Looking For Advice After Dumb Vandy Purchase

Another vote for Ayre Codex.

The Codex is a proven DAC w Vandersteen as is the Aesthetix Pandora

For reference I compared the Ayre to the older Ayre QB 9, the PS Audio, can’t remember which one, it was around $1500 and an older Wadia 27ix. I found the Codex to be better in every way. Also, I’ve heard too many stories about equipment breaking and either not being able to be repaired or having to send it out of the country to be repaired to take a chance on a non US brand. Good Lick in your hunt. I’m sure you will love the Quatro’s.

Do not despair!  If you want to use a passive crossover, send me the crossover frequencies you wish to use and all the data you can find on the driver's impedances and I will send you a schematic, parts list and estimated parts price from Parts Express, Madisound, and Parts ConneXion. It is not difficult to build a decent sounding one. There is no sense in using anything less than high quality parts with your speakers. So I'll suggest Mundorf capacitors & heavy wire coils. You may be able to get the actual schematic from Vandersteen and work from there. I'd like to suggest an electronic crossover (miniDSP) and one amp per driver. Good amps (65 wpc) are buildable for roughly $100/channel/frequency band and allow easy adjustment of each driver's level (why use resistors in a crossover to waste power making things hot?). Also, connecting an amp directly to the driver (speaker unit) allows you to take full advantage of an amp's ability to correct and control the motion of the speaker's moving parts. Keep Smiling! This is a solvable problem.

@troutki50,

Ping me when you get your crossovers and I can help you through setup. I have all the equipment you need. I owe you - I’ve been a bad friend.