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Vandersteen 1 repair.

I just lost a woofer in an older but otherwise solid Vandersteen 1 and am at a bit of a loss as to what to do. 

Part of me feels like being daring and looking for a pair of drivers to use that may equal or possibly improve performance. 

In thinking about this possibility I am not sure if it will be easy to source a pair of drivers that will match the needs of the task as well as what Vandersteen put in there in the first place. 

As such I sent a note to them and got a quote back to repair the damaged driver for $180 reusing I assume most of the driver I have. There are a LOT of really good quality drivers out there in a price range that would let me replace both woofers and not be worried how soon the second one may go out after spending that much for a repair of 1 driver. 

I would be interested to hear thoughts of others who have been in a similar situation as well as thought from people who have went outside of stock and modified your own gear. 

Thanks! 
128x128dsycks
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@dsycks   The new 1ci speakers are remarkable!  I heard them at Audio Connection the day I arrived to pick up my Treo CTs and was totally stunned how clean, clear and musical they sounded. How sound like that is available at just over a grand is a crazy amount of value. One of my biggest jaw drop moments in over 4 decades as an audiophile.

So...if you can, call Vandersteen and see if they would be able to give you anything in trade for your damaged older model 1s.
dsycks's avatar
dsycks OP
17 posts
 
Trade value on the new version is not the worst idea ever. 

I'll be running a Benchmark DAC1 and upgraded BelCanto Evo 200.2 with them so it may make for a damn nice combination. 
dsycks's avatar
dsycks OP
17 posts
 
Stringreen. I don't question them. Looking at options is simply wise imo. 

Doing so led me to Vandersteen in the first place. 
gregm
3,410 posts
 
Madisound responded to email and inform me that they think there is a Seas driver that should be pretty much an exact replacement.
Can you say which SEAS driver? (Writing Madisound was the right thing to do, of course!). I'm guessing matching up Qms and Rms may be tricky (& I expect the original woof has a different VAS)—but, most importantly, the end result will be tuned to your tastes!
timlub
2,042 posts
 
mixed feelings about this.  I'm in Arkansas and I can certainly measure the current driver if you'd like to send it... 
Its a tough call. You can't simply replace a 4 ohm or 8 ohm driver with the same and get away with it.  You have to run impedance curves and get a driver that has a very close impedance to the original driver at the crossover frequency unless you plan on changing the crossover...  You need a driver that has a very close qts & vas as the stock driver and you need a driver that has similar frequency curves if you expect it to be very close to the same sound.  
I'm happy to help,  I can usually get the job done,  but this isn't a no brainer.  Good Luck,  Tim 
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