Good evening fellow enthusiasts. Looking for advice after just making a stupid purchasing error. I usually do good research before making any transaction but I fell in love hard and got burned.
Just paid for some used Vandersteen Quatro for a "decent" price but failed to notice the purchase dis not include the crossovers. I live in the boonies so dont have a dealer handy to maybe just make my gear work without the crossovers, and it seems now the cost of new ones are a staggering $1295.00. This was for sure not in my budget as I am needing a couple of other pieces to complete this puzzle. Worse yet...once I take delivery of the Quatros...I wont have a way to even give them the once over sound wise to make sure they sound fine.
Any advice? I am bummed beyond all get out at this moment.
Tomic...no worries. I have appreciated all of your feedback. I am far from retired but I am in a unique situation where I can set everything up like I am. I work 95% from home so I use my system every day.
I hope to get these dialed in and then I will hopefully reconnect with nrenter to hear his CTs and compare. :) I may steal his Teres though...:)
I am gonna run the Quatros with the outboard crossovers for now. I realize I will be leaving money on the table but when I send my Rouges in to be upgraded I will get them set so I can run without the crossovers.
For now though, I am gonna just plug in what I get and enjoy. I ran my current gear with Steen 2CE Sigs back in the day and it was great. I considered Treos but just need more punch. I have attended a ton of live shows the last five to ten years which made me rethink my bass situation. I need the powered low end. :)
Once I sort my DAC I will get a TT set up. I havent had a turntable in a decade plus but have been buying vinyl like I was spinning every day.
Ariel at Ayre knows how to properly implement the filter internal to the integrated amplifier AND figure out where to put that really important bypassed cap in the circuit so it stays formed ( which is what DBS does ).
I was a DIY guy in the 80’s, like I said have at it..first duplicate the FIRE pigtails and the DBS , get the DIP, the WIMA caps, and bypass them....let us know how ya do.....I am all ears....
of course, I am retired, working the 24/7/365 gratis support hotline.....my inputs are worth exactly what ya paid for them....
Trout - none of this is aimed at you..you are on the right path.
as much as you like the REGA CD check out the Aesthetix, you get the CD and a whold class DAC in one box. It can also be upgraded later to two higher levels Signature and Eclipse.
As a point of reference, I did not purchase a set of crossovers with my pair of Quatro CTs. Instead I sent my Ayre AX-7e back to the factory for the necessary filters installed into the integrated amp.
I looked at the box, the board, the parts mounted, to the board.
The number of hours figuring it out, 40-50 hours, if your real slow.... Time is money.... I'm retired..
Different way of building a speaker for sure. A proprietary active crossover...with built in tone control... OK.. Sounds like a good idea until you need to replace something... Do people repair the factory OXOs? Or just swap them out if they get the "new puppy chew toy" treatment?
Correct Tomic. The seller and I sorted it out. Live and learn.
I am really excited to shoot out the Brick with the Codex. My entire cd collection was ripped to the highest quality FLAC files I could make and on my small "divorce rig" they sound great. So I wm really excited to listen to the streamer onna more revealing rig.
NO !!!! read the whole thread !!! the Quattro we are talking about were listed TOGETHER with a modified ARC Integrated amp that had the required high pass filter built into the amp. The ad stated this. NOT in font size 60 bold and the seller has apparently helped the buyer. Now for the DIY crowd, go price audioquest Fire interconnect and all the parts and convince us this is a high margin product, it aint !!!!!
back to the DAC shootout, Richard has a Brick , but he is not a fan of digital. I have heard it, in the Wavelength line, I favor the Cosecant. Also be aware the Brick might not do higher resolution...The Codex is a champ at that
It's possible the seller upgraded to another Vandersteen and needed the crossovers or has an amp with the crossovers built in. In any case it sounds like he worked it out.
As a Quatro CT owner, I am surprised anyone would sell a pair without crossovers. I hope things work out OK. The Quatro's are amazing and with the Subwoofer amp on board they are very easy to drive.
Step 1 "and it seems now the cost of new ones are a staggering $1295.00. This was for sure not in my budget as I am needing a couple of other pieces to complete this puzzle."
Step 2 "Hopefully I will be able to come up with an option that doesnt cost nearly half of what I paid for the speakers themselves. Live and learn."
Step 3 "I just went ahead and ordered a new pair of crossovers. I didn't want to wait for a used pair and didn't want to riak a failed DIY project."
Just giving the needle :) Hope all works out. Great speakers.
At least, disconnect the drivers and use an ohm meter to make certain the voice coils are not either shorted or open. Also, if the ad did not specifically say the speakers were non- functional due to missing crossover parts, you might have some recourse.
Here's one way of looking at it. I, like you, scored some great Vandersteen gear, 2ce Signatures with stands and high-end custom bi-wire cables. One midrange was burned a bit but got it rebuilt by Vandersteen for a fraction of my used purchase!
Later on, I scored a 2wq sub for a slightly less good deal, but still awesome. I needed the balanced crossovers. I contacted a dealer, got a slight discount even.
In the end I decided I wanted to actually give what is a small amount of cash to the dealers and to the company itself, compared with the original cost and all the enjoyment I've had from their products and top-rate service from Ray and Richard over the years. Until then, they'd never seen a dime from me.
Now I have better bass than I imagined possible.
Finally, though you won't ever recover your investment in the crossovers, you've improved the overall resale value of the speaker package with the variable crossovers and you've given over some cash on an admittedly high-margin product to this company. Win-win I'd say.
