Vandersteen 2W frustration


I have been using a 2W sw for 2 years now. I do enjoy it and can see its potential and good qualities, such as its agility and general musicality. It kind of does its job but it looks to me that it is working like a woofer not a subwoofer.

And, considering it has 3 8" woofers, it does not move air. I do not know for certain if it is going doing where it should go in its frequency response. It is being implemented with a pair of Reference 3A MM de Capos which supposedly go down to 42 hz, and connected to a First Watt F4 stereo amplifier. The high pass filter is set at 72 hz with a pair of Mundorf caps. The subwoofer is fairly dated from 1992 at least and it is being on long term loan from a friend. Opened the amplifier module to check on the capacitors and they seem OK, not bloated, etc.

So is this supposed to work like what I described, or maybe the amp module should be checked. I wonder if the 2WQ model does a better job
In the moving air department. Any ideas ..... welcome.
manolo

Showing 1 response by swampwalker

IIRC, the gain control is rotary. If so, try using contact cleaner or failing that, rotate it back and forth over its entire range very rapidly 10 or so times, then recheck the output. It may be as simple as corroded or dirty contacts after all this time.