Shahinian Obelisk vs VandersteenTreo

Gdnrbob,
Thanks for the spike info.
Yes we do have dealers, but they only complicate things and slow them down: they outsource repairs, and, if I have to send a speaker for rebuild to RV, it’s going to be much faster to do it direct.
JohnnyR,
Will call you today.
Thank you.

IF they are same spikes as 5a they are very nice and IMO very reasonably priced for audio jewelry- i bought 6 when i made maple amp stands for my Vintage Mac gear to bi-amp my Apogee Stages..

you can bet that was a very interesting conversation with Richard

also IF you want most of the benefit of the spike but do not want to marr floors, they also have a machined aluminum cup with felt. i have tgese on my 7

makes tweaking placement easy ,,,,

good luck on the driver - hope you can do it locally

tomic601,
Thanks for the info. 
If the crossover is faulty I will certainly fix it locally. If it's the driver, tough luck, off it goes to RV for rebuild.
Thanks to all for your advice and help. 

@ja_zz 
Actually, I think it is the other way around. Johnny R said you should be able to swap out drivers. The xover might be more problematical. Though I think Mr. V. builds these speakers so that they don't have to be shipped back whole when something breaks.
Bob

I "believe" I read in one of Richard's "Ask Richard" Q&A postings that he talked about how carefully the drivers in a pair of speakers are matched and then during testing the crossovers are adjusted as needed to meet a tight tolerance of response.

Here's the "believe" part.  I believe Richard may keep on record data about the response characteristics of drivers in a pair of his upper tier speakers of which I would consider the Quatro to be one.  It might be worth a call to RV in Hanford to see if I'm on point or not.

I truly empathize with your plight.  I can't remember hearing of new Vandys not working right from the get go except in the case of transit abuse.

Years ago I sent my model 3s to be upgraded and a "challenged" fork lift operator decided to drive the tongs of the lift through the speaker box.  Good news.  Vandersteen notified me right away, dealt with the shipper directly, fixed the damage, sent me back a fully intact pair of speakers including a copy of the receipt for the damage done by the shipper for my records.