[ylee]

Originally Posted by SPaulC

I have recently ordered a pair of Vandersteen Quatros. After hearing them a year ago, I just have not heard anything as good for anywhere near the price. Time aligned, phase coherent, high-pass filter, built in sub woofer, 11 band bass equalizer and small footprint...a lot to engineering into a relatively compact package.

Unfortunately, I was not able to arrange an in-home trial-run but I believe the adjustable bass will allow them to work in my smallish dedicated room. Currently, I have small Maggies with a Pass Labs Integrated, so I will need a new pre-amp/amp in order to have zero-feedback amplification and accommodate the high-pass filter. I am attending AXPONA this weekend, so I plan to check out the Aesthetix, Ayre and hopefully the Vandersteen mono blocks.

Because of the room configuration and depending on the amp selection, I will end up with either a long (15') bi-wire cable run to the speakers or a long balanced interconnect to the amp (placed between the speakers).

I am looking forward to getting the system up and running and joining the Vandersteen family.

Any thoughts on pre-amps/amps and cable is welcome.

After listening to a demo conducted by Richard Vandersteen himself in February of last year, I took delivery of the Vandersteen M5-HPA monoblocs last November. It is in essence the perfect match Richard envisioned. I adore the sound and the power of this combination. Tonally rich, powerful, and detailed.

I'm running a tube preamp, the Rogue Audio RP-9. It seems tube preamps synergize well with the M5-HPA.