Vandersteen

Not a 3A Sig but I do have the 2CE Sig II powered by McIntosh monoblocks MC 601, 600 watts per amp and never experience any falling apart. I love my 2CE Sig II as they just get better and better as it aged.

A question for all the people who say their Vandys don't fall apart on large scale music -- at what volume level are you listening?

The point of the OP is valid imo. There are many speakers which are superior to the Vandy II and III in terms of tightness and accuracy of the bass especially. I found this to be the case regardless of listening level. These models of the Vandersteens are not the last word on definition and cleanness, and bias in favor of the speakers does not change that. I owned the II CE and got tired of the indistinctness of the low end, so I moved to as far afield as I could, the Maggie 1.6QR. Of course that model has its own issues. Both of these speakers are bargains but have distinct shortcomings. 

In terms of their performance to price the lower end Vandersteens are highly recommendable, but certainly not in terms of absolute performance. This should not be shocking, as after all Vandersteen has improved their lines markedly with much superior and much more costly models like the 5 and 7. 

I had Vandersteen ll CE Sigs for a couple of years and kept switching amps, both tubed and solid state, including Krell, Rogue Audio, Musical Fidelity and Conrad Johnson in the hopes of "waking them up." Ultimately, I could not get them to achieve the level of dynamic range I wanted. I finally found my desired level of punch in Thiel 2.4s and have enjoyed them for several years now with no inkling of swapping them for another speaker.

" These models of the Vandersteens are not the last word on definition and cleanness, and bias in favor of the speakers does not change that. I owned the II CE and got tired of the indistinctness of the low end, so I moved to as far afield as I could, the Maggie 1.6QR. Of course that model has its own issues. Both of these speakers are bargains but have distinct shortcomings."

The problem with Vandersteens is that very few people take the time to set them up right, and match components for best results. Right now I have my Model 2's v biamped with 2 Ayre V-5's, Aesthetix Calypso and a Wadia 861SE. That's close to 30k in electronics for a $2500 speaker. If you listened to my system, you would never say the speakers are the weak link in the chain. They embarrassed both pair of my B&W 802's, made the 1.6's and 1.7's sound like they were broken, and in most areas, outperform my Wilson's. But that's only if you set them up right. Most people aren't aware of just how transparent Vandersteen's are overall, and quite often mistake flaws in other components as speaker issues.