Vandersteen M5-HPA

Vandersteen M5-HPA (High Pass Amplifiers):  Pair $7950.   Subwoofer High Pass Crossover is built in; high pass roll-on point selectable via internal switches. No need for the external crossover.  Can be used with any speaker, but designed and optimized for use with Vandersteen Quatro, Quatro Wood/CT, Kento and all Vandersteen 5 and 7 series speakers.  Can also be used with any Vandersteen powered subwoofer.  Purchased new from HiFi Buys in Atlanta.  Includes 2 ea 20 Amp power cords.  Flat rate shipping specified.  Seller will refund any excess.  I used these amps with an AQ Niagara 5000 and AQ Dragon High Current power cords and WEL Signature 100% silver interconnects. No international sales.  Buyer pays PayPal fees.  I am not a dealer or jobber.  I'm selling my system because of a move to a small retirement home.

Note on cable length:  New amps are now shipped with 30" Double BiWired speaker cables manufactured by AudioQuest. The back of the amps has a message that warns use of longer cables voids the warranty.  I talked with RV yesterday and this morning.  The simple answer is that cables longer than 4' (the previously recommended length) occasionally caused the older amplifiers to blow output devices.  Even with the 4' cables, the newer amps with the high speed transistors and circuitry were occasionally blown.  That's when Vandersteen started packaging the 30" speaker cables with the amps and raising the price to $19990.

My amps are early production,102 and 103.  I bought them new from HiFi Buys in Atl.  Since I uncrated them they have been used exclusively with 6' pairs of AQ Double BiWire cables  (Comets and the 100% silver K2s).  I have had no problems with this make and length of cable.  That's not to say that these early amps wouldn't be damaged by longer cables. I certainly wasn't going to find out with my $15K pair of amps.  

Conclusion:  Buy these amps with confidence.  Use the recommended cable length or no longer than the length I've used for the past 5 years and there will be no problem.  Still some risk of some kind of malfunction, but that's what you take with used equipment.   I can assure these amps were working fine when I boxed them up.  If all you have are longer cables, AQ will reconfigure AQ cables to a shorter length and re-terminate.  Call Dustin at AQ customer service for more details.  Or, you can order the Vandersteen approved cable that now comes with the amps for about $3500.  You'll likely need some new long interconnects to reach the amps that are next to the speaker.  Long interconnects will degrade the sound less than a speaker cable of the same length.