Vandersteen 5a vs Genesis 5.3 ?


Has anyone heard these two speakers? Strengths and weaknesses of both or either. Your choice and why?
tooth2th
I have a pair of Genesis 500's and Vandersteen Quatros. Both are very good at exploiting their design philosophies. The Genesis are only a hand full of speakers that their character does not change with vertical listening height plus the servo woofers are hard to beat. With the Vandersteens the time coherence is phenomenal but the adjustable head modules on the Genesis can come close with very careful alignment. Believe it or not, the bass on the Genesis reveals that there are some colorations in the Vandersteen bass but it is musical so it is mostly benign but it is there.

Both speakers are very musical with different attributes with the Genesis winning out by a margin with their dipole arrangement, ribbon tweeters and sheer impact but the Vandersteens still throw a very detailed 3D soundstage that is addictive and the bass equalization along with adjustable damping is hard to beat when tuning the speaker to the room.
@nmmusicman   Just curious...do you find the equalized bass from the Quatros "warmer" than that coming from the Genesis?  To put it another way, is the Genesis bass subjectively "faster" than that from the Vandys?

hifiman5 - In a word, no. I used the Genesis as a reference for tuning the bass on the Vandersteens so in essence they are the same or as close as can be obtained. That is where the damping controls on the Vandersteens are invaluable.