Anything better than Vandersteen 3A sig for the $

Magnepan 3.6R, which I loved. Gallo Ref3 as well. Great speakers all. Maggies 3.6's are some of the best speakers at any price.

VMPS RM 30's will blow the Vandersteen's out of the water. Go to audiocircle.com at the VMPS forum for any info. Rave reviews galore and killer bang for the buck. I've owned Vandersteen's as well as my brother and a friend. We all own VMPS speakers and it's not contest. Vandersteen's just can't quite get "there" but do sound very good. They omit sins of omission as the reviewers say but they omit too much.

That's a big room. I think you will need one or two Vandersteens subs to have a realistic foundation to the music.
I'm not a big fan but the Vandersteen price performance is hard to beat. I recommend good solidstate as opposed to tubes for these speakers. To my ears, they sound veiled with even good tube amplification.

Good luck,

Wendell

Have you listened to the Vandersteens? I agree with Warner, and would add they sound sluggish and can be easily bettered for that money or less.

Will the Magnepans sound good on the long wall with my gear? Ive heard they need to be a good distance from listener and the depth of my room is quite short with spkrs on long wall. Also I need a full range spkr to blend properly with the vandy subs. Are the Mags full range? Associated equipment is:

Wadia 861
VTL MB 450s ( when I upgrade soon )
Supratek Chenin pre
(2) Vandersteen 2WQ subs with model 5 xover
Cardas Golden Cross intercon
Kimber Bifocal XL spk cable

Thanks

Vandersteens are extremely accurate in reproducing the signal they are sent. There are other brands that will add the coloration that you may prefer but for the money, nothing will give you better sound. A big part of your overall sound is obviously matching components. Vandersteens will not compensate for other system issues. They will simply reveal them.

Having owned the 3A sigs and now the 5's. I couldn't agree with you more, Monbile.

The Vandersteen sound is a "box" sound, regardless of how much talk there is about them being "boxless" speakers. They utilize cabinets just as others do. But as speakers with cabinets, they are very high quality for the $. The Magneplanar sound is quite different. Definitely less "warm" sounding. You should audition it if at all possible to see if it appeals to you.

If you do consider Magnepans, you will most assuredly need room treatment, i.e. sound absorbtion panels behind the speakers. This is not horribly expensive and very necessary to stop sound reflecting off the wall behind the speakers. Room tuning/treatment of my room made as large a difference in sound as did cables and electronics.

Many Maggie users also promote upping the power significantly. I would concur. The best is biamping them. It seems to take their performance up a couple notches.

I've used Vandys and Magnepans; both have wonderful qualities, however I keep returning to the Magnepans for their larger, and in my estimation, more 3-D sound stage. They also seem to have tighter mid-bass than Vandersteens. I am using Vandersteen subs with the Magnepan 1.6's, which is a marvelous combo. However, you might be better off long term moving into the 3.6's and deal with subwoofers later, if so desired.

I think your current equipment and room sound perfect for Maggies. With the amp and subs that you have you could go with Maggie 1.6qr's even, and be very, very happy. I have heard Bi-amping can be helpful, but found that more powerful amps seem to have a similar, but sonically more coherent effect, your VTL will work beautifully. I just sold some 3.6R's and miss them terribly. The only other speaker that I have heard that I like nearly as well as Maggies are the Innersound speakers. But you know, it's all so subjective anyway.