(side note: I wish they'd never stopped using Atheros WiFi.)
The last year I have gone through three routers:
* Asus RT-N66U ("the Dark Knight"), worked fine on 2.5GHz, but the 5GHz signal gradually became worse until one day it just disppeared. Apparently a lot of users have had this issue.
* Asus RT-AC66U, the smaller version of the same router. Just stopped working occasionally, requiring a reboot.
* Netgear AC1750 R6400-100NAS (little brother to the "Nighthawk"). Current router, was stable enough for a while, but now needs rebooting a couple of times every week. SSL/TLS connections stop working randomly. Devices such as iPhone and AppleTV fail to get packets through on the first try after being dormant for a while.
At work we have the Netgear AC1900/R7000 "Nighthawk", which has been extremely stable. But it's also quite expensive, and large (as is the AC1750).
I've lost all faith in Asus, and the only other brand I can see that has a good reputation is Ubiquity. They make "pro" access points for hotels and such. Then again, hotel wifi is the worst.
They had devices with 5 GHz before, just not in their SOHO devices. I've got two of their SXT lites (5 GHz) with directional antennas and my wireless uptime between them is around 70d.
Btw, the interface of their routers is a bit … verbose. I like it, but you should definitely have a look at it before you buy one of their routers: http://demo.mt.lv/webfig/
Even their cheapest devices come with a full copy of their OS, so you could just buy a hAP lite (~$25) and see if you like it. I did the same and never looked back.