tips for Vandersteen 3A sig

You could hardly do better than to add one (ideally two) of the Vandersteen 2WQ subwoofers to your system; perfectly matched, phase coherent full range sound, and the functional equivalent of the Vandersteen Model 5, for thousands less. You will get cleaner, faster, deeper sound, and minimize room problems and standing waves in the bass at the same time. These are crossed over at 80 hz, and when the main speakers no longer have to reproduce below 80hz, that's where you get cleaner and faster, with an amazing ease to the sound, and lowered distortion overall. The increase in dynamic range will be very very satisfying as well. IMO, there is nothing else that you can do that will improve a system so much as adding a good sub, and Vandersteen makes one of the best for music. If you want a fatter base for HT, you can adjust the "q" of the subwoofer to taste; you just can't lose with the 2Wq. Good luck

Gasman; even though I didn't start this thread, your post was of great interest to me because I have 3As but no subs, and have actually been considering Vand. 5s. But you make the 3As with subs sound very attractive, ie another option. Thanks. Craig

Thanks Garfish and Gasman. Actually, I had a chance to talk to Richard Vandersteen. He says having 3A sig + 2w's would be 70-80% performance of Vand 5. Reason: Vand 5 is much more "inert" Looking at the sub option...you also have to buy quality wires and cross over. This would cost over $3000.00. Now I am really confused, should I do the subs, or save a little longer to move to Vand 5's ? That is the question.

When I had 3aSigs, I found the following made significant differences:

1) Using a McCormack DNA amp with them really brought out their way powerful bass & helped alleviate some of the slowness.

2) Using biwire speaker cables made a big difference.

3) Following the setup instructions to a T. Use the room mode calculations provided & the forward/rear tip-in charts for listening heights. It seems all vandersteens are sensitive to proper setup/tweeking.

Flying:
If you are just using your 3A's in a music setup, try to find (2) used 2W's instead of the 2WQ. They can generally be found used in the $500-$650 range. This eliminates only the adjustable Q feature which according to my conversations with Richard is not necessary in a strictly music system. It is not necessary to use the same wires to connect the subs as you use with the 3A's. I have tried several that I had lying around as well as standard HT installation Monster 16-4 and Soundking 12ga. I found no significant difference with the wires including the ones Richard includes with the subs. Once you determine which crossover is appropriate for your amp you are only talking $125 new. Many of the popular values e.g. 100 ohm are readily available used from other users who have changed amps. This makes the sub option come in at less than $1500 and for me this made a great improvement with the 3A's