Curtis,

Thanks for the suggestions.

I had that concern about the Behringer - unfortunately I haven't been able to find any analog parametric equalizers. And graphic equalizers don't allow for such precise adjustments, so I'm not sure that I'd be happy with results from those. Have you used any analog graphic equalizers? If so, what's your experience been like with them?

This isn't my first system - I've gone through a number of different speakers. And I used to regularly go to our local bricks and mortar audio dealer to listen to things there. Sadly they went out of business - hard to compete with the internet I would guess.

Also, when traveling on vacation once, I was able to listen to the Wilson Audio Watt/Puppy speakers at a dealer in Ohio - that was a treat! The whole system cost about $75,000, and that was a long time ago.

I grew up listening to music, both live and recorded, and it's always been important to me. About 20 years ago, I picked up a Stereophile magazine, and got interested in audio stuff. Some of what I learned helped to explain things I'd heard years earlier, but without an understanding or vocabulary to describe them.

That makes sense to me about the crossover, and it's why I'm interested in Vandersteen speakers and how they compare to Ascend. When I listened to the 1C at a dealer with my test tones, I could hear some lumpiness right around the crossover region. I don't hear that with my Towers - I figure that's because of the higher-order crossovers.

It would be great if I could easily switch out the Towers for the Vandersteens, and listen to them at home for a while with my equipment/room/music, but that's not really possible. So if anybody here has experience with Vandersteen speakers, I'd be grateful if they would share it.