What do you consider the most musical speakers—$15000 & under

@shadorne  "Musical is a euphemistic term. It is a nice way of saying a speaker sounds nice even if it doesn’t sound realistic at all."

I believe the word you are defining or describing above would be "euphonic" rather than "musical".  For me, at least, "musical" assumes accuracy as a prerequisite....it means an evenness to frequency response an openness of soundscape and a smoothness of texture (ex. hearing that a cymbal is being struck by a wood or plastic tipped drumstick and in the best circumstances, the metal overtones from a drum kit)

"euphonic" is not what most audiophiles desire.  If I'm listening to hard rocking group, I want to hear all of the intended distortions that are part of that creative process, NOT a smoothed over version of that reality.

 

Sound with no adjective to describe it!  Metaphysics.

@helomech I am a long time Vandersteen owner (2C, 3, 3A, 3A Sig.) now Treo CT with two 2wq subs. When I was picking up the Treo’s at John Rutan’s Audio Connection, he played Doug McLeod on Vandy 1C’s. I never would have imagined that RV’s most humble offering could sound like that! Fantastic stuff. If you feed them a clean signal you are in for a real treat.😀

@helomech  Three ways to go IMHE

1.  Stay with the 1Ci and enjoy them.

2.  Keep the 1Ci and add a 2wq sub

3.  Trade int he 1Ci on a NEW production model 2 Sig.  I say new production because Richard is consistently upgrading his designs with driver improvements and crossover enhancements.

Regardless, I don't see how you can lose.  One thing you can take to the bank, the Vandersteen line provides tremendous value for the $ invested.  Except for the original model 3 which had a bright metal dome tweeter which RV quickly rectified in the 3A, Vandersteen has never released an unsatisfying design.  You're in the driver's seat!

Agree with ctsooner's last sentence above.  As a long time Vandy owner, I had never considered the virtues of the Model 1 until I heard them properly set up, fed by top notch electronics.  They sounded fantastic!