Snell Type A/II or Type E/III - opinions wanted

I've seen the Bs on the 'bay. One pair local pickup only and the other pair after shipping would easily top $2ooo... more than I need to spend if I want to keep "happily" in front of "married".

I can have the A/II for right at $900 and he's willing to take my E/III in exchange... I think right about $400 trade in credit.

My listening room isn't what I would describe as "large" but it's been an adequate home for large Maggies, Vandersteen 2C, Dahlquist (20i & 30) as well as the top of the food chain in vintage AR. I run one Adcom GFA-555mkII, can add a second, but also wonder what the Type A might sound like with McIntosh SS?

As for the age of the speaker, again, these have been recently overhauled, completely. The owner describes them as "better than new"?

I have nothing against the Kevin Voecks designs, the J/IV is an exceptional speaker. I did get to extensively demo a local pair of Type D with a stack of Naim in a better room than mine. They seemed easier to place than the E/III (in my room) and sounded very good but more like my E/III than different enough to call them a significant upgrade. I had also been considering the C/II of which a few pairs have popped up recently but none are close enough to demo and I suspect from the similarity of design that they too will fall into the "similar to the Type D and E/III" pool as well.

I'd love to find a pair of Type B or A/III I think but the B's have been prohibitively expensive and the A/III seems quite elusive in the wild.

I never said I wasn't happy with my EIIIs, in fact I love them! Only that I'd like to move up the family tree, within reason, if there is some greater height to be achieved in vintage Snell ;)

I have yet to hear a Snell I don't like. There is something special about Snell, even in their relatively simple looking two-way designs (yes, the J/IVs blew me away too!) that has made Snell the brand I just cannot easily shake.

My living room has been home to many good, large speakers over the years but for whatever reason none of them so far (with the possible exception of the Dahlquist DQ-20i) were ones I really missed once they were gone. The Snells I've owned recently have probably been the cause of doubling the amount of time per week that I listen to music. It's like rediscovering my music collection all over again!

I also run a pair of AKG-K701s and a Creek OBH-11 headphone amp for those late night music sessions and E/III and the J/IV that preceded them came closer to my AKGs in detail than any speaker I've owned previously.

Ideally I hope to discover that the A/IIs will keep the lovely mid-bass and upper end detail of my E/IIIs but with better bass extension. I use Copeland's "Farewell to the Common Man" as one of my ultimate speaker survival tracks, played back at something close to "realistic" levels (front hall) and while both the E/IIIs and the J/IVs are beautiful speakers they just can't reproduce the full power of those huge kettle drum hits with much realism... there's only so much an 8" woofer in a two way box can achieve! I hope that the A/IIs might be up to the trick?

Briefly, some time ago. A pair of K was what really spurred my interest in Snell in the first place. Similar to the J/IV that I so much liked but without the same bass extension due in part to being in a smaller cabinet. I wouldn't pass up the chance to own a pair of K's either if they popped up locally. You would of course need stands and maybe a subwoofer to fill the in the bottom.