tips for Vandersteen 3A sig

Hi, Flying: all good suggestions so far. I also own Vandy 3A Sig's and love 'em. I think mine are clean, fast, and very dynamic -- properties you seem to want more of. It seems to me that there are three possible factors that could affect your speaker performance: room interaction / acoustics; need for a subwoofer (depending on your listening tastes); and need for a different amp. I can't provide much help on the room interaction problem, since I don't know about your listening area. I can say, however, that my living room is a suspended wood floor above a 3-foot crawl space, and I had a lot of room resonance which tended to make the deep bass sound rather tubby and slow. To address the problem, I made several baffles from a mass-loaded foam material called Sonolead, glued them to a 2'x4' piece of Masonite, and placed them against the wall behind my speakers. They work very well and reduce the "muddiness". Second factor: subwoofer. The only way to go is the Vandersteen sub -- either 1 or 2 of them. Home Theater Guide recently published an issue that re-capped several years of subwoofer tests, and one of the 5 highest rated subs was Vandy's 2WV (I think I've got the nomenclature right -- it's the "video" version of their sub). Last thought: your amp. About a year ago, I upgraded my amp to the Bryston 4B-ST, and it does a SENSATIONAL job of provided deep, powerful, controlled bass from the Vandy 3A Sig's. Since the Vandy 3A Sig is capable of pretty good bass extension (26-28 Hz), it really benefits from an amp with a large, tightly regulated power supply, and the Bryston amps have that in spades. The newest issue of Stereophile has the "Recommended Components" list, and the Bryston 7B-ST is rated "Class A", and the 4B-ST is rated "Class B". (I personally think both should be "Class A" picks, but that's my opinion). Hope you find a satisfactory solution to your problem -- when the Vandy 3A Sig's are really dialed in to the room, there are very few speakers even come close in full-range performance.

Thanks to everyone for the input so far. For room acoustics, I have just ordered some RPG foam to place behind my speakers. Will let you know how it worked out. Also, I just tipped my speakers a little more forward...it seemed to help some. I am now tilted back only .5". The Amp I am using is ARC Vt 130. I imaging this would be slower than a bryston...or even Mccormack ?

Flying; IMO, you are right about the tube amp producing slower and more bloated bass than a good solid state amp. I auditioned an SF Power 2 (110+ wpc) for about a month, and it's supposed to have good bass "for a tube amp", but it could not even come close to the quality of bass I got from my McCormack DNA-2DX.

I personally think that if bass (and PRT) are really high on your list of favorite music characteristics you might consider a good SS amp such as McCormack, Bryston, and many others. I sold the Power 2 partly for bass and PRT considerations. It had a nice mid-range though. Cheers. Craig.

I had both the mccormack dna1/revaGold and an arc vt100m2 on the van 3aSigs. I thought the mccormack was a much better match for the 3aSigs. I found the vt100 sounded great, but was a little slower than the mccormack - as you would expect for a tube vs solid state. I also had some 160Watt sfm-160 tube monos on the 3a signs. Less resolution, warmer, but with more power than the vt100. The mccormack was head and shoulders the best amp for the 3aSigs. It brought out the bass & quickened up the speakers. Vandersteens are inherently warm sounding. I think this is why they don't really need a tube amp (imho) to sound good. Steve mccormacks hot-rod outfit actually uses the 3aSig to voice the revA,b,c modifications to the dna series amplifiers. A match made in heaven imho.

John.