Huppin's One Call in Spokane, WA has them on sale right now at $279 a pair in cherry or black with no shipping for 3 day FedEx. But, I haven't listened to them for several months. Does that help?
Nuck is correct, I do start billing on the 3rd post. Good Luck, Dave.
I own a pair of the VR3s and think the world of them. Mine have a nice cherry finish. The build quality seems exceptional. As for the sound - terrific. Even though this room is FAR from optimal to let these speakers stretch out (some of you would probably shoot me for keeping these in such a confined area with so much sound-absorbing junk around), they perform beautifully. I have demoed the Polks and Inifities around that price range and have to say the VR3's blow 'em away. Even demoing equipment at the local Best Buy (one of them with Magnolia), they sounded better than the Mirage and Definitive Technologies offerings, but edged out by the much more expensive Viennas and Martin Logans.
Personally I think the Bostons and Mira mate very well, although I don't have a great ground of referernce to compare. At first I had the Bostons hooked up to a HK3480 (if you recall), and the Mira and Bostons just went to a different stratosphere. Now that could have just been all the Mira. But I think the 'match' between the two helped as well. The Bostons are able to render the Mira's PRaT beautifully.
Maybe one of these days I'll finally lug my Ascends (be nice) up from the home theater just to see how they react to the Mira, too.
Lug the Ascends away. I've played my 170s and 340s with my vintage Fisher and they sounded wonderful, although a little light in the bass, especially on the 170s. But then again, I'm comparing them to my ALs, which are full range. I think you'll be wonderfully surprised. Way back when, I A/Bed the Altecs against some VR1s and thought the Ascends sounded better. Good luck, Dave
I A/B'd the VR2s and Ascend 340 SEs very briefly today along with my fiance, and the Bostons came out on top for both of us. Deepened my apprication for the VR2s. They definitely do fit very well into my system. Bostons have somewhat of a rep for being bright, but, for music, they were slightly smoother and slightly richer than the Ascends. The Ascends being more detailed (and I still think a great fit for home theater).
Any way you slice it the deal at Onecall on the VR3s is a home run at $279 apeice. These have been selling at like $630 apiece for the last two years.
And for what it's worth when I originally bought the VR2s I A/B'd them against simiarly priced Polks at Circuit City. The Bostons absolutely crushed them and it wasn't close.
I was recently shopping for potential rear channels and thought that the Polks were awful.
Like MT I like the Boston's far better than the Ascends.
BTW I decided that budget speakers (I don't consider your Boston's in this category) are so bad that I'll do without rears for the time being. By FAR the best in the cheap category were the Infinity Primus speakers. However they were not very attractive and would not blend into my living space....bummer.