I have a codex too w an ultra rendu mine bought new but they are a steel used but PS for half the price of a used Codex. You can get a new Pro-Ject Dac which I hear is pretty great and does MQA- then put the additional funds into a streamer
Get them used, also please note whether you need balanced or not ( avoid using a converter) John R and the other great Vandy dealers listening will come up w a solution for you and help you finish the system don’t stress spend less on something else its gonna be great regardless Interested to know the rest of the system
Hey Tom. I am gonna shoot out multiple DACs at once. The Codex, the Wavelength Brick and a Rega DAC-R.
The brick has me most intrigued from a design standpoint. I tend to like things a the warm side and my Streamer is a bit more bright snd forward than my Rega Apollo. The streamer is not overly bright compared to a couple I have heard, but it could use a bit taming.
It will be fun to ahoot out back to back to back though. :)
I really loved the synergy with your Ayre rig. So far, the Codex is universally praised for about any set up it seems. If I dont care for it...I wouldnt lose much $ wise as they are sought after.
I can't comment on DACs, as I haven't ventured into the world of streaming. If / when I do, my bias toward Ayre will show as I love the sound of my CX-7e(mp) CD player. I'll consider the CODEX or the QB-9 w/ the Twenty Upgrade, but that's because my entire stack is Ayre (and I'm not a mix-n-match-n-hope-for-the-best kind of guy). The CODEX does give you a headphone option (which is reason alone for some to choose the CODEX). That being said, if your full chain isn't differential-balanced, you may not hear the full potential of a CODEX and a different circuit topology may give you a bigger bang for the buck.
I've got a Codex, and it's great, but I really can't tell too much difference between it and a $100 Schiit Modi 3. If you need balanced outs, spend $200 for Schiit's new Modius. Just another suggestion.
Hey man! No worries...life has been a roller coaster so finally treating myself. I live about an hour and a half from you on a lake. Would love to have you out once I get everything.
Any thoughts on a DAC for my streamer? As an Ayre guy I figure you can vouch for the Codex.
Do not despair! If you want to use a passive crossover, send me the crossover frequencies you wish to use and all the data you can find on the driver's impedances and I will send you a schematic, parts list and estimated parts price from Parts Express, Madisound, and Parts ConneXion. It is not difficult to build a decent sounding one. There is no sense in using anything less than high quality parts with your speakers. So I'll suggest Mundorf capacitors & heavy wire coils. You may be able to get the actual schematic from Vandersteen and work from there. I'd like to suggest an electronic crossover (miniDSP) and one amp per driver. Good amps (65 wpc) are buildable for roughly $100/channel/frequency band and allow easy adjustment of each driver's level (why use resistors in a crossover to waste power making things hot?). Also, connecting an amp directly to the driver (speaker unit) allows you to take full advantage of an amp's ability to correct and control the motion of the speaker's moving parts. Keep Smiling! This is a solvable problem.
For reference I compared the Ayre to the older Ayre QB 9, the PS Audio, can’t remember which one, it was around $1500 and an older Wadia 27ix. I found the Codex to be better in every way. Also, I’ve heard too many stories about equipment breaking and either not being able to be repaired or having to send it out of the country to be repaired to take a chance on a non US brand. Good Lick in your hunt. I’m sure you will love the Quatro’s.
Do some prep work ahead of Quattro and M5 arrival:
download the manual do the math based speaker placement to see approximately what works in your room. download Vandertones or hopefully seller provided you with Vandertones CD you need the Radio Shack analog SPL meter ( not the digital ) e bay about $40
You're not the only one to make a mistake, this hobby is insane. It's like trying to put together a puzzle and all the pieces are blank and you don't know what it's supposed to look like when it's done!
Joey54...you are the second person to reccomend the Codex. If you have it now, can you mention what you compared it against before choosing it? Thanks!
@troutki50 I think the Quattros are the same HP filters as my Model 5As. If so I will make you a pair for a little cost plus the parts. I built mine and compared them to the Vandersteen and you could not tell the difference and actually I preferred the ones I built since we used better parts.
Send me a message and I will build you a pair. The Jupiter capacitors are OK but I prefer V-Caps over the Jupiter capacitors but you don’t really need either to make a better HP filter as Vandersteen uses pretty cheap resistors and capacitors. I think the parts were under $100 plus the eBay aluminum chassis boxes were not that much.
So now that I had to take a little over a grand out of my budget, I am looking for advice and suggestions on a Dac to go from my Cocktail.audio XD50 to my pre. I have a Rega Apollo CDP but I have fallen in love with the streamer.
No wories chief! Tomic...once Inget everything in I may take you up on some help. I dont have a perfect room but am a bachelor so have some freedom. Ha!
It looks like there might be one for sale on usaudiomart from a guy in California that’s asking $995, maybe you can talk him down. Hopefully this is the product you were looking for - not sure if you needed XLR or RCA.
Thanks Tomstruck. I went ahead and just ordered new filters. I am sure I could have figured something else out but I didn't want to risk screwing up anything and didn't want to always wonder if I did something wrong.
Ironically I am going to send my 150s to get upgraded to 180s but I dont wanna wait. Daddy needs tunes now.
I have Quatro woods with Aesthetix Atlas it has internal high pass and it works great but the M5-HP sound even better I had a Rogue Cronus before the Aesthetix powering my Quatros the guy at Rogue put in high pass filters in it for me that might be a possibility for you I would call John you need the high pass filters you will damage the speakers without them and you can download vandertones watch the video if you don't have DB meter turn all eleven pots to twelve o'clock will get you by but once you get them dailed in you're going to love them
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