Some people believe this is inconsequential, while Vandersteen and several other manufacturers believe that minimizing phase error is an important performance consideration. The midrange and tweeter are physically staggered to make the speakers time coherent. The importance of time coherence is another area of disagreement among manufacturers. The terminals are mounted directly to the crossover, something not generally possible with conventional binding posts. In addition, the terminals barely protrude from the back of the speaker.
Connections are easy, and there is no opportunity for binding posts to be damaged in shipment.
On the back you will also find controls for midrange and tweeter levels. It's probably worth mentioning that all four drivers are in separate enclosures to keep them away from acoustic energy coming from any other driver. Placement here keeps the crossover outside of the driver enclosures, permits direct connection of speaker cable to crossover, eliminating any wire inside the speaker carrying a full-range signal, and puts the crossover in the center of the speaker, permitting the shortest possible wires from the crossover to each driver. Vandersteen's Model 3 has been available since the late '80s. This review was conducted with pairs of the 3A and 3A Signature, so I would be able to swap both speakers in and out as needed to get the full measure of the 3A Signature's sound.