Vandersteen 3A Sigs vs Klipsch Forte III

I have owned all of the Klipsch models mentioned. I just recently sold, locally, a pair of self modified ( I modify everything ) Epic CF2s ( the best out of the 4 Epic models, imo ), but, just like the 2 pair of Heresys I still own, I was not listening to them, as I have multiple systems set up. The Epic series was a different animal for Klipsch, and were a good design. Roy Delgado ( Epic designer ) is still with Klipsch, as far as I know ). Parts for them are hard to come by if needed. My Lascala system is the one that brings me my " joy of listening ". The biggest upgrade you can make to a Klipsch speaker ( any model ), is to heavily dampen the horn, using a material such dynamat. However, any upgrade takes them further. And yes, I am saying it ( as I have said elsewhere ) that all Klipsch were manufactured with a specified price point, and that all can be taken to a much higher level with upgrades and mods. My favorite Klipsch models have always been the Khorn, Belle, and Lascala. As a semi retired, single ( divorced ) man, I have free reign of any room. Any Klipsch lover should go to the Klipsch forums. Enough of my gab. Enjoy all. MrD.

I have fairly large baffle, monkey coffin speakers and to my ears, they absolutely trounce most of the narrow baffle towers I've owned/auditioned. They also image better than the Maggie's I had for a time.

Heardthat...

I had a pair of Vandy 2-somethings a pretty good while ago so I was relatively sure these would be at least as good.  The Bluebook average is around $2200 and I paid $1500 for these - a good deal overall.  They’re replacing my Maggie 1.7i’s which I absolutely love, but once again the sheer physicality of these great speakers proves bothersome to me. 

The price and local pickup clinched the deal for me. Original owner, all the good stuff buyers look for on this site. I emailed Vandersteen to see if I could replace the socks and within a day I got a response.  I know they can still service them if need be, but I think they ceased production a while ago. 

I read with interest here the comment about deadening the tweeters on the Klipsch with damping material, but I wasn’t as into the audiophilia thing then as deep as I am now. Had I known...I might have kept the Epics. 

As my fave speaker brands may tell you, Thiel, Maggie, Klipsch, I prefer mid and treble resolution above bass.  My finickynesa with bass is BAD bass, too many speakers new and old are colored and false which sucks the life out of the music imho.  

Have you or roxy even heard the Forte III

Yes I owned them for 4 mts got them cheap, as they were a good turnaround to make money on. A friend owned the older version, bass wasn’t as good/low on them.

Cheers George

Since the spatial info is encoded in the signal, somebody walk me thru the physics of how a big baffle improves the image ?
you do get the bounce off the panel and the back wall is 100% distortion....
but have at it, math gets extra credit
the same applies to focusing energy with a horn, ain’t nothing free.....
remember, I own horns, listen to them every day, I can assure you depth of image is not on my list of things they do well....

i will I’ll accept the homework assignment to go in and put a constrained layer damping treatment on the horn body,