Glad you like the speakers. That's a special speaker for the price. Richard won't ever make a monitor. More than a few reasons, but you need bass to feel music and get that emotion. I had gone the monitor route in the past and was never fully happy until I got full or near full range speakers. Many Vandy dealers will sell the Prima Luna amps. Vandy's all go great with tube gear as well as zero feedback SS gear. They really aren't difficult to drive. The thing is that all his speakers seem to get much better with any upgrades within your system and I love that. Some speakers just sound similar regardless of what you feed them.
As for the 9 subs, Richard was working on coming out with a new speaker. It would have been a mega 100k speaker. He just couldn't get it to sound coherent and point source which has always been and continues to be his goal. The result however is the 9 sub's. They will be sold in pairs and will use an external 7 series high pass crossover. That frees up your amp from 100k up. With out having to worry about the bass to reproduce, your amps will be very happy and most probably sound better. It's the same type of subs he currently sells, but the cabinet is in the shape of the 7's and it's the auto paint like the 7's. They will go for around 15k if I recall correctly. It's not really cost effective for those with Quatro's and most probably 5 CT's due to the overall cost of the speaker. I you take 30k for 5's and add 15, you are nearly at the cost of a new pair of 7's (money is a bit different when folks play in this level and NO I'm not one who can ever play at this level, but I can still love what I get to audition, lol). Just like all of his subs, the best part is that you an dial in the sound to the room you are in. I've not heard the prototype's, but I'm sure I will soon enough. I already love the bass in the 7's. Tight, articulate...all the superlatives can be used in describing what I heard a couple of weeks ago while auditioning the 7 mk2's, but the word that really comes to mind is the word REAL. Everyone I spoke with who heard the system that day said the same thing. Richards new amps had a lot to do with it all also I'm sure.
Hope that answers questions on the 9's. :)
As for the 9 subs, Richard was working on coming out with a new speaker. It would have been a mega 100k speaker. He just couldn't get it to sound coherent and point source which has always been and continues to be his goal. The result however is the 9 sub's. They will be sold in pairs and will use an external 7 series high pass crossover. That frees up your amp from 100k up. With out having to worry about the bass to reproduce, your amps will be very happy and most probably sound better. It's the same type of subs he currently sells, but the cabinet is in the shape of the 7's and it's the auto paint like the 7's. They will go for around 15k if I recall correctly. It's not really cost effective for those with Quatro's and most probably 5 CT's due to the overall cost of the speaker. I you take 30k for 5's and add 15, you are nearly at the cost of a new pair of 7's (money is a bit different when folks play in this level and NO I'm not one who can ever play at this level, but I can still love what I get to audition, lol). Just like all of his subs, the best part is that you an dial in the sound to the room you are in. I've not heard the prototype's, but I'm sure I will soon enough. I already love the bass in the 7's. Tight, articulate...all the superlatives can be used in describing what I heard a couple of weeks ago while auditioning the 7 mk2's, but the word that really comes to mind is the word REAL. Everyone I spoke with who heard the system that day said the same thing. Richards new amps had a lot to do with it all also I'm sure.
Hope that answers questions on the 9's. :)