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Questions for Vandersteen 5A owners...

I finally got to audition 5A's yesterday. Involved 9 hours of driving, but it was worth it. :-)

I realize no speaker is perfect and it's a matter of tradeoffs. I am attracted to Vandersteen because of a strong reputation and the fact that it includes a powered bass module with 11 bands of EQ per speaker. I have a troublesome room. Currently have Aerial model 9s - a great speaker but not ideal for my room.

Anyway, I wanted to post my impressions and see what owners have to say.

1) Larger than life sound. Holy big imagery. High hats sounded like they were 3 feet in diameter.

2) Wide dispersion of sound (i.e. large sweetspot). Vocals stretched from speaker to speaker. Panning of instruments off center was hard to pinpoint.

3) Bass seemed EQd well (couldn't hear any notes being louder than others) but all in all it wasn't as articulate as I expected. Bass was very fat sounding.

4) Problem at loud volumes? It might have been the 200 watt amp, but when the volume was cranked it was very distorted. I notice that Stereophile recommends the speaker but says "won't play as loud as other speakers". I have never experienced a speaker that had a volume limitation per se, so I'm not sure what to expect - distortion or were they simply meaning it wasn't very sensitive? I don't listen to music at crazy volumes, but these would also be used for home theater - where speakers should be able to handle loud peaks. Have any of you noticed this?

5) A lot brighter than I expected and very revealing. Highs sounded less smooth/laid back than I expected (or was used to for that matter). Almost harsh at times. Could have been the recordings, but I played stuff I was very familiar with so I'm puzzled here.

6) Midrange was very nice.

Anyhow, I'm interested in others' perceptions here as I can't audition these in my own home. I do believe that the dealer could set up the bass well in my room, but am generally worried about some of the points above.

Thanks in advance.
madfloyd
mtdking
157 posts
 
The 5A's really is an amazing speaker because of what it can do from top to bottom. I get flat response all the way to 17 hz. With any other speaker you would have to spend $75,000 to get that. Being that the speakers are in phase that also can be different at first if you never heard a speaker in phase.
I do wish that Richard would not scare everybody in the manual about setting up these speakers without a dealer. He makes it sound like only a dealer can do this. It really is a very easy thing to do plus you will learn about your room and acoustic problems. It's a win win.
I have a friend that has a nice system and I went over to listen one night. The image was off to the left and after about an hour I asked him if he heard the same thing. He said no and I said but it is. Later that year he went to his doctor and during his check up he wanted his hearing checked and he found out that he had some hearing loss in his one ear. How would you like that guy setting up your speakers or me setting up his speakers. See my point....
madfloyd OP
411 posts
 
Thanks for all the responses. Being the perfectionist that I am, I do wonder if I could dial the speakers in better myself, but don't know what kind of measurement tool I would need; good to hear that someone has done it succesfully.

Guidocorona, I heard the 5As using mostly ARC gear (CD player, PH7 phono, REF 3 preamp) and an Aesthetix Atlas amp. I don't know what the cables were. I have the same preamp but use Theta Citadels for amps.

The speakers did sound nice - and perhaps better than anything else that I've auditioned so far. I am leaning towards acquiring them.
eweedhome
227 posts
 
Madfloyd - I owned Vandersteen 2ce sigs and 3a sigs, and have listened to the 5As a number of times. Don't mistrust your ears--in my experience, the 3A sigs and the 5A's can sound annoyingly bright. Operative word: "can". Personally, I think ARC gear and Vandys are not a good combination, though supposedly Vandersteen has used the combo in shows. For my taste (and I don't like "warts and all" type hyper-detailed sound--at all), Vandys work best with easy-going and warm-ish tube gear--with lots of power. My gut sense, also, is that 3A's and 5A's probably work best in larger rooms. Mine is 14x19.

I eventually quit trying to make Vandys work for me, in my room, and moved on. But I want to emphasize that I've heard 5A's sound very nice with the right equipment. There are many very satisfied Vandy owners, and as some of the other posters attest, set up (and associated gear) matters.

But also, trust your ears. At least for me, my biggest buying mistakes have come when my ears were saying "I don't know," but my brain was saying, "Yeah, yeah" because of what other people said, or because it was a great deal, or some other thing that brains do from time to time.

Good luck.
tdaudio
201 posts
 
The problem with "go hear it for your self" axiom is that often the setups are lacking. My demo could have been much better, but I was able to work around what I heard and make a decision.

The 5As are not bright, they are high resolution and if given sh!^ in they will pass it on.

I wonder if your demo had the rear tweeter on and turned up. I doubt anyone with a proper set up uses it. BTW it was added because some thought the 5A too layed back! But it is not needed if the 5As are matched with any of the equipment you would expect them to be used with.

I would agree that the 5As don't play as loud as some other designs, but they go plenty loud in my fairly big 17x27x10 foot room. I think they are so clean sounding that it is easy to max out a 200W amp. If that amp gets nasty above clippng you will hear it. When I want to rock out a bit I can feed my 5As all of the watts from my ARC Ref 210s with out a problem. But then tubes can clip a little in a way solid state doesn't. I don't do it long though.

As for fat bass. That is so room dependent. But one of the 5A strengths is the flexable built in sub. I agree with the post above that you may want to read just after dealer set up. I did and I felt that it was for the better. It takes a block of time but it is not that hard.

As for sound staging, I am very happy. With a vinyl front end and Ayre and ARC equipment I get a deep and wide sound stage with very good height. And unless the recording has it on it, I do not get the giant mouth singing thing much at all.

I think the 5As shine with vinyl. And it has been easy to hear the changes in equipment that I have made over the years. I also think the 5As are fairly easy to set well but they reward you with careful set up and system matching.

Terry
guidocorona
4,114 posts
 
Madfloyd, I have listened many a times Babybear's system consisting of TEAC Esoteric P-03/D-03/G-0S + ARC Ref 3 + Theta Citadels + 5-As. The combination is wonderful. . . clean, musical, and involving. Vandees require loads of power from refined amps to shine. Citadels are said to be one of the most sought amps for the 5-As.
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