Best of both worlds, Vandersteen and B&W


In my mid 30's, living in New Orleans at the time, I purchased my first pair of high fidelity loudspeakers, B&W matrix 802's. I have had a long term love-hate relationship with these speakers. I love thier dynamics and solid base but have always been bothered by a tilt toward the higher frequencys and an upper midrange glare I was unable to banish with ancillary equipment. After much deliberation I recently purchased a pair of Vandersteen 3A signatures. As promised these speakers are smooth and warm, without a hint of midrange glare. With jazz or classical music they sound beautiful and I initially thought I had solved my speaker problem. That is until I queued up rock and roll. The highs and mids still sounded wonderful, but the bass was hugely disappointing. Flaccid, aneimic, distant, without any drive or authority. My wife, who could not care less about high end audio, commented, "they sound a little flat", and "they don't have the same power".

I live in Maine where there is little opportunity to audition equipment. My question is are there any speakers that have both the smooth treble and midrange of Vandersteen and the excellent bass of B&W?

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Showing 2 responses by uncledemp

Hi, is keeping your Vandersteens and adding a sub an option? I've owned the 2ce sig and they didn't offend regarding bass in my room. Maybe you just need a foundation that a sub would give you. I've recently discovered my speakers that play in the 30's benefit from a sub- helped the bottom end as well as soundstage. 

Many swear by the Vandersteen subs for music - although I've not heard them.

From my experience, the positioning of my 2ce sigs changed the balance considerably. Have you done a bit of experimenting with the speaker tilt and positioning in general? (My apologies if you've exhausted this route)

Regards,
gary

I agree, mgreen27. Nothing I found regarding positioning was revolutionary or conflicted with the tilt instructions in the manual. 

However, distance to boundaries and space between speakers had a pretty big impact in my room. 

Good luck,
gary