Give and Take

czarivey......stuff happens.....my other 5a is fine......one thing I should say.  A couple of years ago,  I had to send back the bass amp because of an electrical surge.  Perhaps that also affected the midrange.  I have nothing but compliments re: Vandersteen....his products and him personally.  When I moved from the wilds of New York to the desert of Arizona, Richard personally recalibrated/set up my old speakers in their new home...with a Thank You. 

So rebuilding the mid-range speaker of Vandy 5a is part of regular scheduled maintenance after certain 'mileage'?

Vandersteen is a good company all around, and the 5 is a very nice sounding speaker.  One of a few multi-driver dynamic speakers that I can listen to for prolonged periods.  It seems you've correctly identified the problem and were therefore smart enough not to blame it on the VPI, as so often happens.

stringreen, with all due respect this seems to be about your Vandersteens with no real information about the VPI dual pivot, so why not post it under Speakers rather than Analog?

Yes they are fantastic rpeluso......I heard a metalic/fuzzy sound from the left speaker on some frequencies that has been there for months...  tried cleaning all the contacts, ran the Ayre break-in disc, and yet there it was again. The Ayre disc has a glide sweep, and I was able to trace the problem to the midrange speaker.  I took the CD to my 5.1 system in another room...no fuzz....listened with my earphones/dedicated amp...no fuzz.  Called Vandersteen who told me to send in the midrange speaker and they would rebuild it for 150 dollars.  I am not a mechanic, but was able to get the speaker out with suggestions from the Vandy repair department....awaiting the unit's return.

Wow, any thoughts about what led to this unfortunate midrange driver situation with your 5As?  I have the same speakers, and of course think they are fantastic.