VANDERSTEENS vs. THIELS

Thank you for your very wise advice and guidance. Unfortunately, I live in a remote area that precludes me from in home demos and trials. I've been shopping some stores in my travels, and relying on catalogs, spec sheets and word-of-mouth recommendations. I'm leaning heavily towards Vandersteen..Please stay in touch - Bennett

Bennett, it is a tuff question to answer when asked to compare one speaker w/ another. that's like me trying to guess what kind of shoe you would like best. I have been thru alot of speakers,Thiel CS7 to the Eggleston Andra and now back to a pr. of the Thiel CS6's and 3 Thiel MCs 1's. Some speakers have specific strong points, but I find that Thiel has no weakness in all the area's. They are either doing it all wrong or they are doing it all right. Vandy's are nice but to me you can not beat a Thiel speaker. The other gentleman was right though,you MUST have good equipment w/ Thiels or you will know it,but why throw good money after bad? Why have on a Tux and put on dirty shoes? My feelings? Buy Thiel and if you have to upgrade then go for it as you can afford to,in the long run you will be happy you did. Good Luck!

I owned a pair of Thiel CS.5 for a while and also heard the 2.3's (they were not quite broken in yet). I have not heard Vandersteen. I will say that the theil was a nice speaker for the year and a half I had them and hated to see them go because they are a status speaker of sorts. If the Vandy's are where your heart is heading go with'em, If you've owned one pair of speakers for 25 years you don't seem to picky like alot of us. In complete opinion free from the speakers you listed above I think the Biro L/1's by avahifi.com would provide more musical sound and you would save money and space. And with the money you save you might even want to upgrade something else. The L/1 is a very special speaker.

Hi Bennett; I've owned 2 pairs of Vand. 2ces, and have Vand. 3Asigs now in my main system. The Vandersteens are all excellent. I've driven the 2Ces with everything from inexpensive receivers, good integrateds, and presently with an excellent quality McCormack DNA.5. Well, the 2Ces sounded very good with all of these different systems. As I upgraded electronics, the speakers sounded better too, ie they are sensitive to what is driving them. So if you go with Vandersteens, you can upgrade your electronics as desired and speaker quality will seem to improve too. Vandersteens are quite forgivig in this regard, and very musical. I recommend them highly. I have never heard Thiels, but have read that they are much more demanding of source, and tend to be somewhat analytical.

Either pair of speakers would be a great choice; however, after owning two generations of models 2's and now the proud owner of the 3A Signatures, I prefer the sound of the Vandersteens over thiels. They are so musical and right, you can listen to them for hours on end without fatigue. The are detailed in a natural way that makes other speakers sound like, well, speakers. Being a former musician, I know what musical instruments sound like, and Vandersteen has got it right. The are not designed to WOW you in a stereo store like most will, they simply do one thing very well; repoduce music faithfully. Live with them, and you'll never live without them. Try them and you'll see why their repeat customer base is the highest in the industry. I'm not a salesman, just an educated long-time audiophile who's listened to hundreds of different pieces of equipment. The 2CE Signatures are fantastic and the 3A Signatures are undervalued by about $5,000.00. Buy Vandersteens and enjoy listening to music!