Opinions/impressions of Vandersteen 3A Sigs vs. late Aerial 10Ts?

  I have owned 10t's since 1996 and have no  intention of switching.  A little dark, but very, very smooth.  Will play very loud with a powerful amp, bass reaches all the way down to the bottom octave, have a titanium dome tweeter, but no resonance in the audible range, unlike many speakers which use such tweeters.  Imaging is great, but the most seductive thing about them is the way they handle the human voice, very lifelike and present without being harsh.  I owned Martin Logans in my time, but was bothered by their ringing in the upper midrange and their inability to rock out, the aerials have no such problems.  Excellent build quality, and the guy who sold them said they were among the lowest distortion measurements he ever heard.  I always regarded them as one small notch below cost no object state of the art designs.  And many of those cost no object designs are just too big for most living rooms.
I also have owned Rogers LS/35a's and the aerials come close to them in reporducing the seductive presence of the human voice.
 
As for the Vandersteens, I have heard them and they are excellent as well.  But no way will they play as loud as the Aerials, and they probably roll of in the 40"s, so deeper base will not be their strength. They are a phase coherent design which is a plus, and the Aerials are not, but phase coherence is only one among many things to consider.  I am sure they will need a lower powered amp than the Aerials though to be honest, the 10t"s don't present an especially problematical load for any amp, so you can use tubes of solid state with them.  Ditto, I think, the Vandersteens.
Hope this helps.
 

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