Hi Dwight,
You have a great system, I have owned several Vandersteen set-ups with Vandersteen's older 2w and the current 2wq subwoofers over the past 15 years. I have never owned the v2w unit.
The 2wq is designed to be used with a Vandersteen furnished simple crossover ( 6db roll-off at + or - 80 hz ), this crossover is a simple quality capacitor selected/sized for your amps input impedance value. You could make one yourself.
Do you have the Vandersteen required crossover inserted between your processor and amplifier?, setting your proccessor to full range would be correct setting with the required Vandersteen crossover inserted. You could be overloading the 2wq without this crossover in-line.
Most processors have built-in bass management crossovers and settings, maney of these setting are at 12 db or 18 db rolloffs at various seleted frequencies that may not match the 2wq's factory pre-selected settings.
I had a stereo pair of 2wq's with the 3a sigs and Vandersteen center/rears. I used a proccessors for movies only, set proccessor at full range fronts but used the Vandersteen crossover, when I watch a movie with LARGE effects, I just kicked up the sub output a few db's and when listening to music, set subs back to my preset music levels. Never had a overload issue with the stereo pair.
With the 2wq set-up correctly, it is very seamless, very different from a standard home theater set-up with a subwoofer overpowering everything, the big differences that I notice with my various Vandersteen 2wq installations was a cleaner midrange/vocals. Low frequencies can be tough to get correct in most rooms, when bass is slow, muddy, or set-up to a high output level, it can cloud up the whole frequency range. With the Vandersteen crossover inserted, you can off-load low frequencies from the main speakers and the main amplifier over to the subwoofer, this is a basic bi-amp system set-up.
My thoughts would be to get a second 2wq for your fronts, purchase the Vandersteen Model 5 crossover that has adjustable capacitor settings, and maybe use your single v2w sub for rear channel effects only, hopefully a few Vandersteen pro's will chime in with their thoughts, just do not give up on the 2wq just yet!
Steve
You have a great system, I have owned several Vandersteen set-ups with Vandersteen's older 2w and the current 2wq subwoofers over the past 15 years. I have never owned the v2w unit.
The 2wq is designed to be used with a Vandersteen furnished simple crossover ( 6db roll-off at + or - 80 hz ), this crossover is a simple quality capacitor selected/sized for your amps input impedance value. You could make one yourself.
Do you have the Vandersteen required crossover inserted between your processor and amplifier?, setting your proccessor to full range would be correct setting with the required Vandersteen crossover inserted. You could be overloading the 2wq without this crossover in-line.
Most processors have built-in bass management crossovers and settings, maney of these setting are at 12 db or 18 db rolloffs at various seleted frequencies that may not match the 2wq's factory pre-selected settings.
I had a stereo pair of 2wq's with the 3a sigs and Vandersteen center/rears. I used a proccessors for movies only, set proccessor at full range fronts but used the Vandersteen crossover, when I watch a movie with LARGE effects, I just kicked up the sub output a few db's and when listening to music, set subs back to my preset music levels. Never had a overload issue with the stereo pair.
With the 2wq set-up correctly, it is very seamless, very different from a standard home theater set-up with a subwoofer overpowering everything, the big differences that I notice with my various Vandersteen 2wq installations was a cleaner midrange/vocals. Low frequencies can be tough to get correct in most rooms, when bass is slow, muddy, or set-up to a high output level, it can cloud up the whole frequency range. With the Vandersteen crossover inserted, you can off-load low frequencies from the main speakers and the main amplifier over to the subwoofer, this is a basic bi-amp system set-up.
My thoughts would be to get a second 2wq for your fronts, purchase the Vandersteen Model 5 crossover that has adjustable capacitor settings, and maybe use your single v2w sub for rear channel effects only, hopefully a few Vandersteen pro's will chime in with their thoughts, just do not give up on the 2wq just yet!
Steve