Vandersteen model 5 battery replacement?


I've been the happy owner of model 5's since the summer of '99. I'm sure that the crossover bias batteries have run down since their lifetime was originally estimated at about 7 years.

I tried to follow the directions in the owner's manual to remove the sub amplifier and crossover board, but I couldn't get the amplifier out. I'm an EE and I've been inside of some very complicated equipment, so I think I can handle this job.

(I really don't want to bother John at Audio Connection with replacing these batteries because he's about an hour and a half drive from my house.)

Has anyone here replaced the batteries? For removing the amplifier, how many screws are there and where are they located? I removed the two readily accessible screws but it didn't release the amplifier.

Thanks for the help,

Dan Kuster
dkuster
John is always free to help via phone call, if you want his cell give me a PM and I will pass it along. I will send it you private now,check your mail......tell him Chad gave it to you and that I said happy holidays!
Dan
Hope you are doing well
Please give me a call 973 239 1799
and I will go over it with you.
In the meantime pick up 8 9 Volt Lithium 10 year long life Batteries.
Best John Rutan
Hi John!

Thanks, I'll give you a call once I have the batteries.

Is there a good day/time to call?

-dan
Thread bump.
I just called John to help me pull the crossover board from my "new"  5's.
Got them for a great price while cruising ebay a few weeks ago.
I think Scotch was involved ;)
Anyhow I'm the second owner and these look like they are brand new.
They have the original set of batteries though.
Have to say the manual was confusing on how to pull the board and I was an aircraft mechanic for years.

Not knowing much about these 5's I thought I'd hook them up to my Yamaha AV receiver.
WRONG !
Luckily I have a NAD T754 reciever that I can plug to my pre outs to run the hypass filter through. Fine for a starting point. About 150 watts/channel.
That receiver has pre ins and outs.
I bought it to run a pair of Bose 901's a few years ago.


Thanks to John The adventure begins !
John is awesome.  He replaced the batteries in my M5-HP crossovers a few years back.  If you change batteries, get the freshest lithium batteries you can find with the longest date, since these must be soldered into the crossover.