Lacking Soundstage - Vandersteen 2C

All the Vandy floorstanders are sensitive to tilt and have a minimum listening distance (as specified in the manual). Also make sure that the speakers are level on both axes to begin with. I had to shim my Quatros to get the final tilt right. I use a Craftsman laser level to get a precise tilt at the listening position.

There is also the issue of minimum ear to speaker distance for time coincidence. This will be the minimum distance shown on the tilt diagram in the manual. (It's 6' for the Quatros, but 8' for the 3As, and I don't know what it is for the 2CEs. Check the manual.)

[Hifitime: No, no batteries in the Vandy 2s. The Quatro, 5A, and 7 require a high pass filter before the amplifier, and the one supplied by Vandersteen uses a battery for capacitor biasing (I don't really understand the need for this, either. It makes amp swapping less convenient).]

Daverz,

Thanks for the info, I checked the 2C manual and nothing was mentioned about the tilt, I know the 2CE manual does talk about tilt, do you think the tilt logic applies to 2C also?

Thanks

Oops, I missed the distinction between 2CE and 2C. I don't know. Sounds like a question for Mr. Vandersteen.

Your sound-stage is cluttered because your speakers are way too close together at 4 feet apart and the images are overlapping each other like a pair of binoculars out of focus, and you never want the back wall distance of 2 feet and the side wall distance of 2 feet to be equal numbers.

Great tips so far, I would agree that your Speakers should be at least 7 feet apart and 2 feet from the right side wall if possible. I would also recommend moving the speakers out into the room approx. 3-4 feet as stated above, therefore you may have to move your listening position backwards in order to maintain your 8 foot listening position which is pretty good, if your speakers are 7 feet apart.

I would also recommend minimal to no toe-in in order to achieve a deeper soundstage. However, If you lose the center image with no toe-in (which is best tested with a solo vocal song) then you will either move the speakers closer together 1/2 inch each towards the center with no toe-in, or leave them where they are and try a very slight toe-in.

If your right speaker is any closer to the wall than 2 feet you may need an acoustic panel on the wall at the first reflection point in order to improve image focus. Keep in mind that you may need it anyway at 2 feet as well.

I would also make sure that you don't have anything in between the speakers unless they are far enough back behind the speakers.

You should also consider carpeting (if you don't have it), in between the speakers and the listening position in order to reduce the floor reflections and further tighten up the sound-stage.

I would hold off on the tilt for now and work on the above recommendations first.

Let us know how it goes, Good Luck!

Rich

Livin, some excellent observations above, especially that your room is too small to expect to achieve really excellent soundstaging.

A couple of observations, things that I have done successfully in the past. In addition to triangulating a speaker listening position set up, as close to equilateral as you can get, you need to kill (deaden) those first side wall reflections. You can use deadening materiels but they may not be nearly so successful as using extreme toe in, that is toeing in the speakers so that the axis of the speakers cross well in front of your listening chair. That and pulling your speakers out into the room at least 3 ft, more if possible, should help a lot with imaging. It wouldn't hurt a bit if you put something on the side walls to quiet down (breakup) patterns from continually reflecting side waves as they try to bounce about the room. BTW, using this extreme toe in also gives you a broader usable, but not ideal, off center stereo listening for someone sitting in a chair next to you.

Try it!