Shahinian Obelisk vs VandersteenTreo

I had a similar trouble with my 5A Vandersteens. I sent the driver to Vandersteen who said they were fine (not what you want to hear). After pulling the tweeter, et al, I sent back the crossover and amp. It seems that in pulling the crossover, I accidentally bent a wire that was touching something else.(very hard to slide that sucker out) It was bent back into place.....the speaker sounds great now. (don’t know if that’s your problem, but just telling you of mine) Make sure when you replace everything, it goes back into the proper enclosure.

@gdnrbob, congrats on the Ayre amps!!! I know you were itching to try a pair. Let us know how they work out for you.

Tom,
They also sound incredibly natural. But. The room thing is really essential.
I do have two extra amps (a Stingray II (a keeper) and an ARC CA50 and 3 extra pairs of speakers (all on sale). So I guess you can say I do have a spare system. For now ;-) But in my second location - I have to confess - I am using a single Bluetooth speaker (a Marshall Woburn, replica of Marshall guitar amps). No hifi, but easy to use and good for easy listening and movies. And HUGE ported bass :-)

Stingreen,
Thanks. Will keep your advice in mind.

@ja_zz
I haven’t listened to any open baffle speakers, yet. Seems like they should be on my ’to do’ list, along with MBL. 
I am currently into non-crossover designs, namely Zu. They are quite impressive for the money. Not up to Vandersteen, but pretty close.
Also, Stringreen’s comment is a good one. Maybe when you get to sending out the driver, see if there is anything amiss in the wiring. Perhaps something got bumped out of place when they were shipped.
@tomic601 , and Nycjlee, I have great expectations for the Ayre( and the McCormack). I will post when I get things up and running.
The Sound Anchor stands arrived and I have to undo some old shelving, patch and repaint the areas before I set them up, so it will be a little while...
It’s never easy, is it?
Bob

Bob,
Like I said I will follow Stingreen's advice and carefully inspect everything. I have no intention of sending the driver overseas and learning that it is in perfect working condition :-) JohnnyR suggested a very simple, but very effective way of checking driver's performance: taking it out and connecting it directly to speaker cable at very very low volume so as not to damage it.  This method will demonstrate the defect (IF it is defective) instantly. All effective things are oh so simple :-)
And kudos to JohnnyR for taking his time to help.  It was a pleasure.