I love these speakers, they are so detailed. I have to say that I am a Maggie guy and the Vandy 5a's and Klipschorns are the only other speakers I lust after. Maybe because they are all so different. The Klipsch is my fav for slam and impact (my fav by far for Rock music) and Jazz/vocals have never sounded better to me than on the Vandy's. Good luck, great speakers and great company in Vandersteen.
Vandersteen 5A
I moved my 5A's here to Arizona from New Jersey about 6 months ago. I got my soundroom furnished with drapes, plants, etc, and had my local Vandy dealer come over to voice the speakers to my room. For those of you who don't know, these speakers have their own amp in each speaker that exclusively drives the woofer, ... the speaker is adjustable throughout the bass range with a number of pots on this 400 watt mono amp...the rest of the speaker is driven by my own (Ayre) amp. Anyway, after setting the left speaker to +/- 3 db in the room, he started voicing the right speaker only to discover that the amp was not working. In less than a minute, the amp was out of the speaker, and is now on its way to Vandersteen for a look-see. I was amazed that the amp wasn't working, since the sound is so good..depth, air, power, delicacy...singer suspended in space between the speakers in 3 dimensions...great. Now that I know the woofer is gone, I can hear that the very low information is not there on the right side...but no one suspects that there is a problem by listening. I'll post the results when the amp comes back.