Considering Vandersteen Treo


My profile is out of date, but my current speakers are QLN 3's, which I very much enjoy. The soundstage is wonderful, and they play nice in my smallish room at 12.5x11. However, they seem to lack some fullness, and not just in the bass category, I can't quite put my finger on what is missing. 

To date I have demo'ed Spendor D series, Wilson Sabrina, Audiovector R3 Arrete, Sonus Faber Olympica Nova II and the Vandersteen Treo. Each of them had their merits, but the Treo was the standout among these choices. 

Along with good sound, my requirements, and concerns, surround:

- How well they play in smaller rooms without overpowering the room.

- How well they play at lower listening levels, 65-75 dB. I am not a believer that this is entirely a function of speaker sensitivity. Some speakers 'wake up' at certain levels, and can be quite dull at low volume.

- Soundstage, and the ability to disappear. I like a broad soundstage and phase aligned speakers. All of the speakers did pretty well in this category, but the Treo's were better, presumable due to their phase aligned design.

- One concern and actually an annoyance with the Treo's is the speaker connections. I have significant investment in time and money finding speaker cables and I would not be able to use them on the antiquated screw terminal connections forced on owners of these speakers. Anyway...

Just tossing this out there to solicit opinions from those who have heard or own Treo's or QLN's. Let me know your thoughts.

 

 

zlone

I would recommend AGAINST Vandersteens. Not the best value. Dynaudio, Revel, Revival, Marten, PSB, Sonner are all way better options at tha price

 

If you are not sure about the Treos I would keep looking and find some time and commit to some listening sessions at a dealer. Those speakers are not budget speakers and you can listen to many others. I don’t think the speaker binding posts are a weakness. I have the 2CE Sig II in one system and really like the sound a lot. The screw mount was picked by Richard to be the best sounding type. YMMV. Good luck with your search.

@parkergetdean Those are great suggestions, Sonner Legato Duo for sure. I would like to include Marten’s, but their entry floorstander, the Oscar Trio is a pretty sizable jump from the Treo’s  


I am curious why you feel that the Vandersteens are not a good value, is there anything specific about them that you feel is not on par with the others brands suggested?

Gotta say I’m scratching my head over this one for a couple reasons — that the QLNs are lacking fullness at all and that the KEF Ref Ones sounded fuller?!?  I assume you were using the same electronics/cables for both?  I see a sub in your system pic but don’t see it listed in your equipment, so are you using one?  My first thought, which you probably already tried, would be to move the speakers closer to the back wall but that would likely compromise your soundstage depth and possibly other things as well. My other suggestion would be if you love what you’re hearing otherwise try adding a couple subs that can do wonders across the spectrum, but past that I’m at a loss here. 🤷🏻‍♂️🤔

I had the treo CT's and liked them a lot 

The speaker connections are a pain ...as they are not "standard" but once inovercane that ...just a pain not impossible they were great