I can relate. Spent so many years with the same speakers that after a while it was no longer the speakers trying to recreate reality, the speakers had in my mind become reality. So when I went to upgrade speakers I passed on what in hindsight were probably some really superior examples and went with a newer better same brand simply because "that's what speakers are supposed to sound like." Which in fact was not that at all but merely a newer version of what I had become used to.
Then some time later my wife happened to be with me when we heard something completely different yet so much better that on the drive home my wife started asking if we could buy them. Very unusual. Never did that with anything before. Already spent more than I ever thought I would on speakers, these cost a lot more than that, but so amazingly better and with the wife actually wanting them, well what are you gonna do?
Some time after we got the new ones I went to hook up the old ones to sell. With the volume turned down low, really low, and me not even anywhere in front of it still the sound from that speaker I had enjoyed so much was now like an ice pick in my ear. Now, I worry you think I mean it didn't sound as good any more. No. I mean it was like an ice pick in my ear. Painful. Like the guy who bought them, a co-woker, I actually tried to talk him out of them. Offered to help him find actually good sounding speakers. Could not in good conscience .... anyway now he is stuck with them.
Its great you love your Vandersteens. Clearly you are not alone. But neither was I with mine. Just maybe, like in my case, there is a reason your wife suggested getting rid of them.
Maybe take her with you a few times. Audition with some of her favorite music. Why not? It was after all her idea. Just a thought.
Then some time later my wife happened to be with me when we heard something completely different yet so much better that on the drive home my wife started asking if we could buy them. Very unusual. Never did that with anything before. Already spent more than I ever thought I would on speakers, these cost a lot more than that, but so amazingly better and with the wife actually wanting them, well what are you gonna do?
Some time after we got the new ones I went to hook up the old ones to sell. With the volume turned down low, really low, and me not even anywhere in front of it still the sound from that speaker I had enjoyed so much was now like an ice pick in my ear. Now, I worry you think I mean it didn't sound as good any more. No. I mean it was like an ice pick in my ear. Painful. Like the guy who bought them, a co-woker, I actually tried to talk him out of them. Offered to help him find actually good sounding speakers. Could not in good conscience .... anyway now he is stuck with them.
Its great you love your Vandersteens. Clearly you are not alone. But neither was I with mine. Just maybe, like in my case, there is a reason your wife suggested getting rid of them.
Maybe take her with you a few times. Audition with some of her favorite music. Why not? It was after all her idea. Just a thought.