Vandy 2WQ bottoms out with movies


Hello. I have the following in my system:
Vandy 3A Sigs, VCC5, VSM1s, 1 2Wq, and 1 V2W, Bryston SP1.7 (SP2 on order) and a Bryston 9B SST.

The single 2WQ in the system is new. I was told by Vandersteen at one point before the purchase to leave the processor set to large for the 3A/2WQ. Of course leave the V2W LFE sub active as well. Well I am disapointed to hear that the 2WQ is bottoming out on some movies. (Having said that I did buy the 2WQ mainly for music anyway.) I have heard many say that rather than having the two different subs (one for movies and one for music) that 2 2 WQs work well and will deliver about the same level of bass. Unless there is something the matter with my system setup, I can't imagine how that would work. If one is bottoming out then surely two of them would too. I was thinking of going this route too. I would appreciate any advise from Vandy owners.

Thanks,

Dwight
redsierra
Well guys I am not crazy after all (not that anyone said I was...I was just starting to wonder myself as this problem didn't make sense).

After much playing around, I contacted James Tanner of Bryston and ultimately one of his "experts" Mike Picket. Well they were gracious enough to research into the problem at the factory.

After trying to replicate the problem Mike called me back saying "I can't believe that it took this long to find that there was a problem!" Apparantly no one else had ever complained of this. Bottom line is that it isnt my sub's problem at all. It is a software issue with the Bryston SP1.7 which they are going to fix.

You see when the SP1.7 has the main speakers set to "Large" and the surround set to "Small" the bass below the crossover point for the surround speakers is redirected to the main speakers. Here is the problem, the level control for the LFE sub also incorrectly controlled the level of bass that is redirected from the surrounds to the front speakers.

I had the sub level set at 6.5 (for the LFE sub). This was all fine and good until it incorrectly cranked up the redirected bass to the main speakers sub...boosting the level too high!

My temporary fix is of course is simply to reduce the SP1.7 LFE sub level to 0 and crank up my level control on the LFE sub to the appropriate level.

And, as I speak...guess what...my SP2 has arrived!

Thanks for all of your insight.
I have 2 Vandy 2WQ subs in my system and I also hear the subs bottoming out in movies. I currently do not have a LFE sub. I hear the problem with my Rotel and the wonderful Lexicon MC12 I borrowed. I am looking for a LFE sub and I am considering the Vandy V2W but I am really concerned that it will bottom out just like the 2WQ's do. I love the 2WQ's for music though.
Agenttaylor- If you look at a couple of the responses above, they report that the V2W does not bottom out on .1 channel material.
I recommend (even one will do in a room 3000cu feet) a couple of Paradigm Servo 15's and you'll be fine. Pretty darn musical, and plenty of range for movies...excellent subs.
You could go with more expensive Revel's and M&K MX5000's and such, but you'll spend a great deal more for similar.
good luck. I also like the Earthquake subs, but don't know what you'll get for music with them.
I just went through a sub search and purchase. You need to cross over your 3A/V2Q system to enough HT sub. You can determine if another V2W will do it or if a beefier sub is needed.

I have 5As and one of the 5A "subs" has bottomed out once during a movie (Batman Begins - pretty loud playback) and a couple times during LP playback (one Smashing Pumpkins song causes this at levels not all that high). My room is good sized at 4,500sq ft.

Well I got the itch to get a sub or two for HT. After a lot of checking on the avsforum, I ended up finding a great deal on a Returned JL Audio Fathom 13. I started a thread on avs asking about set-up and after some responses I ended up running the Fathom as a mono sub from my Lexicon 12B. This way it gets some LF content and the .1 LFE as well. The 5As are run full range.

After a few movie tests I think this set up is taking enough LF content pressure off the 5As to play as loud as I want for HT. There is now a ton of punch on the low end.

If that did not work, I was going to cross over the 5As to a sub/subs.

TD