I own Andra IIs and I admit they take time and effort to set up perfectly. It was a long haul to get them sounding their best but once I got them set up right they sounded/sound fantastic. They image extremely well, have deep, tight bass and the soundstage they produce is very deep and very wide.
They sound damn accurate to me throughout most of the freq. spectrum but getting tight bass from them was a big challenge.
In my 14 by 18 foot room they produced too much boom so I invested in a great stack of bass traps. These lowered the boom substantially. My less than expert measurements (and my ears)show the room to be pretty flat - not perfect but close enough.
I have heard the 5As and I like them. But the 5As ,in my opinion, sound more colored than the Andras - the Andras sound very transparent to me while the 5As sounded like they were a major ingredient of the flavor of their system rather than a window to the gear upstream. This is how I view the Andras, as a clear window to the electronics and the source feeding them. Any change I make in my system has VERY obvious effects at the speakers.
I assume the 5a's adjustments would make them a snap to set up in most rooms. I never had a problem loading my listening room with traps to sort out the Andra's bass but I know not everyone can do this.
I was fascinated by the isobaric woofers when I first heard about them too. I haven't read anything really negative about this configuration. Can you post a link to the info you've read? It won't change my mind about the speakers though. I had them for a few months before I even knew they had two woofers in there!
They sound damn accurate to me throughout most of the freq. spectrum but getting tight bass from them was a big challenge.
In my 14 by 18 foot room they produced too much boom so I invested in a great stack of bass traps. These lowered the boom substantially. My less than expert measurements (and my ears)show the room to be pretty flat - not perfect but close enough.
I have heard the 5As and I like them. But the 5As ,in my opinion, sound more colored than the Andras - the Andras sound very transparent to me while the 5As sounded like they were a major ingredient of the flavor of their system rather than a window to the gear upstream. This is how I view the Andras, as a clear window to the electronics and the source feeding them. Any change I make in my system has VERY obvious effects at the speakers.
I assume the 5a's adjustments would make them a snap to set up in most rooms. I never had a problem loading my listening room with traps to sort out the Andra's bass but I know not everyone can do this.
I was fascinated by the isobaric woofers when I first heard about them too. I haven't read anything really negative about this configuration. Can you post a link to the info you've read? It won't change my mind about the speakers though. I had them for a few months before I even knew they had two woofers in there!