Best of both worlds, Vandersteen and B&W


In my mid 30's, living in New Orleans at the time, I purchased my first pair of high fidelity loudspeakers, B&W matrix 802's. I have had a long term love-hate relationship with these speakers. I love thier dynamics and solid base but have always been bothered by a tilt toward the higher frequencys and an upper midrange glare I was unable to banish with ancillary equipment. After much deliberation I recently purchased a pair of Vandersteen 3A signatures. As promised these speakers are smooth and warm, without a hint of midrange glare. With jazz or classical music they sound beautiful and I initially thought I had solved my speaker problem. That is until I queued up rock and roll. The highs and mids still sounded wonderful, but the bass was hugely disappointing. Flaccid, aneimic, distant, without any drive or authority. My wife, who could not care less about high end audio, commented, "they sound a little flat", and "they don't have the same power".

I live in Maine where there is little opportunity to audition equipment. My question is are there any speakers that have both the smooth treble and midrange of Vandersteen and the excellent bass of B&W?

Ag insider logo xs@2xbewoods1962

"From my experience, the positioning of my 2ce sigs changed the balance considerably. Have you done a bit of experimenting with the speaker tilt and positioning in general? (My apologies if you've exhausted this route)"

Ultimately, you should do what sounds best, but I would highly recommend using the formula they give you in the owners manual. Once you have them in place, then deal with any problems. Issues are much easier to fix if you start from the proper position.

I agree, mgreen27. Nothing I found regarding positioning was revolutionary or conflicted with the tilt instructions in the manual. 

However, distance to boundaries and space between speakers had a pretty big impact in my room. 

Good luck,
gary
Subwoofer(s) is an option of course. But when you get a chance, listen to the Vandersteen 5A. Bass is excellent, and you’d keep the Vandersteen sound, which you prefer (for good reason) to the B&W house sound.
I had the same problem with my Vandersteen 3A speakers, anemic bass.  The bass in my Vandersteen 2ce signatures was much better. If you want great bass, go with a pair of Golden Ear Triton series.  Their powered woofers are great and rock sounds absolutely amazing on them.
I had 3a sig for a decade with 200 wpc Mac amp - vise like grip and low end.

you do need to get the rear acoustic coupler to work with room and you do need and amp with balls.

Follow setup instructions to a T for 3a

then Download Vandertones ( free) play thru system with radio shack analog spl meter at ear listening position.

tune to taste by adjusting distance to rear wall - do you have the excellent sound anchor stands ? Are you on carpet w spikes or solid with spikes and machined aluminum cups ???

vandertones and spl meter allow you to see what room is going and be much more scientific with setup. You might want to really hone in on 70-120 he if you like rock and boost that a bit