Anybody Heard the Vandersteen 5A'S

I've got 3A Signatures (which replaced 2Ci's), and love them, so I am biased for Vandersteen. I've heard the 5A's at the local dealer and at the HE2003 Show and they do sound very nice. But it's kind of hard to make a comparison since they are not in my room (and I'm not borrowing $15,000 speakers to find out!). One of the nice features of them is the adjustable response of the woofer, you can tailor them to the room. A big plus for room response problems (I really need this!). This same dealer also has Magnepan and Quad. Quite honestly I've always thought the Magnepans sounded more lifelike, but my room was a little too small and too square to get the best from them. I haven't gotten a good listen to the Quads, so I can't comment on them (curiously he has them in the show room but they are almost never hooked up!?). The one nagging thing about the Magnepan's to me is that they always sound more open than box speakers, is this because they do a better job of recreating the space in a recording or are they artificially creating space? I don't know and bet this would create two groups of opinion. We don't need to go there now!

Pmotz,

If you like the Vandy sound, you will be astonished to hear the improvement in the 5A. It is simply better than the 3Asig + 2wqs in every way. IMO

Hello,

I bought my Vandersteen 5A's in June, so I've had them for about five months and I am naturally biased. They are great speakers. Their greatest strength is that they have a tremendous amount of resolution but are not edgy or analytical. I think they need a pretty big room to sound their best. Mine is about 17 x 21.

That said, they are quite different than Quad's. The Quad's also have tremendous resolution with an entirely different presentation. I think it comes down to your preferences and the type of music you like to listen to. I listen to lots of different kind of music and I think the Vandersteen's are great all-arounders. The Quad's will sound best with smaller scale music and probably cannot be beat for listening at lower volumes.

Best of luck with your audiophile anxiety. No speaker is perfect, but you are considering two of the finest.

Yes the TAS review seems almost too good to be true. I have auditioned lately the Wilson's (Sophia and WP 7's), and the Focal JMlabs Alto Utopia and I liked the WP 7's the best. Now with this new review I can't wait to hear the Vandersteen 5A's. Are there any
dealers in the Westchester/Northern NJ area or NYC for that matter? If I could find one dealer to audition the Wilsons, Vandersteens and Cremoras I would be a happy camper. I am willing to spend the 15K-22K on the best speaker in this class.

dkuriloff, I don't know if Verona qualifies as northern NJ, but Audio Connections in Verona had a pair of 5A's on display at the beginning of the summer, in a room with Audio REsearch, Cary, and Rogue.