Vandy 2WQ bottoms out with movies

Hi Dwight,
You have a great system, I have owned several Vandersteen set-ups with Vandersteen's older 2w and the current 2wq subwoofers over the past 15 years. I have never owned the v2w unit.

The 2wq is designed to be used with a Vandersteen furnished simple crossover ( 6db roll-off at + or - 80 hz ), this crossover is a simple quality capacitor selected/sized for your amps input impedance value. You could make one yourself.

Do you have the Vandersteen required crossover inserted between your processor and amplifier?, setting your proccessor to full range would be correct setting with the required Vandersteen crossover inserted. You could be overloading the 2wq without this crossover in-line.

Most processors have built-in bass management crossovers and settings, maney of these setting are at 12 db or 18 db rolloffs at various seleted frequencies that may not match the 2wq's factory pre-selected settings.

I had a stereo pair of 2wq's with the 3a sigs and Vandersteen center/rears. I used a proccessors for movies only, set proccessor at full range fronts but used the Vandersteen crossover, when I watch a movie with LARGE effects, I just kicked up the sub output a few db's and when listening to music, set subs back to my preset music levels. Never had a overload issue with the stereo pair.

With the 2wq set-up correctly, it is very seamless, very different from a standard home theater set-up with a subwoofer overpowering everything, the big differences that I notice with my various Vandersteen 2wq installations was a cleaner midrange/vocals. Low frequencies can be tough to get correct in most rooms, when bass is slow, muddy, or set-up to a high output level, it can cloud up the whole frequency range. With the Vandersteen crossover inserted, you can off-load low frequencies from the main speakers and the main amplifier over to the subwoofer, this is a basic bi-amp system set-up.

My thoughts would be to get a second 2wq for your fronts, purchase the Vandersteen Model 5 crossover that has adjustable capacitor settings, and maybe use your single v2w sub for rear channel effects only, hopefully a few Vandersteen pro's will chime in with their thoughts, just do not give up on the 2wq just yet!
Steve

Thanks for the responses.

Steve, thanks I do love my system. I am baffled with this problem (disapointed actually). I have the temporary crossover in place right now. It is a single ended crossover. I will get the balanced version to use when I decide which crossover I require. Having said that, this shouldnt be the problem.

Do you guys think that the Bryston SP1.7 will send LFE signals to the 3A/2WQ as well as the the LFE sub (V2W) with the main speakers set to "Large"?

I have Bryston balanced interconnents for all of my channels but have used cheap single ended cables for the temporary sub crossover. Once I know which one I need I will replace the it with the balanced version of the crossover.

When I hooked the sub up the as noted above, the levels for the main speakers and the sub were way out and had to be readjusted on the SP1.7. Why?

Right or wrong, I know that many people that are more into music than movies have chosen to use a pair of these 2WQs rather than going with the V2W with no issues.

Again, my suspicion is that when the speakers are set to "large" on the SP1.7 it sends LFE info to them as well even though the processor is set with a LFE sub active?

I used Digital Video essentials to set the levels. When I did so, with the setting as described above, the sub pink noise went to both the V2W (LFE sub) and the 2WQ.

When I use the SP.1.7 pink noise it only appears on the LFE sub.

When I turn up the level for the LFE it appears that not only does the V2W (LFE sub) get louder but so does the 2WQ that is being used with my main speakers.

Dhel, I have actually tried turning down the "Q" with the thought that it should reduce the amount of the bass thus not bottoming out the 2WQ. Problem was still present.

Albert, I hear you on being tempted to crank things up for movies but that isnt my case here (at least not intentionally).

Your help would be appreciated.

I'm not an expert by any means on this, but when you set the speakers on large, aren't you telling the bass management to send low bass to the fronts? So it would seem that your suspicion is correct (which you have confirmed, IMO, when you found that turning the LFE level up, makes the 2WQs sound louder. However, why not ask the folks at Bryston?

Setting the front speakers to "large" sends full-range bass. Many movies with low-frequency effects have them mixed into the fronts as well as (or even instead of) the .1 LFE channel.

I have a full Vandersteen HT setup, and tried using stereo 2WQs at one point. They are great subs for music, but I found the same thing that you did - they tend to bottom out with very intense movie sound effects. I removed them and use the fronts with a processor crossover setting that puts mid-bass into them, but shunts all of the really low stuff to the V2W sub, which handles movie LFE much better than the 2WQs did.

If you really want to keep the 2WQ for music, you might want to set a crossover point in your processor that keeps the really low stuff out of your fronts (assuming your processor has this capability).

So anyone take note, who was involved in the former post recently entitled, "anyone with high end home theater sans the subwoofer"!!!
In this, several people posted that you could indeed have a high end home theater, running your high end speakers(passive no less) full range, and forgo the subwoofer... Yeah, I think not!(talking stricktly of passiver towers)
There are easily some subwoofers, like above mentioned out there that can't even handle the most demanding bass info, let alone an inefficient set of full range speakers, running passively, full range!!
I've been hearing full range speakers bottom out on dd/dts material for years this way. So when someone say's their active powered subs are bottoming out on heavy bass tracks, I laugh to my self thinking about those that swear their full range audiophile speakers are just fine for doing a high end ht system on their own. Huh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sound like you need a more ample sub(s)???