I'm a longstanding Vandersteen fan. They are great speakers for the money. If they have a weakness it is soft highs and the fact that they need lots of watts to drive them but for the money, I can't think of any better speaker. They are quite neutral and don't have much of a characteristic Vandersteen sound, but after you listen to other speakers in the same price range, you find that they all have some sort of "feature" to their sound that V's lack. With more listening you realize that the "features" are mainly weaknesses.