Vandersteen 2CE Signature III — video review on YouTube by Steve Guttenberg (1/15/2023)

tubular1 My pleasure!

holmz  does make a good point about bass

If you want more bass then you need a sub or to move north of the Treos.

My 2CEs have a lower bass extension than the Treos, but the Treo bass is BETTER. Tighter, cleaner, more accurate. Quality vs quantity, though the bass from the 2CE isn't bad at all. It can sometimes be a bit bloated or "squishy" but I listen to a lot of acoustic music and not much of that is bass-heavy.

At "my" dealer, one of the guys has Treo CTs with 2 subwoofers and loves it, saying it's as least as good as the Quatro CT, (but not much less expensive to go that route if at all, esp with Vandy subs). The beauty of that combo is you can do it in stages: get the Treos, and if you miss the extra bass then add one or two subs. You may decide you don't need it. 

The Quatro CT is in another league from several standpoints: 1) Each speaker has its own built-in powered subwoofer, with very adjustable output settings. Tuneable to the room and setup. 2) You won't need as much "horsepower" in your amp to drive the speakers, because the woofers are internally powered. So, you can drive them with a lower-powered amp.You will need the Vandy high-pass filter crossovers ("The M5 High-Pass Crossovers are ideally suited to the Quatro line of speakers as well as the SUB Three and are implemented between the preamp and the amplifier. ") BUT—I was just told that Ayre can modify both their integrated amps and their amps to have the high-pass crossover internally, meaning the external high-pass won't be necessary. I am told that other mfrs do this too, but not sure who.

The Vandy Forum is a good place to browse for info and ask questions
Vandersteen FORUM

Cheers

After much tweaking I have integrated my Vandersteen 2CE Sig II's with a pair of Rythmik F12G-SE. The Vandersteen's were good before the subs, but now the sound went to 11. As they say in Spinal Tap "this one goes to 11"....

2psyop

NICE! I've wondered about doing that.👍

After much tweaking I have integrated my Vandersteen 2CE Sig II's with a pair of Rythmik F12G-SE. The Vandersteen's were good before the subs, but now the sound went to 11. As they say in Spinal Tap "this one goes to 11"....

+1

well integrated subs will afford a step change in sonic performance of many systems, even with purported high performance full range speakers...

I have always liked the sound of Vandersteen. I had seen many people sell their 2CE speakers only to regret it later and buy another pair. They are well designed and sound great within the parameters of that kind of budget. Richard never intended this model to compete with other well established and more expensive brands and models, including his own. I had listened to about 7-10 speakers around that price and settled on them. I just couldn’t let them go after years of pleasureable listening, so I opted to play with adding stereo subwoofers. What could it hurt? Now these speakers are revitalized! They are not without faults because if you don’t give them enough room or don’t place and tilt them according to the manual and your room, you will not really hear what quality sound they can give. I have had times where the upper highs have been harsh. Mostly it was the room reflections and dampening. If I had to rate these speakers from 1-10, they would get a 9.5.