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How Much Power Do Vandersteen 5a's Really Need?

I just made a deal for a mint condition pair of these. I've long wanted a really good pair of Vandersteens but didn't have the budget to play in that space. I've read a number of discussions here, and otherwise, talking about this, though they were somewhat older. Despite the fact that the low end in these speakers is internally amplified, and one would think even SET amps, or certainly just about any good push pull tube amp would power these superbly, people generally seem to be throwing a LOT of power at them. Am I missing something?

Any input, expertise, or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
nightfall

Showing 1 response by cal3713

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cal3713
1,421 posts
 
From vandersteen:  "This top of the line High Pass Filter is specifically designed to be inline in front of your amp to roll of frequencies below 100 Hz. which are passed to the Model 7 series speakers and reconstructed in the amplifier powering the bass driver."

So the bass amplifier knows the filter steepness of the HP filter and corrects for it.  Because the filter is a gentle rolloff (I think they use a simple first order curve), you're still getting signal below 20hz and it's just amplified right back up by the bass section's amp.
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