Unless you have a very large listening room, or tend to listen at "ear bleed" levels, you Bel Canto amp should be a very nice pairing with the 3A Sig's. Since you've raised the question about power levels for the 3A Sig's, you should be made aware that Vandy speakers are less well suited to playing at very high SPL's, compared to some other speakers. The Vandy 3A / 3A Sigs are of medium efficiency (87-88 db) , and they employe a 6-db, first order crossover, which somewhat limits their ability to play very loudly. If pushed to high volume levels, Vandy speakers may compress the dynamics a bit. I have driven my various Vandy speakers quite effectively using a low distortion 125 wpc solid state amp (although my current amp has about 300 wpc). Based on what I have read of the Bel Canto Evo amps, they have good dynamic headroom, and good bass control, so yours should be fine with the Vandies.
Vandersteen Model 2CE's: Should I upgrade?
I've owned these Vandersteen speakers since 1992 and they have sounded better and better as the rest of my system has improved.I've compared them to much more expensive B&W's and like mine better. I have a Bel Canto Evo 200.2 amp which is rated at 125 watts per channel and a Conrad Johnson PV12 tube preamp. I'm aware that the Model 2 has been improved since I bouhgt them and that there now is a Signature series. One dealer also told me that it would also sound better with a Vandersteen subwoofer. Is the sound that much better to justify these expenditures? What about upgrading to the Vandersteen Signature 3A? Is that a much better speaker and is worth making the jump?
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- 16 posts total
- 16 posts total