Vandersteen Quatro

From the Vandersteen Web Site:
Bill (5/2/06): Richard, I have heard rumors that the wood Quatro's do not sound as good as the normal grille wrap version. Could you elaborate on this? I find them very elegant and am considering them but its a lot money for less performance.

Answer: HELLO BILL, WHEN WE FIRST COVERED THE QUATRO'S WITH VENEER WITH ALL OTHER COMPONENTS THE SAME THEY WERE SLIGHTLY INFERIOR TO THE CLOTH VERSION. THIS IS BECAUSE THERE ARE LARGE REFLECTIVE SURFACES SURROUNDING THE DRIVERS. THIS WAS THE INFORMATION LEAKED TO THE DEALERS EARLY ON AND PROBABLY THE SOURCE OF THE RUMOR. WE REDESIGNED THE GRILL/DRIVER INTERFACE, INSTALLED A PLINTH OF THE SAME MATERIAL (EPOXY COMPOSITE) LIKE THE 5A ON THE BOTTOM, AND THE ALLOY FACE PLATE OF THE 5A ON THE QUATRO TWEETER. ALL OF THIS EXPENSIVE WORK ALLOWED THE QUATRO WOOD A SLIGHT IMPROVEMENT AT ALL FREQUENCIES OVER ITS LOWER COST CLOTH VERSION. THE COST OF ALL THIS $10.700 BUT THEY ARE BEAUTIFUL.

The improvement's made the wood version slightly better than what it was initialy or is it slightly better than the current cloth version?

My understanding is that they're roughly equivalent with the benefit of the wood version primarily being in its appearance.

Hi !!! I personally prefer wood over standard version but refuse to pay $3000 extra for it. I own standard version & I'm happy with it. Drive them with Cyber 800
mono blocks.

My father owns the wood Quatro so I feel I can add some real experience to this thread, ANYONE AND EVERYONE who claims the Wood version is simply cosmetic is talking before hearing, yes the major improovement is coemetic and it is a beautiful speaker but it also has some trickle down benefits from the 5A wich are not in the standard version, you get between 5 and 10% improovement in sound over sock version. Is that worth it to you? I cant answer that but it sounds fantastic and is quite beautiful. Furthermore if you want insight on the Wood Quatro shoot Richard V. a call or one of his top-tier dealers, what Richard thought it was going to be to go wood vs what it actually took to achieve is an interesting story.
BTW my father drives them with Audio Research tube pre, and Classe Mono Blocked amps with near top of the line Audioquest cables.