Vandersteen-like "In-between" speakers


I have a pair of Vandersteen 3A signature speakers that came on loan from my brother and I have to give them up in about a month. I am using them with a McCormack DNA-225 and they sound great. I have heard from others that Vandersteen works well with McCormack.

I don't want to spend more money than I have to, but I have about $6K set aside to buy my own speakers. This amount is much more than the 3A signatures. There is no way that I can stretch to buy the Vandersteen 5 or 5A's. A friend of mine has them and they are fantastic.

Can anyone suggest a speaker in my price range, which falls between 3A and 5A, that will give me the same "flavor" as the Vandersteens and will mate well with McCormack? I listen to all kinds of music except very little classical - mostly rock, jazz, bluegrass, vocals.
motdathird
Thanks Zargon. Where did he put 2-8" subs as mentioned above? I honestly figured one sub in each speaker.
Bigtee,

There are 2 - 8" carbon loaded cellulose cone subwoofers with a long throw motor assembly, powered by a built-in 300 watt amplifier, with multi-band room response compensation. (20Hz - 100Hz) The subs both fire downwards.

The speaker is 43" high, 10" wide at the bottom (maybe 5 at the top), and 19" deep and weighs 110lbs.

It is covered with a sock, except for the wooden base and top plates, and sits on 3 cones. Like other Vandys, it will be factory upgradeable as improvements are made.

The top end is not quite like the 5s. It has the speakers set into a continuous flat plate the width of the speaker and tapered towards the top. The 5s have the speakers set into individually molded compartments as narrow as possible around the speaker with space between them and the sock. The bottom end is similar in that the woofer is in a box, but the 5s have a unique single 12" push pull dual driver sub.

The Quatro is 6 ohms, + or - 3 db, and the 5s are 8 ohms, + of - 3 db. Both are 87 db sensitivity.

So the Quatro is really well positioned inbetween the 5s and the 3A Sigs. Neither the top end or subs can compete individually with the 5s, but the package is much more integrated and flexible for set up than the 3A Sigs with 2 WQs.

I hope this helps.
Thank you Zargon. I'll be looking forward to their official release. They certainly sound interesting especially the bass integration.
I listened to the model 5's in Raleigh, NC a while back driven by Musical Fidelities 308 series. The room acoustics weren't the best so it was really hard to tell anything. They sounded very similiar to the 3A Sigs + 2wq combo but with a better low end and slightly more resolution, transparency and soundstaging. Not a giant leap but better non the less. I'm sure better room acoustics would have provided better performance. There was also a room resonance that seemed to affect the transition from mid to low bass somewhat.
I also listened to them in Atlanta but they were so poorly setup you couldn't tell anything. I'd bet the bass was 10db up over the midrange. To bad dealers for the most part don't set up such fine speakers properly.
Now I'd really like to hear the 5A's!
I just added subwoofers to my 3A Sigs and the improvement was substantial. The soundstage is much more three dimensional and dynamic, and the midrange is even more transparent. I would highly recommend going this route since you already know you like the 3A Sigs in your environment.
Latest Update from Vandersteen:
I just spoke to the factory and the Quatros are going to be shipping within the next 30 days. The final price is $6,995/pair. Orders for them are already being taken by dealers. In fact, there is already a small back order on them.
Regarding technical specs, the bass crossover/high pass filter will use the same arrangement as the Model 5s. So matching it to the room acoustics shouldn't be a problem.
Cheers,
Michael