Needing to replace thirty year old speakers.

Contrary to my normal operating procedure, I drove out of state to purchase a second-hand pair of tower speakers without hearing them first: Salk HT2-TL.  I'm so glad I did and I can recommend them highly... the speakers and the seller.   Jim Salk is unfortunately no longer building and selling new speakers but they do come up for sale on occasion. These speakers in my system produce a surprising amount and quality of bass for two seven inch drivers. No sub needed. The sound is detailed, maybe a hint of warmth, airy highs from the RAAL ribbon tweeter, with excellent resolution and no fatigue. Vocals are excellent, especially female. I could, and have, listened to them for hours on end without fatigue. Every genre I have thrown at them. I'm glad that my speaker search is over. Oh, and the cabinets and finish are gorgeous.

Vandersteens are the most overrated and overpriced speakers.

LOL — I guess that’s why Vandersteen has sold like 100,000 pairs of the 2CE series over the decades! Many in the industry are envious of that, imo. Absolute Sound has put the 2CE and the Treo CT on their  all-time best / best buy list for years. The Quatro CT and Kento are outstanding too. I’ve listened to them all at some length, with top notch front ends. 

I ran the 2CE and then the 2CE Signature II for 20 years, and when it came time to move up, I found a used (like new) pair of Treo CTs and couldn’t be happier. There are so many speakers to choose from, if one has the time/money/energy to audition endlessly, but these met all my criteria: 1) Vandersteen sound (consistent from model to model), 2) can be placed near front wall, 3) look gorgeous. 

Of course, different strokes for different folks. There are more than a few other brands I would consider owning if I had tons of money (Magico, Wilson, Joseph, TAD, Rockport, Stenheim, et al).


 

Since my last post, I have today seen there are suggestions being made to look at High Efficiency Speakers. The following is well worth considering, especially trying to learn what a Interface will be like, if a HE Speaker is the selected design.   

Note: When HE Speakers are used, the most likely outcome will be any level of noise developed upstream will become audible. Depending on the interference, the noise is possibly able to be audible to the point it is quite unattractive as a constant present noise. High Volume Levels selected for listening may be the only temporary masking of the unwanted noise.

I am a HE Speaker user and am an advocate of them to be used, as a Speaker they are thoroughly enjoyed. Along with this I am not having to live with an audible noise produced elsewhere within the system.

+1 patrickdowns

I would add that actually listening to speakers is crucial. If one buys a speaker off recommendations of others (some being salespeople) you won’t arrive at the sound you like. It’s always helpful to take road trips or plane rides even if you have to schedule a couple listening sessions when you went to this city for something else.

Speakers really do set the stage for the actual sound or tonal signature the rest of your system gives you.

@2psyop - So true, and it’s so difficult for many people! Not that many dealers out there (I live 2 hours from a major city, but many people are much further), and often the one with the speakers you’re interested in doesn’t carry amps/preamps etc that you own or want, to do some system matching. The guy who sold me my Treo CTs bought a pair of $40,000 speakers from Germany (there is one US distributor/dealer) that he never auditioned, and decided on them after a recommendation by his hi-fi "guru". That is a leap of faith! Fortunately, he is very happy with them, but I don’t have the courage nor the dough to do something like that. So, we depend on trusted sources and reviews, and hopefully auditions, but getting that synchronicity in your system between components can be tricky.