What do you think of Vandersteen 5a's?

Aris Audio in Salt Lake City has Vandersteen 5A's in place for you to addition. The set up is actually real as Aris Audio occupies a portion of Scott's home. Scott (the owner) is a great guy and I am sure you will find him more than helpful.

Maybe make a trip out of it drive through the Vail Valley, stop for some skiing, head over to Park City Mountain Resort in Park City Ut. for some more skiing, then on to Salt Lake for a speaker audition.

Aris Audio = http://www.arisaudio.com/

I just wanted to compliment mlsstl's response above as maybe the most insightful remarks ever written about speaker quality I've ever read. (They are really words to live by, so take every review with a grain of salt.)
To go even further, as I gained more listening experience, my own likes and dislikes have evolved, so what I liked 10 years ago may be painful now.

I'm an American currently assigned to the US Embassy in Australia. I ordered the 5A's from The US and as such, had no dealer support here. So I hired an audio engineer who owns his own recording studio. He brought another audio engineer friend and a calibrated mike with real time analyzer to properly adjust my 5A's to my room. The fee was to be $66 per hour. We spent about 2-3 hours dialing in the speakers, then broke out the CD's and Belgian beer for some serious listening. They stayed for 3 more hours, then refused payment because they had never heard such a good system and had such a good time listening! That's how good these speakers sound. If you want to spend less, the model 3A Signatures with 2WQ subs are also outstanding. I was quite happy with them until the terrible and wonderful day I made the mistake of hearing the 5A's.

Unless you view buying and selling big speakers as a trivial event, you really should listen to the 5A speakers. The Vandersteen speakers I've heard sound to me as though they are behind an acoustic veil. I auditioned an Ayer C-5xe CD/SACD player at a dealer who used fine Ayer electronics with a pair of 5A speakers, but the audition was too colored by speakers that seemed to hide the detail I was looking for. I have since heard the C-5xe with other speakers and understand what the raves are about.

I would not find selling, packing, and shipping a pair of large speakers an experience I want to add to my life.

db

When I have heard them, and it has always been at the dealer here in Houston, they have been simply sublime. I am a Magnepan guy, and I still love them!! I must repeat the condidtions though, the room and electronics where they are set up is close to perfect, and the guys in the store know how to get the most out of them, but I think they are about the finest speakers I have ever heard. I actually like them better than the Maggie 20.1's.