Vandersteen 5a battery biased crossovers

Ion Long life type.
There is a total of 8 9V batteries you must install
one 9V in each X 5 High pass
and also three 9v in each of the speakers Internal Modular Crossover.
Make sure you are are a class act with soldering pencil as its important the 9Vs be soldered in tightly.
Removing the Back plate removing the screws and pulling out the modular Xovers then either perform yourself, Mail them out to Vandersteen Audio or Call you local Vandy dealer.
Cheers Johnnyr

Mr JeffJones you said the batteries are a bad design.
Bias on a coupling cap improves transparency dramatically, ask anybody who has replaced dead ones with new ones.
The batteries don't usually do that unless they are beyond the date written in the owners manual.
This hurts nothing and is easily cleaned up.
I like using the new 10 year Duracell's
The connections need to be soldered because any noise because of the connection passes through the cap as an audio signal, so push on connectors would be a problem (think about the battery in your remote).
Best JohnnyR

Jeff Jones
Put connectors on if you like, there is room for them but remember any noise in the connection will be passed by the caps as noise.
In circuits like this where there is no current flow over a 7 year period of time (basically shelf life) the solder and wire is cheap insurance.

The M5-HP being run un soldered is very risky as 9 volts of noise into a typical amplifier will be one hell of a damaging pop!
As far as quality, I defy you to find another speaker with as much technology and raw parts count for twice the price.
Much of the technology found in the 5A can't be found in any speaker for any price.
By the way the new Model Seven has 36 volts of lithium SOLDERED onto the crossover board. Some how I don't think that was an oversight also.
Best
JohnnyR

Jeff Jones, I have changed the batteries on dozens of 5 and 5a and have never found a blown battery on one that was within the date noted in the owners manual.

You never said if your batteries were within the recommended date.
Where they new speakers or demos?
I have sold hundreds of Vandersteen speakers and find
them to have the highest quality control standards.
Disparaging a great product should be done carefully
with honesty and should not be trivial.

About the high-pass, if the connection has any noise or a intermittent connection the caps will couple this voltage change into the input of the amplifier with potentially bad results. Again the solid reason for not offering 9V clip on types as you had suggested, hope this clarifies.

My garage opener uses a 9 volt battery and corrosion is a problem. Some speakers end up in very humid conditions or salt air. If it is too much trouble for you, put in the 9V lithium's which last 11 to 12 years. Best JohnnyR

Jeff, did you contact(Vandersteen Audio) about this information and get an unsatisfactory response via phone or FAQ? Best JohnnyR