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Vandersteen 2ce questions

I have been upgrading my system over the past few months. My newest upgrade is some older Vandy 2Ce speakers(not sigs) replacing my little Jamo E855s. My system is now NAD c370, Musical Fidelity Tri-Vista DAC, and Yamaha dvds-1800 as a transport.I know its nothing special compared to people's systems on Audiogon, but I'm a single parent and my budget is low enough to be almost non-existant. I am wondering if I'm doing something wrong with the Vandys. The lierature that came with them says they go to true 30hz, but they dont have the bass slam that my little jamos do. I've moved them all over the romm(about15x23). Wood floors with nothing on the sides and about 24 inches behind them.I wanna love these as they cost me more than everything else put together. I'm really pleased with the mids and highs, and get ALOT more detail from these than the jamos. I just want more bass and cant really use a sub because I'm in a townhome. Any advice for this newbie?
biffrythm
stevecham
3,340 posts
 
I had the 2Ce Sigs with stands, purchased new from the local dealer in town, for about two years and I could never get them to recreate anything approaching a true 30 Hz tone, no matter what high power integrated amp (Musical Fidelity 5 integrated, Krell300i or CJ CA200 control amp) I threw at them, or where I placed them, treated the room etc. Bass was mainly a boom, or suggestion, and not a true note. They do have a very relaxed sound and just don't "slam" for dynamics, whic for some listeners, may be exactly the correct recipe. But not for me in the long run. So, I upgraded to Thiel 2.4s, which easily cover all the low extension and dynamics areas that were missing with the 2Ce Sigs. I have also listened to the 3As and have to say that, although better in the low end extension area, they are not that much more in the dynamics dept over the 2s. Only the 5 or 5A are the Vandersteen models I would now consider as equaling Thiels in this regard.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Speakers have a tendency to get the blame for many things when in reality the speaker is only reproducing what is being fed to it.
ecruz
402 posts
 
Rrog-

I would agree with your statement, up to a point. Different speaker designs definitely present what they're fed differently.

Without changing anything else in my system, I went from 3a Signatures, to Gallo 3.1's and found all of the "slam" I had been missing with the Vandies.
ablang
165 posts
 
The amp is not the problem--I drove my 2CE Sig IIs with the NAD C372 and had bass as deep, tight, and tuneful as I could have asked for. It has plenty of power and current delivery. To repeat what some others have said, triple check to make sure you have both woofers wired in phase--if the polarity on one is swapped, each speaker will cancel out the bass produced by the other speaker. Swap the + and - on one speaker and see if the bass improves.

After that, try working with speaker placement based on the very good Vandersteen instructions (measuring your room and dividing by odd integers). If you don't have the manual, they're available through Vandersteen's website. Taking the time to do this can make the difference between fantastic, full sound and MIA bass.
biffrythm OP
42 posts
 
I plan to do all the measuring from the manual this weekend. I have move them closer together. I rolled the highs and mids back one knotch and it's getting there. I get some low notes, they are not the volume of the mids and highs. I will keep at it.
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