I owned the original Salons for three years. I have only heard the Vandy 5A's once at a dealer and cannot express an opinion. Comments like those of Mcreyn are common about the Salons. I likewise thought the Salons lacked life and soul the first few times I heard them. The Salons are a very low-distortion, transparent design that are revealing of upstream components. They were typically demo'd with Madrigal gear, usually Levinson 300 series amps, which use a lot of negative feedback to control the circuit - the lack of life and soul that many people complain of with that speaker/amp combination is in large part the feedback, which unfortunately comes through very clearly on the Salons (check past threads - many people have commented upon how uninvolving they found Salons to be with Madrigal gear). After ignoring Salons for two years as a result, I then heard them with a new Madrigal design and I for the first time liked what I heard - so much so, in fact, that I bought a pair. I ran my Salons mostly with VAC Renaissance 140 monoblocks, which are Class-A biased, zero-feedback, triode tube amps. I felt like Dr. Frankenstein the first time I heard the combo - "It's alive!", I wanted to shout. My closest hi-fi friend ran his Salons with, first, the CAT JL-1 Limited Edition monoblocks, which are amazing tube amps, and then the darTZeel. Rest assured that the Salons most definitely show life and soul when run with equipment that does the same.
Another issue is that in today's used market, people can buy the original Salons for $5k-$6k and are running them with less than great gear. The Salons they are very good speakers and require high-quality upstream componentry.
