Vandy 2WQ bottoms out with movies

There is sub sonic material on some movie sound tracks that make it difficult for any sub woofer.

At one time I had two 14" Fosgate THX subs (JBL LE drivers) with a high end 1000 watt mono block transistor amp on each. Even with all that power and control, some sound tracks bottomed out the woofers or clipped the amps, I don't know which.

Sometimes I think the temptation to raise the level on the sub (via Dolby processor) is too tempting. I probably had the level set too high as lowering it just slightly solved the problem.

The Vandy is an excellent sub and as you already pointed out, excellent for music. Perhaps like me, you are asking too much of it?

I must say I don't own these subs, but I have heard them many times at a buddy’s house. He has stereo 2WQ's. Last week we were switching out cables and left one sub disconnected and in his largish room there was a very audible reduction in impact and subjective extension. It went as deep, but did not have the same solidarity. I don't know if two 2WQ's will eliminate the amps clipping or speakers bottoming, but you should be able to run them at a lower level in tandem. One other thing, have you tried changing the Q value on the back of the sub? This can really create more subjective bass, but of course it will make the bass more "boomy" and not as quick. I hope this helps.

Hi Dwight,
You have a great system, I have owned several Vandersteen set-ups with Vandersteen's older 2w and the current 2wq subwoofers over the past 15 years. I have never owned the v2w unit.

The 2wq is designed to be used with a Vandersteen furnished simple crossover ( 6db roll-off at + or - 80 hz ), this crossover is a simple quality capacitor selected/sized for your amps input impedance value. You could make one yourself.

Do you have the Vandersteen required crossover inserted between your processor and amplifier?, setting your proccessor to full range would be correct setting with the required Vandersteen crossover inserted. You could be overloading the 2wq without this crossover in-line.

Most processors have built-in bass management crossovers and settings, maney of these setting are at 12 db or 18 db rolloffs at various seleted frequencies that may not match the 2wq's factory pre-selected settings.

I had a stereo pair of 2wq's with the 3a sigs and Vandersteen center/rears. I used a proccessors for movies only, set proccessor at full range fronts but used the Vandersteen crossover, when I watch a movie with LARGE effects, I just kicked up the sub output a few db's and when listening to music, set subs back to my preset music levels. Never had a overload issue with the stereo pair.

With the 2wq set-up correctly, it is very seamless, very different from a standard home theater set-up with a subwoofer overpowering everything, the big differences that I notice with my various Vandersteen 2wq installations was a cleaner midrange/vocals. Low frequencies can be tough to get correct in most rooms, when bass is slow, muddy, or set-up to a high output level, it can cloud up the whole frequency range. With the Vandersteen crossover inserted, you can off-load low frequencies from the main speakers and the main amplifier over to the subwoofer, this is a basic bi-amp system set-up.

My thoughts would be to get a second 2wq for your fronts, purchase the Vandersteen Model 5 crossover that has adjustable capacitor settings, and maybe use your single v2w sub for rear channel effects only, hopefully a few Vandersteen pro's will chime in with their thoughts, just do not give up on the 2wq just yet!
Steve

Thanks for the responses.

Steve, thanks I do love my system. I am baffled with this problem (disapointed actually). I have the temporary crossover in place right now. It is a single ended crossover. I will get the balanced version to use when I decide which crossover I require. Having said that, this shouldnt be the problem.

Do you guys think that the Bryston SP1.7 will send LFE signals to the 3A/2WQ as well as the the LFE sub (V2W) with the main speakers set to "Large"?

I have Bryston balanced interconnents for all of my channels but have used cheap single ended cables for the temporary sub crossover. Once I know which one I need I will replace the it with the balanced version of the crossover.

When I hooked the sub up the as noted above, the levels for the main speakers and the sub were way out and had to be readjusted on the SP1.7. Why?

Right or wrong, I know that many people that are more into music than movies have chosen to use a pair of these 2WQs rather than going with the V2W with no issues.

Again, my suspicion is that when the speakers are set to "large" on the SP1.7 it sends LFE info to them as well even though the processor is set with a LFE sub active?

I used Digital Video essentials to set the levels. When I did so, with the setting as described above, the sub pink noise went to both the V2W (LFE sub) and the 2WQ.

When I use the SP.1.7 pink noise it only appears on the LFE sub.

When I turn up the level for the LFE it appears that not only does the V2W (LFE sub) get louder but so does the 2WQ that is being used with my main speakers.

Dhel, I have actually tried turning down the "Q" with the thought that it should reduce the amount of the bass thus not bottoming out the 2WQ. Problem was still present.

Albert, I hear you on being tempted to crank things up for movies but that isnt my case here (at least not intentionally).

Your help would be appreciated.

I'm not an expert by any means on this, but when you set the speakers on large, aren't you telling the bass management to send low bass to the fronts? So it would seem that your suspicion is correct (which you have confirmed, IMO, when you found that turning the LFE level up, makes the 2WQs sound louder. However, why not ask the folks at Bryston?