vandersteen 2ce sig ii listening distance and tilt

Hey Steve

Did you ever do the laser tilt?
Most floors are never level.
After you have read the Vandersteen manual and are in the zone,
Use a bubble level confirm the speakers are level side to side,take a laser pen aim it on the wall behind listening chair area. Get a black sharpie pen with a post it note, draw a circle on the target O where the laser lands post it note stuck to wall.
Next do the same for the other speaker and make sure both speakers have the same bulls eye tilt landing on the O bulls eye?
Sit and listen,then slouch down in your chair,then listen sitting on a pillow.
One of the 3 positions will have magic.
Then adjust the final tilt to where your normal seating position is and make sure you confirm both speakers are in the new final bulls-eye.
Please let us know when you find it.
Cheers JohnnyR

I forgot to mention, that if the speakers are new, then you probably need to let them break in, and the contour controls should be set to flat.

I based my set-up on Charles Hansen's recommendation for the 3A Sigs: http://db.audioasylum.com/mhtml/m.html?forum=speakers&n=136275&highlight=88&search_url=

I think I'm within an inch or two of his measurements and using the same amount of tilt.

thanks for more responses!

1. my 2 seat couch is leather and has a headrest, it reclines a bit, but not enough to be inches lower ear height. i throw a couple of bath towels or blanket over it so the head rest is as dead and low as possible, my ears are definitely clear of it.

2. i'll have to play with width between the speakers, i got them out at 9' because to me, it seems like everything gets bigger.

3. i've got an awkward room, i won't get into that except to say that i'm room depth / 7 (or 3ft) from back wall and seating position is 3ft from wall behind me. so i'll play around with all that too.

4. another thought i had was perhaps blocks to raise them up 6" more over the standard stands they came with. or some other method of raising them.

thanks for everyone's input. good to be amoung like-minded people. sheesh some of these main stream forums, people just have different goals for their music enjoyment :)

i think i'm in a "final" tweak stage. i left the speakers 9ft apart, i remeasured my equilateral triangle and found i was sitting back too far from the tip of the triangle by about 12ish". so i fixed that. before fixing that, ears were only 32ish" from the back wall, now ears are 43ish" from back wall. my tilt is still at 3", which i will change again tomorrow to 3.5" and even try 3.75" and 4" (if i can get that).

as it stands now though, i am closer to that "texture" i described earlier, quite a bit closer. the sound is still smooth. the vocals (N.J.) "bloom" a bit but, before it was a little over powering in the "bloom", now it is not.

one thing RV said to me in an email was to watch out for room enhancing the bass/midbass freq. and that they certainly can account for the lack of detail i had early on.

oh, i repositioned the speakers according to the 5th rule also, so they are 36" out from the wall behind them. so with that plus me moving my head further into the room (even though it's 12" or so), i've put myself into a great spot. i think i'm definitely getting that magic or as close as i've been for the 1 year they've been in this room. like i said, just adding a little more tilt will be my final tweak i think then. not going to worry about raising them.

the sound is solid, i think there's some bass notes that are heavy, but upper bass and vocal ranges and highs are more important to me. the sound is open, there is air, more detail than before, the center image is still rock solid despite being so far apart, and it's all still smooth. oh, i have about 1/2" of toe-in. loving them again :)

next up is new cables from dac to integrated amp. you guys might think me odd, but i'm still using the dac magic+ with a pc as the source, it's good enough for now, and i also have a krell s300i. speaker wires are kimber kable 12tc and i'm looking at hero balanced next.