Vandersteen 5 and 5A owners

4yanx, I have heard both the 5 and 5A using both rca and XLR, but the differences in other components and rooms would more than mask this difference. I haven't had the opportunity to A/B just that change in a single system and single listening session for comparison.

However, my dealer has experimented with both setups, and on very high quality equipment finds the difference very slightly in favor of XLR. That being said, he doesn't hesitate to recommend either.

I ended up with an all balanced rig, mostly because I believed the all balanced configuration makes good technical sense, and the components I bought support it.

I suspect you would be thrilled either way.

Zargon, I have followed your comments regarding Vandy speakers and they have always been rather spot-on, from my subsequent experience. What are your feelings regarding the AQ cabling on the high-pass filters and issues with pairing IC's in a configuration which goes linestage-"X" Brand IC-Filter-AQ Amazon IC-Amp?

I had the opportunity to have the RCA filters in my system temporarily, but the speakers were new so I can't give a meaningful comparison to the XLR filters. My 5A XLR filters currently have AQ Sky as the pigtails. I run a 1 meter pair of AQ Sky from my EMM DCC2 to the filters. I find the AQ Sky to be an absolutely incredible interconnect. I used the logic of trying to keep the interconnects the same for the input signal to the filter and what is output. Additionally, adding AQ Kilimanjaro Shotgun bi-wire speaker cables made another tremendous improvement in combintion with the SKY interconnects. I spoke to AQ regarding the SKY pigtails and they said they are also biased through the battery in the high pass filters. I had inquired about adding the DBS system to the pigtails and that was their answer. A couple of guys at AQ use 5As as their reference for evaluating their cables so maybe that is why I'm finding they are such a synergistic match with the 5As.

Interesting, Fsarc. I had Ridge Street Poiema XLR's between the linestage (Pass X1) and high-pass filters. Did not care for the X1 in my system and just sold it to a good home. Looking now for something else and figured to consider IC-type and connections in the process.

4yanx, I understand your concern about inserting an Amazon IC in the chain. I offer a couple of thoughts. First, the Amazon is a very good IC. Second, there is barely 6" of it. And third, there is probably more wire than that on either side of it inside the pre and amp, and you don't know how good that is. Personnaly, I think the many benefits you gain from the high pass filter on the performance of the amp (e.g., reduced power requirements on the bass) more than outweighs any consideration on the effect of inserting that filter. You are gaining, not losing. So, I would advise you to pick your ICs based on how they sound, just as if the filters were not present. Think of the filter and its pigtail as another component "box" you can't really control.

Fsarc, there is a close long time relationship between Richard Vandersteen and Bill Lowe, and it is no coincidence that Richard is using a battery bias in the filter and Bill is using the battery bias on his wires. And, you can surmise why Richard uses AQ wire on the filters.