VANDERSTEEN 5A

What did Vandersteen say? There's no way he would see those amps come back 6 times for repairs and not grab the phone and start asking questions.

He did ask questions and he suggested that it might be the electric in my house which I updated (costing $3K) for the two dedicated circuits, isolated and hospital grade outlets just for the subs. However, after few weeks the same thing happened and they had to go back again.

Matter of fact they are still in his hands (30 days and counting) and waiting for getting them back.

I have 5A's ....an electrical storm took out one amp, but after 5 or 6 years, never had any other issue.... only returned for new batteries

ewww...this makes me glad I didn't pursue a used 5A purchase. it is also why I have been leary of buying powered anything. I had great luck and really enjoyed my old vandersteen 2ci so I really was looking closely at finding some used 5A as my reference upgrade.

how quickly do they die? is it something that you can replicate by taking them to the dealer that you bought them from and having him run them on his power grid for a specified period of time to see if the same occurs?

Obviously, something's not right here. I don't know what's wrong with your speakers, but I doubt they are going bad due to some type of quality issue. Something else is causing them to fail. It would probably help to list your system. Also, I assume that your dealer was out to have a look at your system. I'm pretty sure its required that the dealer does the initial install on a pair of 5's. Maybe your dealer can let you borrow some good surge protectors for a while. They won't protect against lightning strikes, but I think you can rule that out. I doubt your house got hit by lightning 6 times. You could have power surges. Do any of your neighbours have problems?