Monoblock Aegirs

George,

“But, when the midrange driver is being driven by a different amplifier than the woofer, (and in these cases by amplifiers not chosen for the similarity in their sounds, but rather for the difference in their sounds), the blending between the drivers is compromised and the sonic consistency of the speaker is inhibited.
Even if the levels of the two amplifiers are matched for one volume level, the amplifiers will still exhibit different dynamic characteristics, different imaging characteristics, different degrees of detail and instrument texture and different tonal balances. With the crossover between the woofer and midrange occurring in a range where the ear is very sen- sitive to any sonic changes, these differences will create con- siderable sonic confusion through the important midrange.
The only way to properly bi-amplify the Model 2Ce Signature II is passively with two identical amplifiers in a vertical configuration.” (R. Vandersteen)

That may very well be the case, he didn’t make reference to timing or phase, but rather to what happens to the mids due to the use of two different amplifiers with his speaker design.

I very much appreciate the time you have taken to opine, but I think I may heed the advice of the speaker designer in this particular case.


Bob,

I did look into the Belles Aria integrated that was suggested. Not a whole lot of info available except for glowing reviews, particularly with Vandersteen speakers. Which makes the decision much harder. The narrowing process got a bit wider.🤦🏻‍♂️ Would have to wrap my head around going with an integrated, and his monoblocks although reasonably priced are a bit out of my meager budget. I don’t usually suffer from upgrade-Itus, I have had the same speakers since ‘98 and ran them for the majority of that time with a receiver that I shared a birthday with.

I haven’t completely thrown out the monoblock Aegir idea, going to talk with Schiit.

But that leaves me with;

CXN V2 as preamp -> Vidar
Simple, clean and inexpensive.

CXN V2 as preamp -> Vidar X2 Bi-Amped
Possibly minimal benefit for $700 more.

CXN V2 as source -> Saga or Freya -> Vidar
Future phono flexibility but not a high priority

CXN V2 -> Belles Aria
Same

I previously had them hooked up to an old Marantz 2270, prior to the 5 channel Parasound that is pulling surround sound duty now. I miss the way that the Marantz would seemingly suck you in and make you want to listen to any music that I threw on for hours. Instead of a constant urge to scroll through tidal searching for particular tracks that sound really good. Looking for that good immersive feeling at higher quality level if that makes sense.🤷🏻‍♂️

@ 395garrison, I run my 4435 monitors, with a pair of schiit aegir mono blocks. And the (SQ) is great. My monitors have two 15’’ woofers, the aegirs drive them with no problem. One aegir in mono is 40 watts @ 8 Ohms, 80 watts @ 4 Ohms. I think if you buy them and if you do not like them just return them back to schiit .For the money i think they are fine amps. IMO. BTW, What georgehifi said about bi-amping the vandersteen 2ce sig II is correct. :-)

Horizontal bi-amp with one Vidar and one Aegir
OR
call Johnny Rutan at Audio Connection and talk to him about how well the Belles Aria goes with the Vandersteen 2's.

ditusa191 "BTW, What georgehifi said about bi-amping the vandersteen 2ce sig II is correct. :-)"

Thanks fort the info, it seems that several people are having pretty good luck running them as bridged monoblocks.

Which part are you referring to, that running your amps as monoblocks is a waste of good amps or that Vandersteen’s manual saying not to do horizontal bi-amplification with dissimilar amplifiers is is incorrect? Not trying to be argumentative, or discounting anyone’s experience, just looking for the best solution and tend to be one who follows instruction manuals. But you are correct, I can always return the Schiit!

Garrison

twoleftears,

I will give them a call, I was actually just looking at their website!  Thanks