vandersteen 2ce sig ii listening distance and tilt

now, a little more info, my ear height is 42-43". which seems high! and i know again from the manual that non titled speakers are time aligned to 33". i'm a taller person so my only other choice is to get a lower seat which is most likely not going to happen.

I can empathize with you on this - i had the same issue when i was trying to setup my time-coherent Green Mtn Audio speakers. For that speaker i had to raise the speaker 1.5" & lower my seat so that my ears were ~38" off the floor such that my ear was about 1" lower than the tweeter. This was the guideline given by the manuf in the "setup" portion of the speaker manual. Like you I'm a taller person. If you want to reap the benefits of the time-coherency that the Vandys tout then you have no choice. If you can or won't then sell the speaker - you're wasting your time w/ a Vandy as you'll never get to hear what the speaker intended. if you keep it, don't complain! ;-)

musically speaking - norah jones nightingale song, sounded so different when i sat on the floor in front of my couch, 2-2.5ft closer (T distance) and ear's 32" off the floor. how did it sound different? it seemed like there was more airy sound with the opening guitar and first few words of voal. mix in with that some "grain" or "texture" or maybe "openess" to the sound. - like a french silk pie made with granular sugar.

here it seems you got the direct sound from the midrange & mid-bass from the mid-range which is where the starting vocals + guitar frequencies were. No wall reflections. A limited freq range but exactly what the start of that song had to offer & the midrange was the correct driver put to use.

whereas up back in my couch with correct time alignment, things seemed smoother and laid back and not as defined, like a french silk pie made with powdered sugar.

yeah, the speaker was correctly time-aligned due to its sloped baffle but correct time alignment does NOT mean correct time-coherency. Time-coherent speakers are naturally time-aligned but time-aligned speakers are not necessarily time-coherent (99% of the time they are not). So, yeah, the drivers are time-aligned when you are sitting in your couch but the freq are not integrating correctly at your ear 'cuz your ear height is wrong. At 42-43" ear height, you are getting all tweeter. Plus, you could be above the tweeter height & now you are getting into the vertical dispersion characteristics of the speaker, which on almost all cone driver speakers is pretty bad i.e. sonics drop off rapidly & in an ungraceful manner when your ear is above the tweeter height.

does that make sense? oh, and even though i was a lot closer to the speakers than they were wide apart, the image was still smack dab in the middle, like a razor :)

yup, didn't think this would be an issue for you....

Hey Steve

Did you ever do the laser tilt?
Most floors are never level.
After you have read the Vandersteen manual and are in the zone,
Use a bubble level confirm the speakers are level side to side,take a laser pen aim it on the wall behind listening chair area. Get a black sharpie pen with a post it note, draw a circle on the target O where the laser lands post it note stuck to wall.
Next do the same for the other speaker and make sure both speakers have the same bulls eye tilt landing on the O bulls eye?
Sit and listen,then slouch down in your chair,then listen sitting on a pillow.
One of the 3 positions will have magic.
Then adjust the final tilt to where your normal seating position is and make sure you confirm both speakers are in the new final bulls-eye.
Please let us know when you find it.
Cheers JohnnyR

I forgot to mention, that if the speakers are new, then you probably need to let them break in, and the contour controls should be set to flat.

I based my set-up on Charles Hansen's recommendation for the 3A Sigs: http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=speakers&n=136275&highlight=88&search_url=

I think I'm within an inch or two of his measurements and using the same amount of tilt.

thanks for more responses!

1. my 2 seat couch is leather and has a headrest, it reclines a bit, but not enough to be inches lower ear height. i throw a couple of bath towels or blanket over it so the head rest is as dead and low as possible, my ears are definitely clear of it.

2. i'll have to play with width between the speakers, i got them out at 9' because to me, it seems like everything gets bigger.

3. i've got an awkward room, i won't get into that except to say that i'm room depth / 7 (or 3ft) from back wall and seating position is 3ft from wall behind me. so i'll play around with all that too.

4. another thought i had was perhaps blocks to raise them up 6" more over the standard stands they came with. or some other method of raising them.

thanks for everyone's input. good to be amoung like-minded people. sheesh some of these main stream forums, people just have different goals for their music enjoyment :)