Hi, Dwpc:
I have been a proud Vandy owner for many years, and upgraded to a pair of 3A Signatures about a year ago. I had a fairly good preamp and power amp at the time, and thought the system sounded good. Then I replaced the amp with a Bryston 4B-ST, and the speakers "suddenly" sounded much better. Then I swapped out the preamp and replaced it with a Bryston SP-1, and VOILA! everything came together. Let me tell you that Vandy 3A's, and particularly the 3A Sig's, are far better speakers than most people realize, and can be realistically paired with electronics that sell for as much as $7.5k -$10k. Each improvement you make in your system will be faithfully reproduced by the Vandy's. (At some point, I suggest you send your 3A's to Vandersteen to have them upgraded to the 3A Signature version. It's really worth the additional $750.) This is a long preamble to telling you to get better electronics -- the Vandy's keep sounding better and better as you upgrade the electronics in front of them. So, as time and budget allows, you ought to consider a new preamp and power amp such as the Brystons (they pair beautifully with the Vandy 3 series), McCormack, Marsh Audio Design, or similar high-quality tube gear. In closing, let me bring your attention to a review of the Vandy 3A Sig's and other Vandy home theater speakers that has just appeared in the edition of "Widescreen Review" magazine that just hit the newstands (the Nov-Dec issue, I think). Shane Buettner, the equipment editor for WR, wrote a long review of the Vandy 3A Sig's, VCC-5 center speaker, etc., and he absolutely raved about his epiphany as a Vandersteen owner. He is using superb electronics with them, such as BAT's newest preamp, the Theta Dreadnaught amp, etc., and he makes an emphatic point that people who assume that the Vandy's are good only with electronics in their same general price range are WRONG. The Vandy 3-series speakers, if wrapped in nice veneer and sold by almost anyone other than Richard Vandersteen, would be selling in the $5000-$7500 range, and high-end audiophiles would still be thinking they got a great buy. For $2800-3500 for the 3-series, you have acquired one of the finest speakers on the market, BAR NONE, and they deserve to be paired with the best electronics you can afford. Trust me -- you won't be disappointed. Even my wife, who is at best tolerant of my audio habit, has commented on every upgrade over the past year, noting that our Vandy 3A Sig's reveal every improvement, and now sound more like "real music" than anything she has ever heard -- or imagined possible in a home environment. Enjoy, my friend -- you have just started on what will be a very pleasurable journey of discovery. (And read that review in "Widescreen" -- it's got some excellent info about why the Vandy 3-series is such a fine speaker.)
