Hey Albert: I talked with ARC yesterday. They mentioned that the van 5's were actually richard vandersteen's personal set. They couldn't get a set in time. Nice guy! The ARC guy said that they were using some 'blue' audioquest cables. I know the dogleg on my van 5's hipass filter is audioquest x3 cabling. He said they switched to the van 5's from the wilson watt/puppies. Surprising because wilsons are more detailed. Maybe it was for the bass. The arc guy also commented that they often demo with their own ARC cables. He said you have to spend over $1000 per interconnect (not hard!) to beat it when using arc equipment. I just added an ARC ref 1 to my system, and my Van 5's are finally getting dialed in. They went from disappointing, to pretty good, to possibly the best I've heard. Still a little too powerful for my listening room but I think I have to recalibrate their bass for the new preamp. I have never seen a speaker that is so sensitive to tweaking and EXACT manufacturer specified setup.
