Initial impressions of my new Vandersteen Quatro's in Audi Havana Black


I will post pics when I get more time on them.  I had them delivered and set up by Johnny Rutan of Audio Connections.  He moved them out to the corners of the room and close up against the back wall. I love the look as does my wife.  I also LOVE the HUGE soundstage these things can now throw.  NO SUCK OUT either.  I was shocked at that aspect. I was scared to death when he started them in the corner of the room. I have a very difficult room for bass as it's an open floor plan. I lose a lot of bass on the right channel as it's by a stair case.  I'm putting up a temp wall by the railing.  I am using a screen right now, but I need treatment of some sort still. 

That said, it only has about 30 hours or so and it's already starting to sweeten up.  I'm hearing so many things that I haven't heard in the room before.  I'm hearing bass passages that hasn't been there before.  On one passage of a  Bela Fleck song, the room just moved.  The thing is that I've heard so many of these songs on Wilson's and Magico's and B&W"s and Focals, Paradigms, Legacy's and so many other speakers, but the tonality of the Vandersteen bass is just special.  It's so accurate. What so many don't know is that the way he designed the bass amp, you still have the same sound as YOUR main amp.  Not sure how he does it, but he does.  You don't hear the difference. 


I think that the reason some don't get the Vandersteen's at first listen is because it's not like other speakers.  We aren't used to hearing a speaker that isn't 'hifi' sounding.  Its very organic. To me, it's like analog vs digital.  Both can sound GREAT, but digital is still digital and that's why vinyl and reel to reel are still going strong after all of these years.  Kind of reminds me of a plasma TV vs the LCD TV's when I went to purchase mine.  I was originally taken by the brightest TV's in the showroom, but I keep going back and watching all the Plasma's in the darker room that Magnolia was showing them in.  I wanted the Pioneer, but could only afford the Panasonic's. I have two of them and love them.  People actually ask me why their TV doesn't look as good.  I first ask if they had it calibrated professionally.  The answer is always no and then tell them it's a plasma.  

Set up isn't fun for me, so Johnny does it for me.  I'm digging my new set up and will write more later, but i am Jonesing to go up to the loft to listen some more.  I'm really loving the organic sounds of my system right now.  All genres too which is just awesome.  Not taking any digs at others systems, just loving mine.  We all hear differently and I get that.
ctsooner

Showing 10 responses by nmmusicman

Glad to hear of another Quatro Wood owners satisaction as I'm amazed each and every time time I sit down to listen whether it's to music or movies. I must say with movies, the Quatro Woods are an absolute blast
and they shake the room with force and throw a huge surround sound like soundfield!

I would like to share a great upgrade one can do to the Quatro Woods that takes a great speaker to even further heights and that is to change the glass fuse in the subwoofer amplifier to a Synrergistic Research Black fuse. I did just that over the weekend and the changes are not subtle at all. Unfortunately, those Quatro Woods that are still under warranty should probably not do it as it involves removing the amplifier from the speaker but those that are out of warranty, such as myself, should defiantly give it serious consideration as the work involved to do it is worth the effort!!

For those interested, shoot me a PM and I'll relay what needs to be done and the fuse value.

Cheers
Sorry for the typos guys, wish we could edit after 30 minutes.
  "Quatro Wood owners satisaction". Should be satisfaction  

"should defiantly give it serious consideration as the work involved to do it is worth the effort!!" Should be "Definitely" not defiantly. 

" Synrergistic Research Black fuse" . We all know who I'm talking about here so no correction needed.

Cheers
@ gdnrbob,

As RV himself told me in an e-mail concerning my used pair of Quatro Woods that are long out of warranty, "You bought them, you own them". I really don’t think he would be opposed to using the fuses but like I said, if your pair are under warranty, I wouldn't do it as I think he would not be too happy for one to disassemble the speaker and would most likely frown upon it, but out of warranty, that is a different ball game.
@ ctsooner,

I’m running my Quatro Woods with MIT Shotgun S3.3 Bi-wire speaker cables and AQ Panther IC’s from my OPPO BDP-95 to a Pass Labs Aleph 3 amp.
The Panthers are running 100vdc DBS which makes them sweeter, more open and tightens up the bass a bit.

I do have a pair of AQ Volcano Bi-wire speaker cables but need to send them back to AQ to get reterminated as they have bananas on the speaker ends. I also run these at 100vdc on the DBS.
@gndrbob,

I agree that RV has a great ear but others do so as well. I have been a 15 year Alon/Nola customer and have been perfectly happy. I have recently purchased a pair of Genesis 500 speakers and all 3 highlight that particular designers attributes and each sound different but in no way less musical.

The Genesis with the servo bass, titanium mid-range drivers and ribbon tweeters is hard to top in that regard, the Alon/Nola with the AlNiCo magnet drivers is an absolute delight on the ears. The Quartos compete on the same level but with the added benefit of the bass equalization. I listen to each for hours on end and feel no less connected to the music. The Quatros do present a certain organic wholeness but so do the Alons but in a different manner.

I listened to Vandersteens for quite a few years and always came away wanting to buy but never pursued the option until recently with the purchase of the Quotros and I couldn't be happier. I'm running the Quotros with 30 watts of class A power and they sound great, the Alons are powered by a Mac MC 275 and the Genesis get a bridged Rotel HT amp at the time.

 I may move the 500's in place of the Alons, they may not work in a vinyl system due to the servo woofers but I'm willing to give it a shot.
@ctsooner - Trust me, 30 watts of Pass Labs Alpha 3 current is plenty! It will shake the room at elevated volume with no problem and my ears give out way before the amp does.

@gndrbob - Never heard of Alon or Nola? I find that hard to believe as they have had a prominent position in the high end audio market for more than 25 years...
May I add the following for bass agility/tuning:

Dire Straits:
Calling Elvis
When it comes to you
Heavy Fuel

Harry Connick, jr:
Follow the Music
That Party

Michael Jackson:
Pick one :)










@gdnrbob,
35 years out of the hobby would certainly explain it.
Here is the link to their website: http://www.nolaspeakers.com/
or you can type in Nola Loudspeakers into Google and there should be a link for images. Do the same for Alon Loudspeakers.

Alon/Nola is the same company with Alon coming first and then about 12 years later Accent Speaker Technology, Ltd.  with the Nola brand due to changes in investors and a restructuring of the company.
A very good upgrade to the AQ DBS interconnects is to grab some Walker Audio resonance control discs and place them either side of the IC’s at the components outputs, remove the batteries from the cables and place them on the discs. (wish we could just post pics)




@mr_m

I almost went with the Treo CT’s with a REL Gibraltar G2 sub but the Quatros with the extremely tunable subwoofers was a better choice as I’ve lived with single subs most of my audio journey and wanted stereo subs. The REL G2 is augmenting a pair of Genesis 500’s to great effect which says a lot about the G2 to be able to blend seamlessly with servo subs :)