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Vandersteen 5a, 15 years old vs. new Vandersteen Quatro Wood (upgrade or downgrade)

I currently have a Vandersteen 5A purchased about 15 years ago in great condition. My  equipment  is Thor 150 watt  tube EL-34 monoblocks with a Thor linestage, Sony SACD player and a middle of the road VPI turntable. Was reading about the Vandersteen Quatro Wood CT which I believe retails for $15,000.00. The wood has the carbon tweeter, my 5A's do not. The Quatro also has a 250 watt amplifier for the built in sub while my 5A's have a 400 watt amp.  If I purchased a new Quatro Wood and sold my 5a's would the resulting sound be better overall in my 8 1/2 by 15 foot room?
 My rationale for considering this upgrade, is that I would be getting a speaker with all new parts and would obtain a new warranty.  Any thoughts would be helpful.  In short is todays' Quatro Wood CT a better sounding speaker than my old 5A?  Would this change be an upgrade and would it yield an improvement in sound to justify the cost?

Thank you. 

M

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ozzy62's avatar
ozzy62
3,148 posts
 
Crickets indeed.

No, I am no vandersteen set up expert. I don't even play one on tv, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn last night.

But I want either of you to tell me that you can get 100%, hell even 90% of what the 5a is capable of in a room that size? 

I don't doubt you can make it sound good. My only point is that that is a challenging room for ANY speaker and you won't get all of what you paid for as opposed to having them in a larger, more rectangular room.

Best of luck to the OP. And carry on.............
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
A firm grasp of the obvious is always helpful, 

where did the OP say it was an option to change the room ?

and owners of ANY speaker and Room combination would find the Vandersteen setup manual helpful for a math based placement of the acoustic center of a speaker, vs an arbitrary 3’

i hope to always be learning, I am sorry IF I have offended you in some way.
tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,911 posts
 
Also, any of the powered bass model Vandersteen can be run with high pass filter in place with the sub off - this approximate a super high quality mini monitor - dial in placement and imaging and then turn on and adjust the bass.

all in the manual, free download 
mr_m
1,900 posts
 
+1, @tomic601
audioconnection
1,271 posts
 
Greetings TomicI remember we were in a NY Hotel show in a pre-war building think Cement Bunker 18-inch steel girder going through the room with Vandersteen 5As ARC gear one of the rare times RV wasn't settled with measurements. We went out for a burger,fries10 min in says let's try one setting up, meaning changing the standard 100 Hz x over to120. then re-ran the in-room analog compensation settings after tweaking the contour Viola, I remember I went from shaking in boots to confident holy smokes playing the record 4-way street CSNY  Live and learn!
Best JohnnyR
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