2. speakers
  3. 163003-141885

Not Thrilled with Vandersteen 2CE Sigs - where is the first place to work on?

Trying to build up the system this year, bought some Vandy 2CE Sigs.  Have the anchors, following instructions for placement, built bass traps and a couple of acoustic panels in my medium-sized but odd-shaped basement listening area - still not thrilled.  Using laptop with Tidal and Dragonfly Red - and some stuff sounds GREAT (Steely Dan, SRV, Beck, Dire Straits, Wilco) - but disappointed in a lot of other stuff.  Some objective opinions on where my issues might lie?  Expectations too high? Hearing the truth of production variations?  Running an NAD C272 at 150WPC and an original 1979 APT Holman Pre Amp.  Not MAC, Bryston, etc - but was expecting more.  Thoughts? Rebuild/recap the APT?  Amp upgrade?  Where might the low-hanging fruit be?
gjinwi

Showing 4 responses by jjss49

jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@patrickdowns 

No one accuses these speakers of being too bright or hot, or being badly voiced, that I have seen.


not what i said
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
vandersteen's success speaks for itself

older smaller vandy's are 'round' and full sounding speakers but with an open smoother sound, not so much for detail geeks

newer vandy's clearly have more high end energy... some surmise this is a commercial decision to meet modern demand for more perceived 'resolution' - others feel it is due to richard still voicing the speakers himself, his loss of high freq hearing with age has him doing this as a result

i think the op has set up and upstream equipment issues, and also a taste/preference matching issue to boot... what percentage is former vs latter, who knows?
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
@stereo5 

I had 2CI’s for over 20 years and loved them. A friend sold me his 2CE’s Signature for an extremely cheap price. Replaced the 2CI with the 2CE in the exact same spots, sounded like s**t. Figured it couldn’t be the speakers so replaced all system components right down to all the cables, plus experimented with different positioning. They still sounded like s**t. Stopped listening to system for 6 months. After 6 months, tried it again and still hated them. Stupidly, I gave away the 2CI to a fellow Audiogoner for free and ended up selling the 2CE. For whatever reason, they did not sound good in my system.

I was using a 175wpc Classe’ amp and an AI Modulus 3A pre, VPI HW19mk II turntable, Pioneer PD65 CD Player, AudioQuest cables and speaker wire.  I bought Von Schweikert VR33 speakers which were an even bigger disaster.  



love it... need a laugh this evening

isn't it fun being an audiophile chasing the dream!!!  
jjss49's avatar
jjss49
6,612 posts
 
op

this ... by soix... is the only post that is meaningful so far...

You need to be more specific about what you’re not liking about the sound and what recordings aren’t sounding good to you, otherwise you’re just spinning everyone’s wheels here.

if you are just belly aching here, then continue...

... if you want helpful input and advice... communicate what is posed above ^^^^^^
More to discover