Vandersteen 5A vs Martin Logan Prodigy

Thanks for the input gents... this helps allot.

Microstrip - Yes, I have heard them with the Decent i. Actually, two of them as I run two in stereo with the MLs.

I was hoping that the Vandi 5As would allow me to get rid of all this equipment and simplify my system as this all takes up allot of room. But, if the Vandis don't give me the full room experience, I may continue to run the dual Decent i setup.

The Prodigies do sound nice with the Cary amps and preamp but it sometimes just sound almost fake. Maybe it is because of the sound dispersion control but it seems that box speakers fill the room more..seems more natural. Maybe I am just crazy and don't know what good sound is...

Johnny - thanks for the note on the set up...

Derrick - interesting you note about moving away from ESLs. Seems that many people do move away from them, for reasons I am not sure of but I have seen that in other threads as well.

Any additional comments would be appreciated.

One reason the 5A's sound so good is that your amps will only drive the mids and highs, allowing the power robbing lows to be directed to the built-in vandersteen amps. Therefore YOUR amps will loaf and be the best they can be. The Sound Labs are excellent speakers as well, but have an entirely different sound. I cannot say which speaker is better...its like hearing the New York Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall and in Avery Fischer Hall... You might like one over the other, but both are fine for listening to real music in real space.

The Cary 805 Ae Monos 8 Ohm taps Kimber Kable Select with the Vandersteen 5As are to die for.
We used this combo at one of the stereophile NY shows with 26 folks in the room .
After playing Bach toccata in fugue with this combo applause prevailed.
Try also Vivaldi Fabio Biondi 4 seasons listen to the size and clarity of wood instruments and articulation of the strings without any smearing I think you will enjoy.
Best Johnnyr

You are comparing apples with oranges - both are excellent speakers, happy owners of Prodigy's will also say "they are the most natural, nonfatiguing, cohesive, MUSICAL-sounding speakers I've ever heard. Keep them!

I have owned Prodigy's in the past and moved to Soundlab's A1 PX. May be the Vandersteen will have better bass frequencies, and can handle heavy rock better than the ML's, but my preference would still go for the Prodigy. The choice will depend on owner preferences and room acoustics.

BTW, did you ever heard the Prodigy's with the Descent subwoofer? It takes them to a new world.

I do own 5As, bought this summer. I drove them initially with 160Watts-into-8/320-into-4 Monarchy Audio SE-160s. Before I bought the 5As, I had performed some some minor improvements to the amps including installing a switchable 85Hz hi-pass filter. The combination of 160s and 5As sounded EXCELLENT, but, being a long-time lots-of-vacuumtubes guy, I got the itch again. This time it was for OTL amps, and I brought home a pair of Atma-Sphere M-60Mk3.1s. I expect these are the '60 watts of OTL' power mentioned above.

My system with the M-60s sounds even better--cleaner, more transparent--than it ever has, and the system does NOT lack dynamnics. I'm no headbanging dideebopper, but I do listen to large-orchestra music quite loudly sometimes. Unless you have a VERY-large room and listen quite loudly, I believe your 50-Watt Carys will sound quite good with the 5As, recognising that you'll use a 100Hz hi-pass filter with them.

The 5As are the most natural, nonfatiguing, cohesive, MUSICAL-sounding speakers I've ever heard. Go for them!
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I have not owned either, but have listened to both quite a bit in the past.
Even though the 5As have the active 400 watt bass amplifier to handle the bottom end, your 50 watts of SET power may not go as far as they need too.
The Prodigies are 91db sensitive VS 87db for the 5As. Of course there are quite a few variables, room size, room composition, listening level and the type of music you listen to.
Electrostatics will always have that seductive "air" that other speakers can't touch.
The 5As ( when properly dialed in ) will have room/bass integration and coherence as good as or better than any electrostatic and will completely blow you away.
For what its worth, my local Vandersteen dealer felt that 60 watts of OTL wasn't enough for his personal 5As.
If you are happy with the sound that you have now, roll with it.
If you have an itch to experiment, you may need a more powerful tube amp to reach audio nirvana with the 5As, but it will have been worth it.
I went from ESLs to Horns.