Vandersteen 4

my black Friday wanderings at stereo stores...found a pair of rebuilt model 4 at Hawthornes in Seattle....under a grand...
they are big and heavy..i did not listen to them..
what a blast from past that place is..

Just seeing this fascinating string, years after the last post. For some reason I thought I was the only one who knew about the Vandersteen 4's...apparently not.

I bought a used pair of 4s in 1987 or so. They were $3K used at that time (arrived on a semi-trailer; shipping cost $600 from west coast). It was love at first sight. To this day I've never heard anything equal them, not that I tried too hard. My audio jones went into deep remission after we moved to a new house in 1990.

Anyway, I had them biamped with an RM-9 100wpc tube amp on mids/uppers; and a 200wpc SS amp on the subs (started w/a modded Adcom, ended up w/a Perreaux). I thought the sound was spectacular. I had no problem at all hearing what 1st order crossovers can do. The dynamics were explosive, but friendly to the ear somehow. There was real impact, especially in the low registers (those 2 subs shook the house)--but it somehow didn't feel like I was getting pummeled by Gitmo interrogators, the way some high-power speaker systems can feel.

* Not long after, I had Modjeski modify his amp so that each of the 8  EL-34s (or KT66s/KT88s--I had them all) could be stitched to triode operation (vs std. pentode). The effect was astounding...still the best sound I've ever heard from an amp. And the 4s just faithfully transmitted all that tube wonderfulness...

I remember once having an orchestral recording on (VPI TT/Grado moving iron cartridge, a good one). It was pretty loud. A quiet passage came, and the percussionist struck a triangle. It was insanely lifelike, thrilling. I bet nobody ever went as crazy for a 1-note triangle solo as I did--and it was all because those speakers tripped my audio pleasure circuits so.

I still have them (all my gear from those day). Haven't unpacked them in 27 years. I'd be afraid to actually power the 4's now. I'll bet the surrounds are gone.

I remember talking with Richard Vandersteen circa 1989, and he was offering to mod the midrange (take out stock midrange and replace w/newer module he'd developed). I now realize he was talking about at least partially updating my 4's to 4A's, though I'm not sure he was even using that model designation yet.

LOVED those speakers!

Nice to hear such positive remarks on the 4. To fire them up again you'd have to check the isobaric subs for sure. The rest may be fine if you've stored them in reasonable conditions. Might make nice front channels of a home theatre system.

there are some references to that model on the ask Richard part of the website,  some of the drivers are now unobtainable so FYI

The subwoofer section in particular is made of one Dynaaudio 30w100 coupled with a 30w54. Surround kits abound for these irreplaceable drivers, but rubbing or burnt out coils are trouble. The rest of the drivers would basically be upgrades from Vandersteen at this point. The tweeters might be problematic as the Vandersteen 4a is 5-way design with two tweeters compared to the 4-way Vandersteen 5s with one tweeter.

I've actually had to send a 4a into repair at Vandersteen and basically they have an inventory of drivers to match what is in your speaker; they have the actual measurements from your pair and will match as best they can. The expensive Dynaaudio subs he won't have; I'd be surprised if he was out of the tweeters, but I'm sure a better one could be done in the speaker by someone who knows speakers.

The problem with replacement drivers is often Richard won't have an exact match. With the 4a's if you modify them to tri-amp then you can overcome any matching issues via level controls and amp level controls. With the 4's design the level of the super tweeter and the the 8 inch mid-woofer are locked together if you only bi-amp.

Do not buy used Vandersteen 4's if you are trying to have the best example of these speakers. The 4a has all new drivers and was almost a $2000 upgrade back in the day; it would cost a fortune now to take a 4 to a 4a. 4's are fine cheap and kept as they are. The 4a with the right setup is a mighty speaker, but the cabinetry at best matches a stock model 5 for sound. The strength of the 4a is those Dynaudio 12" woofers which need real Van den hul Magnum and the right amplifier to rival or exceed the current models. At the time 4a's were 5% of Richard's sales, but 95% of his calls; the key is the subwoofer section and ancillaries. Richard with the model 5's built in amplification eliminated that support issue lol.