Vandersteen 3A Sig vs. Von Schweikert VR4 Jr.

I think my statement of mushy and boomy was incorrect!! Boomy was mostly my room and the placement of the 3a's I think my saying the bass was mushy was an overstatement of the sound without subs and with subs. I agree with Pubul57 the subs help the sound of the 3a's. It isn't that there is lots more bass there is better defined bass, 3 8" drivers per subs vs 2 10' drivers per speaker. with 300 watts per sub taking some of the load off the amp. When I had 1 sub I removed it and was happy with the 3a's. CBman what amp are you using?

By removing (filetering) low bass from the 3A to the subs, the speakers cabinets of the 3As are exposed to much less internal vibration and this makes the midrange performance of the 3As much better; technically, I think it is a reduction in intermodulation distortion. I found that when the 2wqs were tuned in, you almost could not tell they were on, even if you went right next to the subwoofer; but the whole soundstage and sense of venue opened way up; I suspect that alot of hall or room ambinece from a recording includes a lot of low bass information.

I need to get down on my hands and knees with my ear by the slot in the sub to tell where the bass is coming from. I thought the 3a's sounded opened up and nimble also.

Precisely. It is a hard subwoofer to audition because a musical subwoofer is not impressive in an obvious our loud way; it is about quality and that does not "blow you away"; but the improvements are real and musicall satisfying in the long term. If you are looking for bombastic bass, that's not what the Vandersteen approach is all about.

Cbman what have you decided ?