Vandersteen 2Ce and bass performance

<< I recently bought a 7-month old pair of Vandersteen 2Ce speakers and stands. I am running them with an Adcom 545 MKII and GFP555 Pre Amp. They are biwired with Monster M1.4s bi-wire. The room is large and hard (windows, maple floors, drywall, and brick). I'm hard up for more bass. I'm particularly concerened with the fact that so much of the musical stage is convincing and yet the kick drum in so much of my music sounds reticent. The speakers are reputed for "excellent bass extension," and I do not remember this reticence when auditioning other 2Ces in a local dealer. Suggestions for how to evaluate or improve this situation?? Any help is appreciated. >>  First the Adcom is a competent amp but not the most bass robust. Might try looking for a used Bryston 4b for about $1K. For a free fix start by moving them back towards the wall. If still not satisified, try a corner placement. Carefull when moving them back towards the wall, as it will effect the mids and highs. Try moving them around in your room, spikes will help a little. What about cables, while I'm not a cable freak, consider the gauge at least, use a 14 gauge, or better yet a 12, or even better a 10 gauge. The connectors to the wire provide at least as much sound effect as the wire it's self. Start with some reasonably priced multi-strand quality copper. It won't jump out but the sum of the above recommended activities should help. Audio Advisor in Grand Rapids, MI has some good deals from time to time. Last, there is always the subwoofer approach, but I suspect the bass your after is mid-bass, the slam and bam dynamics. If your into it, you can build you own or order a kit and assemble into their box. If not, for a serious low buck air mover with decent "apparent speed" the VMPS are big time air movers that don't screw up the pace and foot tappin feelin. Several of the kit places, Meniscus, Madisound (look on the net) have low buck dedicated amps for subwoofs with variable cross-overs. All rooms are not created equal, larger rooms need bigger air movements, i.e. bigger cones and/or more displacement. Trust me, try moving them around in your room first. Loontoon

<< I recently bought a 7-month old pair of Vandersteen 2Ce speakers and stands. I am running them with an Adcom 545 MKII and GFP555 Pre Amp. They are biwired with Monster M1.4s bi-wire. The room is large and hard (windows, maple floors, drywall, and brick). I'm hard up for more bass. I'm particularly concerened with the fact that so much of the musical stage is convincing and yet the kick drum in so much of my music sounds reticent. The speakers are reputed for "excellent bass extension," and I do not remember this reticence when auditioning other 2Ces in a local dealer. Suggestions for how to evaluate or improve this situation?? Any help is appreciated. >> Excellent speakers ; First thing you need to do is put drapes on your windows , carpeting on the floor ,cover the walls with something to absorb the sound(curtains ,tapestry ,etc) but don`t go overboard .Then try better speaker wires;I think Straightwire Raphsody are a nice match , or even MIT T2 , Synergistic Research or Tara Labs depending on your taste . Then think about upgrading your electronics .You could really get carried away as these are really nice speakers and should keep you happy for a long time !

Load the speakers into a corner-nothing else matters-not the amp, and certainly not the cables. There's a sucker born everyday and high-end cable manufacturers are the snake-oil salesmen of the world. Crunch the numbers and you will see that differences in cable mean absolutely nothing in the audio bandwidth. The longer the run the heavier the gauge-end of story.

i think the problem is that your cd player does not produce clean enough bass output. a frend of mine who has the same speakers as you just added an adcom gda-600 d/a converter and he cannot believe the bass responce. he paid $300 used for it. also use an illuminations d-60 digital cable for best results. it is worth the $150 cost. (1/2 meter through audio advisor mail order.) it is one of stereophile's reference digital cables.(i also use the same d/a and cable with magnepan 3.3's and 2 velodyne f1500r subs.)

I would consider replacing your preamp with a tube unit. A CJ PV-10 might be a consideration. Used they go for about $475. The ADCOM pre is a bit lifeless. If you would consider replacing your amp, the Bryston 4B would also work well. thanks, Brian@HelloHiFi.com ph805.527.9739 fax805.527.9808 www.hellohifi.com eCatalog available. New equipment demo’s by appointment. All quotes are good for 30 days. Customers in every state, & 26 countries (angol/ingles/englisch/beszelunk magyarul!/ hablamos en espanol/wir sprechen deutsch).