Vandersteen Treo vs 3A Sig as upgrade


I had my local dealer hook up a pair of Treos to demo them and left with a very mixed impression. I like the overall sound. They have a smoother, more refined and sophisticated midrange that the 3A Sigs can't match. I want that. But the bass was less defined and the top end was bright. The sibilance was very exaggerated - this was with CD. Is this the character of the Treo? Thanks!
wlutke
Mr, M. wife is from Wisc...Have we talked about that yet? Maybe, Too funny. thanks for the laugh

Shakey, I'll just go by your posts IRT your feelings on Vandy speakers. Just at I love them as do so many others (there's a reason they are so popular and have been for soooooo long).

Shakey, it's not always about how MANY you own, it's about picking the right ones from the get go. I am able to listen and go through the process and chose the ones I love and stay with them happily. Been doing that since the 60's (ouch, did I just say that? wow). I've never had a problem selling my older gear either, so I assume that my ear isn't that much different than most folks.

Shakey, the bass questions have been answered by both me, other posters as well as the most respected Vandy dealer. Richard himself could answer and you'd find a reason to question him based on your history of posts IRT Vandy speakers, lol....That's fine though as that's the reason we have the boards. Your comments are IRT VAndy's and not other high end speakers. Are 'other high end speakers' identical to the Treo's?? The Treo's are the only speakers we are discussing and the Vandy sub's are the only subs we are speaking of. They are totally different that most other speaker sub set ups and if the subs play99% of the music and the TReo's play 1%, but the systems sounds like a 50k set of speakers and gives a listener all they want, does it matter HOW it's done?

The fact remains that the OP (and most of us) do have a budget and that's why we all go through what we do as we can't afford to purchase a speaker that BETTER do everything. The bottom line is that if he wants all the great stuff the Treo does AND he is willing to pick up the subs for that integrate with them, then he'll most probably be blown away by the sound and be happy.

More importantly, Z needs to share the site for those audiophile helmets. Do they use various mikes to eliminate the rubble?
The fact remains that if the bass quality of any speaker is in question, you will not change that characteristic by adding a subwoofer unless you filter out the frequencies that are the problem from the main speakers. Just because the connectivity of the 2Wq is different than other subs, does not negate that fact.

That is all I am saying. I am not being negative about the Treos. I just maintain that if you correct the issue the OP describes, you will NOT be running the Treo full range.

That said, if you are completely happy with the bass your main speakers have and just want to add more extension, that's easier. This is NOT the case presented by Wlutke. So high passing the Treo is necessary.

Again, for the last time, I am not disparaging the Treo or it's performance. I am just pointing out that the sub won't make the bass performance of the Treo better, it will just replace it's bass with that of the sub, eliminating the need for the Treo to produce low bass. This may sound great, and I am not saying it won't. But you haven't suddenly made the bass QUALITY of the Treo any better.

Shakey
Yeah when the 5a comes down in price used I will part with my Sig 3a / Velodyne combo. The 5a is an amazing speaker,I mean it's the same analogy when I was shopping for a tonearm. People I talked to said the Phantom 2 is amazing they told me,found a used Phantom 2 Supreme used and bought it.I love the sound of Vandersteen speakers and they were right about the tonearm
As far as rumbling motorcycles go, and audiophile helmets, for that matter, here is my set up. I have a Honda 1.3 liter, liquid cooled V-4 sport touring bike with stock Honda pipes. You can't hear the exhaust until you hit 80 mph. I sit behind an electrically adjustable barn door of a windshield and wear 32 dB expand-to-fit foam earplugs. My Arai Signet-Q helmet has blue tooth speakers. My Zumo GPS has mp3 and blue tooth, giving me turn by turn voice priority over the music. I do crank up the volume to get past the earplugs. I did not use the mp3 for the trip though. The speakers also connect my wife and I via blue tooth intercom. The foam covered boom mikes are vox with a threshold high enough to overcome any wind noise - which isn't an issue even in use. Think conversation in a Honda Accord with a back window cracked. Maybe not audiophile but hi-tech fun!
That's freaking awesome Wlutke. Too funny as I'm not a biker (son wants to be though) and that's a fun read!