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Set-Up Advice for Vandersteen 1Cs

I'm beginning to piece together a system and having previously owned a pair of Vendersteen 1Bs back in the late 90's before I sold all my equipment I purchased a pair used 1Cs for $299 and $80 shipping... hopefully this was a good price.

I have a small apartment and these will be in the living room with the TV and I would like the sound from my TV, Cable, Apple TV or Roku 3, Blu-Ray, a DAC connected to my ipad/iphone/macbook pro, and eventually a turntable to be able to play through this system. I plan I have zero interest in a surround sound system, so multichannel is not a concern.

My understanding is that I should probably get an HDMI switch with audio out since things like the Apple TV and Roku 3 don't have audio out and I'll want the audio from those to play through the system. This area is new to me so any advice here would be greatly appreciated.

To complicate things I would LIKE to have a tube amp if possible. I am willing to go solid state, but I would much much prefer tube.

My budget is somewhere in the $500-$750 range. I am planning on buying used equipment to get the most bang for my buck. Something with a phono input would be best, but obviously I can't have everything.

I've been completely out of the loop and this was totally a spur of the moment purchase for me but I don't have a tremendous amount of time or disposable income so I'm looking to greater minds than my own for assistance.
greatwhitebat
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"I'm not sure I understand. I don't want multichannel. I just want 2 channel, but I do want to get the audio from my video devices to my system because I definitely won't have space for two systems and I don't want to purchase a sound bar or just use the built in speakers on the TV."

I know you don't want multichannel. My recommendation was for 2 channel equipment. For example, if you have a dvd player, you run a video cable from that directly to your TV (or switcher), and send the audio to the integrated amp (or whatever you decide to go with for audio).
greatwhitebat OP
35 posts
 
I know you don't want multichannel. My recommendation was for 2 channel equipment.

Ok. Sorry, I wasn't trying to be dense.

For example, if you have a dvd player, you run a video cable from that directly to your TV (or switcher), and send the audio to the integrated amp (or whatever you decide to go with for audio).

Ok. Sorry, I wasn't trying to be dense.

The issue with this is that some of the components on the video side do not have seperate audio/video cables. They have HDMI output only. I'm trying to find a solution for that that gets the HDMI passed through to the TV and the audio to the amp without making a mess of the audio first.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
"The issue with this is that some of the components on the video side do not have seperate audio/video cables. They have HDMI output only. I'm trying to find a solution for that that gets the HDMI passed through to the TV and the audio to the amp without making a mess of the audio first."

I didn't realize that was the issue. Most TV's have audio outputs. You can just go from the out on the TV to one of the inputs on your pre/integrated. You'll still be able to bypass the speaker on your TV.
timrhu
2,778 posts
 
Are they the black pair on ebay last week? I bought a pair a while ago for $265 with free shipping. Was the only bidder, felt like that was a bargain.

As for the tube amp in your price range, you'll probably need to look at some of the Chinese made products. I'm currently using a pair of Dared VP-20 mono amps. They only allow for a single input and only produce 18 watts each; probably not for you. Hopefully some other owners of these products will chime in.
greatwhitebat OP
35 posts
 
Are they the black pair on ebay last week? I bought a pair a while ago for $265 with free shipping. Was the only bidder, felt like that was a bargain.

Yep. I would have loved to have found a pair as cheaply as you did. There are some 2Ci that just sold in Indy for under 300 for pick up only, but the looked quite marked up and didn't have stands. I considered those, but thought these might be in better condition and they included the stands.

I have been looking at the amps from china and one big question is how low powered can I go on these?
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