Vandersteen 5a's - an upgrade from Vienna mahlers?


I have Vienna mahlers and have tried a few tube amps without success. I am thinking of the 5a's as I like the idea of SS powered bass and vandersteen's no fatiguing detailed sound. This will enable me to use a nice tube amp
I like mostly rock/alternative/pop/electronic type music with some blues and jazz.

Will the vandersteen be a positive step or just a sideways step.
downunder
"I love Audiogon." As someone fairly new to Audiogon(member since Jan. 2005) I have to say "I love Audigon." It is a thread like this one that really makes me appreciate the knowlegde that goes into this hobby. I have never heard the speakers in question, but the 5A's have for a while been my "dream" speaker because I love quality and I love Bass. Reading and learning through these posts just makes me love the hobby more.
Unfortunately, you can't put up all the technical stuff with a Vandersteen because setup takes some doings. Let me ask this one simple question, when going to a dealer, how many dealer "Associates" have ever measured your ear height at the listening position? If the speaker is not tilted back and set up to YOUR ear height, you will NEVER hear what any Vandy speaker truly offers!
I ended upgrading from the MC-207 to the Mcintosh MC-402 to drive my Mahlers and they took on an entire new level of control and sonic delight!
Hi Bigtee,

The ear height measurement is not that critical if the rest of the set up is spot on. The 5As simply have too large of a "sweet spot". Yes, it helps, but I've not noticed a big difference between one washer and two as an example. (This goes for the Model 2s as well.)

Sincerely,
Michael
Interesting thread. . . how did I miss this until now? I have had the priviledge to audition the Vienna Mahler last October at the Denver Audiofest in the Soundings HIFI / Rowland suite. The system consisted of a CDp from Sweeden whose brand I regretably do not recall, Rowland Concerto linestage, the just released Rowland 312 power amp, and of course Mahler speakers. The setup had been tuned by Sumiko technicians. The sound was. . . stunning. Not in a fire-worksy-hifish-glitzy way, but profoundly musical, linear, extended, three-dymensional and tuneful. I was drawn back to the suite 4 times during the show because I could not have enough of it. I played exerpts from my own compilation CD, mostly Bernstein conducting the Israel Philarmonic on the 2nd movement from Dvorak's 9th Symphony, Edgar Meyer playing the prelude from Bach's 5th suite on double-bass, and Lara St. John on Bach's Adagio-Fuga from the 3rd violin sonata. I was stunned by the -- albeit subjective -- impression of musical correctness of the presentation. Besides the adjectives employed by me above, on all the selection I played, the sound was marvellously harmonically rich, but without ANY obvious frequency hotspots nor any of the bass bloating attributed to the Mahlers by some other contributors in this thread. Even in the critical bass register -- bass trombone in Dvorak and lowest string in the Meyer performance, the sense of pitch remained perfectly defined, outlined, and I should say perfectly sculptured. At the other extreme, the treble was extended, clean and filigreed, without a hint of harsheness. The midrange was cleanly fleshed out, but never forward. Macro dynamics was magnificently authoritative but not Bombastic. But what made my jaw drop was the subtlety and interplay of microdynamics and micro detail, which rendered for me this system by far the most emotionally involving of the whole show.
Granted, a significant part of my unconditional praise must go to the new Rowland 312, because whenever the 312 was replaced by its smaller twin brothers, the 501 monoblocks, while still extended and broadly dynamic, the system lost a lot of its great magic, musicality, microdynamics, and ultimately a substantive portion of its profound emotional impact.

In the end, ported vs sealed, dynamic vs. planar, tubes vs solid state vs ICE modules. . . matter not an ounce. Rather, the final result is a product of the total design, overall construction, engineering quality control of the individual components, their mutual synergy, the care of the setup, and finally the synergy of the whole with the musical taste and expectations of the listener.