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
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My profile is out of date, but my current speakers are QLN 3's, which I very much enjoy.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.
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I know, it does not make sense, probably the wrong words. There is nothing wrong with the QLN's, I would recommend them to anyone, but something is missing that I can't define. My only thought is that a two way is just not covering all the bases, and a three way, or in the case of the Treo four way, might solve the problem. |
Yeah it might, and I’m a big Vandy fan so not surprised at all that you liked the Treos so much. If it was me and especially with your sized room I’d buy a couple SVS SB1000 Pro subs (currently $1149 for a pair) and see what happens. My guess is not only will you get the additional fullness you’re looking for but your soundstage will expand significantly and you’ll get honest bass down to 20Hz (-3dB) that you can tailor to your room (much tougher to do with more full range towers) with their included software. If they don’t change your world you can return them after 45 days completely risk free, which is obviously not the case if you experiment with used floorstanders. That’s definitely what I’d explore first all things considered if you can physically manage two small subs in your room. FWIW. |
@zlone I have two reasons: I have heard Vandersteens at dealers and in homes. I was never impressed. It was lean, dull, mediocre sound. There were details and dynamics but it felt - for a lack of a better term - just for measurements’ sake. If you liked them, you should absolutely ignore me. I also have the Ones and I like them a lot. They sound way better than anything else I had heard from Vandersteen. The setup is also different, it’s a small space. They are not my primary speakers mainly because the tweeters are way below my ears. I had a friend over at my house who is about 10 times more knowledgeable than I am. I asked about this paradox - Ones in a small space - good, new models in bigger spaces - not so good. His take is that the Ones were a simple and lucky copy from another brand, way back when. They work very well. However the next generations didn’t get anything right. They have more drivers, more expensive components, but there is no design and synergy that yields a better sound. It sounded credible to me but of course I have no facts to back it up. Obviously my friend does not think highly of Vandersteen. It matches my experience that I would never want anything other than the Ones I have. I am a monitors+sub guy, I don’t need big sound, big space, I want sound that moves me, sound I can connect with. I am also low budget, the Qln 3s are very high end speakers, and I don’t know anything that’s better (from personal experience). With your budget you can try a lot of speakers - hence my list, based on numbers, reviews, sessions at friends’ houses, etc. I should add: I am not here to argue about how good Vandersteens are, everyone is entitled to their opinion. |
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