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Vandersteen 5

Hi over the weekend I purchased a set up Vandertseen 5's and a McCormack DNA 225. I have a few questions about the 5's and was hoping someone here could help me. I can't seem to get the bass on either speaker on the 5's to work. The mids and the high's sound great.

1.) I've connected the M5-HP high pass filters between my preamp (a rotel RSX-1550) using RCA to XLR cable (the high-pass is XLR) and XLR to the McCormack amp (which was upgraded to platinum and has both XLR and RCA inputs). Is the lack of bass because I'm using a cable to convert RCA to XLR to connect to the M5-HP high pass filters ? I've looked on the vandersteen site and saw opposing answers from Richard. If not that what else could be wrong with the subs? 

2.) would anyone here want to trade a my XLR M5-HP high pass filters for an RCA one? I'm in the bay area

3.) The speakers were missing the spikes. Does anyone the size. I'd like to order a generic set as vandersteen wants 22 per spike. 

4.) Anything else I should know? My prior speskers were 2CE sigs so I jumped when I saw the 5's for sale. 
128x128mzwerner
gdnrbob
4,417 posts
 
The guy who sold you the equipment gave you some nice stuff.
I say try both cables and see which one you like. And, give things time to settle in before making upgrades.-You won't be able to tell what makes a difference until you know what your system sounds like.
Re: the Rotel,
I have no idea what a home theater amp does or doesn't do, as I am a 2 channel guy. I can only say give it a try and see what you think.
B
kmckenn
36 posts
 
@mzwerner - I have some Vandy(2C), Rotel(1055), Multi-Channel experience.

Your 5's will give you all the low-frequency (sub) response needed (Subs as none is correct) Just set them (as you have them) as "large". The "large" setting sends all frequency to the speaker(s), "small" trims off lower frequencies with a cross-over (if I remember correctly, 100K and below). As for your 2ce's set as "small", that is a matter of choice on whether you want full/low-frequency signal sent to those speakers, they obviously would handle them fine, they are full-range speakers, it's more of a matter of if you as the listener want the bass coming from the surrounds or not.

And if I recall the LFE setting, that is a (Rotel) setting to either filter out those super low frequencies that can drive same building neighbor crazy.

My Rotel expired and I replaced it with a Marantz 7702MKII (multi-channel Pre-Amp only. I have an old Adcom 535-2 (2 535's in one box) driving Vandy 1B Surrounds, and I can't remember the not great brand of high rear surrounds I have.
mzwerner's avatar
mzwerner OP
21 posts
 
@kmckenn 
I think  I've got the 5's dialed down, but I'm not sure it it's planing the LFE signals. I think I need to keep playing with the settings.

I'll set the 2Ce's as large and see how they sound. I'm only planning on using surround for movies anyway. 

I guess at worse case I could keep one of my subs and set the crossovers to 40hz?


mzwerner's avatar
mzwerner OP
21 posts
 
I think I've got everything up and running to a decent degree now. I've got the LFE set up for home theater and it sounds great. V5 and rear 2Cesigs set to larger no subs (currenlty trying to sell them). 

When I play music on two channel the V5 - 225 combo sounds amazing. 

I still need to send the crossovers in for the battery change, they're about 1 year overdue. She sounds amazing now. I'm curious to see what the fresh batteries do. 

Does anyone know how to properly adjust the 11 band equalizer on the back?
    1.) Do I buy a sound meter? 
    2.) Is it better if I just set the screws to neutral and call it a day?
    3.) Leave at whatever setting its at now?
    

Would the V5 subs benefit from fancy audio power cables or are standard cables fine? I bought them with fancy cables which don't fit the V5 plugs (Anticable 3), which didn't fir the plugs so I've been using standard cables, and may try and sell the fancy ones. 

tomic601's avatar
tomic601
12,865 posts
 
mz.     

yes buy a meter as called out in the manual, the analog Radio Shack
Ebay from a seller w good feedback is normally the best source. The Vandertones are compensated for this particular meters foibles and positive attributes. About $40 seems to be street value for good condition functional meter.

a small camera tripod to keep meter at listening position also good, but I recommend an assistant also.

before you get all that together by all you can certainly set all the screws to neutral, they are not marked and there is more cut than boost intentionally which you will discover by rotating the potentiometers- a jewlers screwdriver works but you might try to get the yellow tool that comes w steens...Jaclyn in parts will know... I am away from my 7 or I would get you p/n but it’s not an exotic thing..partsexpress will have them


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