Monoblock Aegirs

George,
I dusted off the old owners manual because I thought I recalled some bi-amp instructions. Mr. Vandersteen says no go on the horizontal bi-amping with two different amps idea, he gives a lengthy explanation as to why not on pg. 4. 🤷🏻‍♂️ He recommends vertical bi-amping with two of the same amps.

Aegirs probably wouldn’t have enough in the tank for that configuration.

http://www.vandersteen.com/media/files/Manuals/2ce_signature_ii_manual.pdf

Your better to use the Aegir on the mids and highs and the Vidar on the bass and if they are different gains use a Schiit Sys on the louder of the amps to reduce it to the others level then use your Schiit Freya + preamp as the master still.

That’s a really bad idea. Particularly for a Vandersteen which has been phase aligned with such care in it’s design.

You should vertically bi-amp with 2 identical amps. If you doubt me just give Vandersteen a call. They're happy to talk to customers about such issues.

Looks like 395garrison posted while I was writing and even provided the reference from Vandersteen ;~)

That’s a really bad idea. Particularly for a Vandersteen which has been phase aligned with such care in it’s design.

Impossible, if gains of both the amps are adjusted with the Sys to be the same, Vadersteen’s phase alignment will be unaffected as the original Vandersteen xover is still used.
  
Yes different story if an external active xover is used.
  
BTW: He wouldn’t have done bi-amp or bi-wire terminals, and his level controls will screw up any phase alignment anyway once taken off the 0db position.
https://www.stereophile.com/images/archivesart/107vandy2.jpg

Cheers George

George,

“But, when the midrange driver is being driven by a different amplifier than the woofer, (and in these cases by amplifiers not chosen for the similarity in their sounds, but rather for the difference in their sounds), the blending between the drivers is compromised and the sonic consistency of the speaker is inhibited.
Even if the levels of the two amplifiers are matched for one volume level, the amplifiers will still exhibit different dynamic characteristics, different imaging characteristics, different degrees of detail and instrument texture and different tonal balances. With the crossover between the woofer and midrange occurring in a range where the ear is very sen- sitive to any sonic changes, these differences will create con- siderable sonic confusion through the important midrange.
The only way to properly bi-amplify the Model 2Ce Signature II is passively with two identical amplifiers in a vertical configuration.” (R. Vandersteen)

That may very well be the case, he didn’t make reference to timing or phase, but rather to what happens to the mids due to the use of two different amplifiers with his speaker design.

I very much appreciate the time you have taken to opine, but I think I may heed the advice of the speaker designer in this particular case.


Bob,

I did look into the Belles Aria integrated that was suggested. Not a whole lot of info available except for glowing reviews, particularly with Vandersteen speakers. Which makes the decision much harder. The narrowing process got a bit wider.🤦🏻‍♂️ Would have to wrap my head around going with an integrated, and his monoblocks although reasonably priced are a bit out of my meager budget. I don’t usually suffer from upgrade-Itus, I have had the same speakers since ‘98 and ran them for the majority of that time with a receiver that I shared a birthday with.

I haven’t completely thrown out the monoblock Aegir idea, going to talk with Schiit.

But that leaves me with;

CXN V2 as preamp -> Vidar
Simple, clean and inexpensive.

CXN V2 as preamp -> Vidar X2 Bi-Amped
Possibly minimal benefit for $700 more.

CXN V2 as source -> Saga or Freya -> Vidar
Future phono flexibility but not a high priority

CXN V2 -> Belles Aria
Same

I previously had them hooked up to an old Marantz 2270, prior to the 5 channel Parasound that is pulling surround sound duty now. I miss the way that the Marantz would seemingly suck you in and make you want to listen to any music that I threw on for hours. Instead of a constant urge to scroll through tidal searching for particular tracks that sound really good. Looking for that good immersive feeling at higher quality level if that makes sense.🤷🏻‍♂️