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

I currently have the Vandersteen 2ci and do agree with everyone here that they have a rolloff top end. I also read that the tend to be on the warm side but i dont know if that is true. I personally think that the older are voiced to be a balance speaker.  When I did a room response, I hve notice that it starts to roll of gradually maybe 6db/oct at about 8k. 

Voicing the speakers was done right with the older Vandersteen as well as having time aligned. 

I think that some older speakers weren’t capable of true high end extension, which allowed the rising high end of many mc cartridges to gain in popularity. Later with more capable tweeters and the entrance of CD’s this was altered.

I do know that MY hearing (at age 65) at high frequencies has been rolled off! I can hear maybe to 12,000 Hertz now. So I laugh when I see speakers that tout specs of 30,000 HZ frequency extension. What’s the point? Give me amazing performance between 30hz and 15,000 and I’m good. Am I wrong?

^You might not be wrong for you, but for others, missing sound beyond the limitations of FM could be lacking. Furthermore, there something to be said for the wiggle room beyond the limitations of hearing.

its no surprise that some manufacturers of gear resort to meaningless specs like frequency response to 30khz to try to sell their wares... for tweeters, it often less about frequency extension, rather more so about the flatness of response through the audible range, managing ringing/resonances, which are usually excited during musical transients being played

that said, one man’s rolled off is another man’s natural and balanced sounding... then there is always the room effect, which generally overwhelms more minor differences in speaker frequency range output in any anechoic situation, couldn’t be farther than real world.... haven’t yet met someone who could hear a speaker without a room it sits in...

another thing to bear in mind is that what was right in terms of voicing components 10-15-20-25-30 years ago is not wrong today, it has also been about synergy through the chain using system components of the day -- shrill early cd players, screechy lean solid state amps, tipped up mc carts, rolled off classic tube gear.... optimization and balance of all such aspects has always been what it’s about in successful system building