Vandersteen Forum

gdnrbob +1  FWIW I didn't notice that the forum was for Vandersteen owners only!

Helping with personal invite from Bob, was sort of gentlemanly.
And Bob’s reaching out was in an honest spirit. 

There is a bit of bias against Class-D (if you see what I did there.)
So it is good for those interested in Class-D to hear other perspectives, and we do not have a lot of Class-D amps that one might consider worth investigating.

So in my mind you acted honourably.
And ​​​​@ctsooner is a fine fellow as well, so it was a bit perplexing to see.

It is 41C here today and 42C is scheduled for the morrow, Body temp is 37C.
So the extra heat from the tubes, is at least one reason, that I am thinking about Class-D.

I am an aerospace engineer.  My dad was an audiophile for decades.  He designed and built his own amps, preamps, feedback loop subwoofer (circa 60's), and even designed and built an electronic starter for cars in 1973-4.  Because of this background I have always looked at specs.  Over time I started getting away from the engineering and started listening to the music.  This can be good and bad.  Everyone has a sound they like, hence all the variations of sound from manufacturers.  However, if the goal is to repeat the sound as it was produced then you can't turn away from the engineering/science.  I've now come full circle; I will look at specs then listen but if the specs are bad I won't.

I own a pair of B&W 802 D3 Matrix for over 20 years.  Been very happy with them.  My goal was not to color the music.  I liked these speakers because of their "newer design" stiff individual boxes for woofer, mid, and tweeter so as not to color the sound.  I'm in the market for new speakers now.  I have always been impressed with the sound of Wilson WATT Puppies, ignoring the specs, they sound brilliant.  This could be due to men not having as good capability to hear highs.

Again, I want no coloration, my definition of my goal as an audiophile.  When reading about speaker design, enclosures/reflections, baffles, cross-overs, and cone distortion I saw few that met my goal, no distortion.  Then I read this article SoundStage-Richard-Vandersteen.pdf (troelsgravesen.dk)

I've read your above comments, thinking Vandersteen people are cult like, so maybe you will consider me as another "drinking the Kool-Aid."  Again, I don't own a pair of Vandersteen's I read the article regarding his research and reasoning.

If your goal is to have speakers that reproduce the sound, then they should be time and phase correct; I had to consult an expert in electronic cross over theory.  His statement is that you can't simply change the polarity + to - to correct for phase.  I think Richard Vandersteen created his first speak, with multi-cabinet enclosures and minimal baffles in the 70's.  In the 70's all speak designs, except of V, had one enclosure with a huge baffle which creates distortion.  He even looked at when the speaker cone is on the return, there is reflection (distortion) due to speaker structure, to create minimal distortion.

When I looked at the Wilson Watt-Puppies plots, phase correctness, ect, I was at best disappointed.

From an engineering standard V are better.  It's up to you if you like the sound.

I bought my Vandersteen 5A’s in New Jersey and the seller set them up beautifully. When I moved to Arizona and took the speakers and the same components, they didn’t sound the way I remembered. Richard himself called and offered to help set the speakers up over the phone with some of my tools. The result is music that sounds real...with space and depth. ...it took a couple of days and call backs, but was a wonderful experience. I always learn from the Vandersteen website....a great place to read and reflect

@stringreen  I’m guessing you got your 5a’s from John Rutan.  I bought my first pair of Vandersteen 3a Signatures (used) last year and the Vandersteen Forum has been a great, welcoming place to get advice.  Between the forum and Audio Connection, I was able to tweak placement and setup to the point where my system has never sounded better.  Great people and Richard’s an active participant too.

nymarty......yup