Vandersteen 7 Flagship at CES

This demo would have been worth the trip to CES to me. The only speaker I'd like to hear more right now is the 5A upgraded with the full compliment of carbon fiber/balsa drivers to see how close it comes to that level of performance. It will be a while before I can hear (let alone afford)either one. Lucky thing the standard 5A is as good as it is. I envy those of you who got to experience these.

Would I go for the upgrade? Good question. It depends a lot on the price and what others say about the sound of the upgrade as I'm unlikely to hear these myself without owning them. I dread the idea of packing up my 5As and shipping them to California but I know it's been done by plenty for the 5 to 5A upgrade. Also, if the upgrade costs $15,000 or more and I could sell my 5As for $10,000-$12,000 it's getting close to the point where maybe spending the extra on the 7s is worth it for the carbon fiber cabinets and resale potential. For now, I'm just trying to remember that the 5A is still an awfully good speaker.

Chadnliz,
Of course the 5a is a great speaker. I think I'm just trying to talk myself out of(or into?) going out and spending big bucks on the 7s. They are one of the more exciting products to come along in a while in my opinion. Sometimes this makes us forget to be thankful for what we already have. I agree with you, if any speaker would be worth that kind of money to me it would have to be one designed by Richard Vandersteen. He'd be one of the last guys to price a product unecessarily high.