What do you think of Vandersteen 5a's?

Mmike84: what speakers have you owned in the past and what did you not like and what did you like about each... This would help people to understand your tastes...

If you get the 5a's make sure you buy the external crossover tails, otherwise you will be replacing blown bass drivers at $$$$.

If you can hear any version of the Vandy's; you will get an idea about the basic Vandy House sound..... you will either like it or not... hence all the different preferences.

If you can't pull the 5a's out into your room, then I would stay away from Vandersteens, they really need room behind them to breath to sound their best. Just like Magnepan speakers need at least 3 feet off the back wall.

Sorry, but the Vandersteen 5A's and the Quatro's can both be pushed up very close to the front walls and be made to sound great. My dealer set mine up only 7" from the wall and they still sound amazing!

I'm going to have to disagree with cyctocycle on a couple of points.

1) While the 5As share some of the same sonic characteristics of the other Vandersteen speakers they aren't just larger/more expensive versions of the other models. I've had the 2ci sigs, 3A sigs, Quatros, and now the 5As and find the 5As to be in another league as far as overall accuracy and dynamics. The nice thing is that they can do this without losing the musicality that they are famous for.

2) Distance from wall... My 5As are about 14" from the back wall due to domestic constraints and they sound wonderful. After they were broken in and I had a free day I moved them into the "ideal/textbook" position (about 3 feet away from the wall) and noted very little change. Soundstage depth became a bit more consistent, but overall tonal balance was about the same (after I re-eq'd the bass). I've found that slight bit of toe-in is needed in my room to even out the midrange response and solidify the center image, but I don't consider the sonics to be at all compromised in this position.

While my 5As were on order my dealer (insert shameless plug for Gary @ Esoteric Audio) loaned me his demo Quatros for about 2 months. I experienced similar near-wall performance with these but they needed to be slightly farther from the wall. Since the Quatro is a shallower speaker the drivers actually ended up almost exactly the same distance from the walls as they are now with the 5As.

With 2s and 3s I completely agree that the speakers need to be moved well away from the wall. Part of this has to do with the orientation of the bass driver and room loading.

All of this is room dependent and I did design the construction of my room to be audio-friendly (couldn't specify dimensions, but could go through a rather elaborate finishing process). In other words, in your room you may have a completely different experience.

When I was researching the purchase of the 5As I spoke with a number of people (and a couple of dealers) who all had very good experience with near-wall positioning.

Finally, should you buy the 5As I recommend you run them for some time with the bass eq set flat. You may find that you really like the way that they sound in that configuration. In my case the only real anomaly that I have is a bump around 50Hz. I found that trying to eq that out made the rest of the response lumpy and everything sounded worse. To steal words from Richard Vandersteen the bass sounded "equalized." After a couple of conversations with Richard he recommended leaving the EQ flat... I gave it a shot and am happy that I did.

Bofh: When I said the Vandy's sound similar that was a compliment not a dig, I meant like magnepan's sound similar in flavor in which bigger versions definitely sound more dynamic and more detailed... So people don't like magnepans... Just like some people don't like the Wilson flavor.

All the demos I have heard of Vandersteen 5a's and Bel Amps have been 3 foot off the back wall. Thanks for clearing this point up.

Thanks for all the comments. Ive been running B&W Nautilus 802's for the last 5 years. I like them, but I find some of the top end resolution to be lacking, and the soundstage is not particularly impressive. I used to run Levinson gear, but recently switched to Ayre and I just don't think they go well with my 802's. I've listened to a lot of speakers in the last month or so and my favorite by far has been the Avalon Isis. Hardly a surprise at $65k/pair, but they did open my eyes that resolution and HUGE soundstage don't have to be mutually exclusive. I've heard the Wilsons WP8's and they are great in many ways, but I found the bass exaggeration to be un-real, and the soundstage was no where near the Avalons. I have also listened to the Dynaudio C-2's which I like as well, extremely detailed (could be too bright in some systems) with a similar soundstage to the Wilsons, but I still wonder if my amp (Ayer V-1xe) has enough juice to get the most out of the next jump up which are the C-4's. Anyway that might help explain what my tastes and preferences lean to. Music choices are everything jazz, rock, folk, but very little classified or orchestral music.