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Best amp for Vandersteen Quattro?

Hope someone can help - I have a Mark Levinson 380s pre with an old pair of Electrocompaniet AW180 monoblocks currently powering my Vandersteen 2 sigs. I have bought Quattros and I am expanding my system for HT use and would thus need amplification for three more channels - I plan to move the EC's to rear channels and need to buy an amp for the main speakers - what do I buy to power the quattros? As I understand it (with the built in subwoofers of the Quattros) I do not need ultimate bass grunt but need an amp with a sweet and open mid and treble - am I correct? My budget is $5000.
Thanks
cft
tom_hankins
928 posts
 
I have heard them sound wonderful with the all of the Ayre amps. I think you can get the V-1XE used, in or close to your price range.
davemitchell
253 posts
 
If you're not afraid of tubes...the Quatro is unique in that it has a near perfect 8 ohm impedance across the entire frequency range. This makes it very well suited to vacuum tube amplifiers.

Given your budget I'd recommend choosing a good tube amp that makes in the neighborhood of 100 watts per channel, although quality matters more than quantity with the Quatros.
mrjstark
1,112 posts
 
Red Wine Audio - Signature 70.2.....$5200
Ayre, also match nicely with Quatros
Tube amps:
AR, Consonance Cyber 800

These 4 are as good as any.
unsound
7,329 posts
 
I've heard them sound quite beautiful with Audio Research amps. I'd imagine any of the more open and clear tube amps like, Atmasphere, Manley and VTL etc., might work nicely. I usually prefer ss but in this case, tubes might be the ticket. If you prefer ss, the McCormacks usually work great with Vandy's. I'd imagine BEL and Threshold would work well too.
davemitchell
253 posts
 
The only caution about the McCormack amps is that the input impedance on some models is too low to be compatible with the required M5HP (high pass filters) used on the Quatros.

They are nice sounding amps though.
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