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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

Showing 3 responses by zd542

zd542
5,339 posts
 
I know your speakers fairly well. I know this is a fairly basic recommendation but I would check that you have all of your cables connected properly. If you make a mistake hooking them up, your lack of bass can definitely be a result. Assuming you made no mistake, Islandmandan's advice about trying different placements is definitely a good idea. My best guess, though, is that your NAD may not be able to give the Vandersteen's what they need in terms of power. I don't find them too difficult to drive but they do like a little power.

The one thing I can tell you for sure, is that Vandersteen's do have excellent bass. Unless your speakers are damaged in some way, the problem is not likely to be with your speakers. I think it would be a good idea to go try a few thing mentioned in the posts and see if anything helps. Also, if you didn't use the directions that came with the speakers on how to set them up, you really need to do that. You need to use the formula they give you so you know how much back tilt you will need.

I have a lot of experience setting up Vandersteens. Post back with an update. If the problem remains, maybe we can try some other things, as well. Once you get them working properly, you will be very happy you bought them.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Its great to see that you got the speakers working. I have a question, though. What did you actually do to fix the problem. You say that you measured your room. Given that, I have to assume that it was a placement issue.
zd542
5,339 posts
 
Its an impedance issue. Even though you have 2 sets of speaker cables going to the same speaker, they still have to be connected properly to work. The circuit that is completed when both sets of cables are used in a biwire config. are not the same in terms of resistance. In your stereo, resistance is tied with frequency. The higher the note, the higher the resistance. The crossover in the speaker only allows for certain frequencies to pass (High and Low, in your case). The set of speaker cables that go to your highs shows a higher level of resistance than the set that goes to the lows.

Simply put: Be more careful when you hook up your speakers.
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