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
I don't remember your Jamo's, but often manufacturer's will add a mid-bass bump to the output in attempt to fool the listener into believing there is more bass output than is truly there with some of their smaller speakers.
I had the 2ce 's back in the 90's. I don't remember them being bass shy and I had them a ways from corners.

Double check your speaker cable wiring on both the amp and speakers and make sure you have all + to + and - to -. It's easy to make a mistake and bi-wiring makes it even easier.

Also put your ear up to each woofer and verify that you have sound coming out of both. Good luck.
I have a pair of 2CE Signatures. I really, really like the Vandersteen products. I drive mine with a McCormack amp that puts out 185 watts per channel. They do like, and benefit from a decent amount of power, and they are not extremely efficient. My first thought is that the Jamo speakers were more efficient and gave you more output from the NAD receiver, whereas the Vandy's are less efficient, and you get less sound output.....most noticibly on the bottom end. I would not give up on the 2CE speakers. One other thought, have you double checked the speaker cables to make sure they are in phase(+ and - wired the same at amp and speaker terminals)? If out of phase that will tremendously impact the output as well.

Good luck
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.
You need anywhere from 100wpc and up to drive these speakers to their full extent. I have a regular pair of 2ce's in my second system and they are being driven by a Classe 175wpc amp and a tube preamp. I also used a 100wpc amp on the 2ce's as well until I got the bigger amp. The amp should be able to put out quite a bit of amperage as well, somewhere around 45 amps peak to peak and up. Good power will really ame the speakers sing. I inadvertantly damaged the speakers by using a 60wpc integrated amp. It was the clipping of the amp that destroyed one of the speakers crossovers.