Friday at work, I spoke with Richard Vandersteen. He was quite candid about his speakers. They are made right here in the Central Valley of California, about 3 hours from me. I'm going to audition at length the 2ce and 3A signature models today in Stockton and Santa Rosa. I'll post my thoughts and notes probably early tomorrow. They certainly have a great deal of critical acclaim, owner popularity and Vandy loyalists and I'll take my favorite "acid-test" CD's with me and see what all the notoriety is about. I'll expect the 2ce at least satisfactory for $1600 and for $3500 3A signature - I"ll expect that model to perform very well. Competition is FIERCE as those price ranges.
Here are my auditioning notes on two speakers prominently (usually positively) reviewed in the audio magazines, that also have a favorable disposition on Audioreview.com and have been selling well over the years. I didn't find either model to be a strong performer, BOTH sales people at BOTH stores had no idea WHY they sold so well given their sonic performance.
Vandersteen 2 Signature -- no cabinet diffraction, sound was 'hard' tonally thin, no upper end sparkle or air, low bass quite boomy, bass sometimes too uncontrolled and prominent and quite fatiguing mid-range sonics , strangely grainy midrange, nasal vocals, overall quite lacking and uninvolving, unwilling upper treble was lacking and soundstage was too swimmy, rear firing passive woofer reached deep, time staggered drivers were of no sonic help, soundstage rose and floated all about, instrumental placement was like a funnel, timbral accuracy was rather odd, voices "cut-off", woodwind instruments sounded choked
3A -- completely sufficient inner musical detail and resolution but midrange was too minute and tiny in perspective and unmusical, upper end too laid back, no upper frequency extension, upper 1/3 dull and lacking air and realism, thumpy but deep bass, user driver adjustments change very little, underdeveloped sound, but not smeared, tonally thick and heavy, a large soundstage, can sound quite fatiguing for 3.5K+, imaging somewhat wobbly, no driver smear, but sound was generally occasionally bloated, very old school, very high output, omni-directional woofer faces down at bottom of cabinet, mostly disagreeable sonics for $3500, with a noticeable lack of resolution and sound capture of high end ambience and high frequency overtones
The equipment & ancillary items at one store was MacIntosh and the other Paragon, Adcom & Krell.
The Vandersteen experience was made me realize that reviews are good, but one must listen for themselves. I had high expectations but was somewhat let down. In my experience, I would say that they probably weren't set up properly. When I first heard them (Model 1C) I was blown away by the midrange resolution. I must have just slipped into the sweet spot, but I was never able to get it happening again.
I'd hate to deter anyone from a possibly great experience with these speakers by suggesting to not even try them. I would say, listen for yourself, and try to find a good dealer who can set them up properly for a demo.