Vandersteen 2wq with two way monitors

I have tried it with a couple of speakers with limited bass like Spica TC50's and LS3/5a's. It never sounded right. The 2WQ works best with a more full range speaker.

In the Vandersteen website, it is suggested when the wall-mounted VSM(-3db @ 60Hz) is used for left and right main or surround speakers that it be mated with a 2WQ but with the crossover set 2 below the input impedance rather than the customary 1. So it can work with smaller speakers. However, the 2W was originally designed to be used with full range speakers with response -3db @ 40Hz.

Jimburger, where are you getting this info about using the "customary 1" setting below input impedance? I just wonder how this sort of folk lore gets started. I see now how it gets spread around and then is accepted as truth if it gets repeated enough times. Use the setting that sounds best. There is no "customary" setting. It is most likley that if your speakers are for the most part full range and roughly the same sensitivity of Vandersteen 2's or 3's the the setting that is the same as you input impedance will offer the least colored sound.

Maxgain. Forgive me for oversimplifying. You are correct that the published input impedances of power amplifiers are imprecise and the proper setting of the subwoofer crossover is ultimately determined by experimentation. I was referring to a starting point for experimentaion that I thought I read in the owner's manual. I may have read it someplace else or perhaps even misread it. The main point I was trying to make is that the setting for the VSM would be different because its -3db point in the bass range is not the desired 1 octave below the internal 80 hz low pass crossover of the 2WQ. And although the setting would be different than that for a full-range speaker it would still work with it. Vandersteen does suggest in the owner's manual that an "ultimate" home theatre could use 2WQ's crossed over to VSM's for the rear channels.

Maxgain. I'll tell you where I got the folk lore. Straight from the Vandersteen 2WQ owner's manual. So I guess Richard Vandersteen is the guilty party in spreading such tall tales.

From page 3 of the 2Wq manual:
"Using the chart on the bottom of the WX-2, locate the value one setting below the actual input impedance of your main amplifier.(For example, if your amplifier had an input impedance of 100k, you would select the 50k value.)

Also in the 2WQ owners manual(page 5):
(When 2Wqs are used with Vandersteen VSM surround speakers, the crossover should be set two settings below the surround amplifier's input impedance. This will avoid interaction with the VSM series speaker's integral high-pass filter.)