New Vandersteen Amp
 

Caught wind of this on Facebook at first and then in the general 'Net:

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2018/...r-at-ces-2018/

Details I see include single-ended circuits (as opposed to fully balanced) and adjustable high pass filter to work with Vandersteen's powered bass speakers as well as more conventional speakers. Should be interesting to audition. It seems to address a question I posed to Richard, as I'm sure others have - "what amps would you recommend for your <speaker>?"

They look like Egyptian Tombs... Pretty fugly for $57k


https://i2.wp.com/parttimeaudiophile...1000,489&ssl=1

The M7-HPA cost $52k/pair, so the M5-HPA described as costing substantially less should be far cheaper. I agree they aren't exactly lookers.

Vandersteen price
 

They are 15k. As stated in numerous articles 250 into 8 ohms.

Reminds me of a safety deposit box at the bank. :dunno:

Agree it's not much to look at but if it is one of Dean from PSE's designs it will sound good. You can get much the same in a better looking chassis and a tubed input stage from the Aestetix Atlas starting at $10k. It also has the same high pass options and Richard has used it in shows for years. A friend of mine from college was a Vandersteen dealer for over 20 years and when he first started selling them was also a PSE dealer and that was the go to amp for the Vandersteen speakers in SS amps with ARC for tubes. Later when Dean's business started to go down he recommended DR designed Classe' amps.

New Vandersteen Amp
 

Hmm, sites are reporting 150/300 8/4 ohm rating for the M5-HPA.

I agree, not much of a looker.

From Michael Fremer of AnalogPlanet:

"Firstly was the Vandersteen room where the sound is always good. This year the company introduced a new mono block amplifier the M5-HPA. It's a minimalist solid state design outputting 300 watts into 4 ohms and 150 into 8. The $15,000 a pair amps driving a pair of moderately priced ($13,900/pr) Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT speakers produced the best sound I heard yesterday, with a midrange transparency that kept me listening for more than a half hour to my high resolution files from vinyl. I could have sat for the rest of the afternoon hogging the programming but wisely I relinquished control."

If they are even close in SQ to the SQ of his 7 Series amps that pair so nicely with his 7 series speakers at ~$15k they would be a steal. I agree they don't have the best industrial design.

+1

They should mate nicely with the Vandersteen 5A Carbon’s or the Quatro CT.

Ken