I have heard the Vandy 5's in a system composed of all Spectral gear, and I would like to say it sounded pretty darn good. I liked it and frankly, I would have been happy to have called it my own.
Vandy's may not be the 'best' speaker at ultimate transparency. They may be not the greatest speaker at imaging. HOWEVER, for the money it is HARD to beat them. The Vandy 5's are some of the best all round great performing speakers for less than $12k. Certainly, they one of the best box speakers under $15k. Comparing them to ribbon and electrostats is kinda like comparing apples to oranges. Both are fruit, both taste good, but give a different presentation altogether.
Frankly, unless you have tried out a lot of different equipment with a given loudspeaker, one really does not know the speaker's qualities (or general qualities). Just changing out gear can make speakers sound very, very different. Speakers can go from dark sounding to bright sounding with the change of an amp. Speakers can go from muddy sounding with little low frequency response to seemings transparent to a much tighter bass with the change of a preamp. And this does not stop with just the speakers you are listening to. When you listen to a recording you are listening to the performers through the mics that they were recorded with through the wires connected to the mics through the sound mixer they were recorded with through the medium they were recorded with through the medium you are playing them through, through the player you are playing it on, through the preamp you are running the signal through in your system, through the amp you are driving your speakers with, and NOW through the speakers you are listening to.
Many people forget what a long electronic line of chain they are hearing when they listen to their systems. Subtly can be lost many places in that chain. So can imaging. So can sooooo many things.
Well, I must goto bed now.
KF
