on realy good stands. Think of them as monitor speakers with the stands built in and deeper bass than tiny monitors. These may even be overkill in a 12X12 room. Check out the Sound Dynamics RTS-3 at Audio Advisor. I have several friends with a pair of these and they are amazing for about $200 a pair right now! Seriously these sound great. Don't let the price put you off. HP from The Absolute Sound loved these things and so do I. I have a friend who sold his Silverline Panatellas and went back to listening to these.(he did like the Silverlines and am not sure whay he did it, same guy who sold his 3A sigs after a few weeks)

Good point Maxgain, re the Vand. Model 1 speakers. I've only heard them in-store, but they sounded good to me. They would be easier place and use in a 12 X 12 room. Cheers. Craig.

FWIW, my son had a pair of Vandy 1's for almost 10 years while in college (currently finishing his PhD thesis). About 18 months ago, I helped him acquire a used pair of 3A's, but he is still using the Model 1's for rear channel surround. The 1's have served him very well, making good music although they don't go much below 40 Hz.