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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
stereo5's avatar
stereo5
6,272 posts
 
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.
philjolet's avatar
philjolet
2,306 posts
 
I have found sound balance to be a fickle thing, a new IC here, better speaker stands there, you get the idea.

I was going to suggest you bi wire them but you already have

Those speaker have plenty of bass, I have heard them in a few different systems with tubes and solid state both rocked out.

have you tried moving them even further out into the room?

good luck
biffrythm OP
42 posts
 
Great advice. I havent done anything with the tilt as the stands were alreadt attached. I like them better about 3 and half feet from the rear wall. I don't really know what more power will do since I'm only using about 20 to 25 percent of the volume control as it is. They're plenty loud. It may just be a mid-base hump that I'm used to. I'll look at setting the tilt and see if that helps. I really like everything about them except the amount of low end.
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Vandersteen speakers are sensitive to amplifiers especially in the bass department. It's not so much the amount of power as it is the quality of the power. The best bass I ever heard from Vandersteens was from a high quality 60 watt solid state power amp. Maybe your NAD isn't up to the task.
polyglot
77 posts
 
Indeed, use a test CD/tracks to check if the wiring is correct.

Jamo E855 with their dual active woofers / speaker (is it bass reflex?) should have more emphasis on bass vs the Vandersteen 2Ce (one active / one passive).

I still use a pair of Vandy 2Ce in my study and the bass is more than adequate despite their dismal positioning -half hidden away between bookshelves - driven by just a 8W tube amp.
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