Subwoofer for classical music listener

Gdnrbob:  Thank you so much for your post and your offer!
I only just emailed the question of whether I can run the signal without a crossover to Vandersteen. The 2Wq's are coming with crossovers of 200 k.
my amplifier's impedance is only 22k.
Can you email me your response to [email protected]. so we can discuss this further.
Again, thank you so much for your kindness.

Another vote for the Vandersteen 2wq sub. I owned one for a couple of years, and bought another. The crossover setup makes this the most seamless sub system I have heard. I have used them with Quad ESL-63 and Snell Type A speakers. These subs are wonderful, and they are subtle. I listen to a good bit of classical, largely piano. Chopin, mostly. These subs do not draw attention to themselves but create the wonderful "feel" of the room acoustic ... that intangible (it's actually nearly tangible!) foundation.

One caveat, and I would love to be educated further on this by the Vandy dealer that posted... once I tried these subs with speakers that had sensitivity of about 91 dB and I could not dial the sub output high enough to keep up with the mains. Therefore, unless I am missing something these subs are the best you can find for mains that are 89dB  or lower sensitivity and completely unusable for 91db sensitivity and higher.

Regarding crossover, I bought the MH-5 outboard passive used in the Vandy 5a and they are transparent and amazing. I bought one used for $600 I think. So if you can find a 2wq used for $600 and an MH-5 for $500 you are close to budget.

actually maybe I bought two MH- crossovers for $600... sorry I can't remember!

Sorry if I am misunderstanding one of your posts, but if you are using the 2wq without a crossover in between the pre and power amp, it poses no danger to anything of course, but you are doubly reproducing a fairly wide range of frequencies from both the subs and the mains, because the subs have a reverse curve of the 1st order crossover that is anticipated to be used. This could mean way too much energy in the 50-100 hz range. But depending on your sub placement, I have no idea what reinforcements or nulls it could create, especially in conjunction with your room. To allow the bass to perform correctly and not have suckouts or boom that obscure the mids, make sure you get one of the Vandy crossovers.

Hopefully above wasn't from the Dept of Obvious...

After much difficulty I finally got to set up my used 2Wq sub only to find that the left channel doesn't work. I followed the directions in the manual exactly in setting up the wx-2 variable crossover, matching it to my amp. I checked all the connections several times for tightness and correctness.
 I even reversed the connectors to to the amp and the left channel still was out!
Both channels work fine without the wx-2 and sub attached.
Prior to getting the sub Richard Vandersteen himself wrote and warned me not to hook it up without the crossover as it would cause damage.  A very generous member of this forum lent me the wx-2 as it wasn't included by the seller.
After many hours of experimentation I still have gotten nowhere.
The seller says it worked fine for him with a fixed crossover.  He is sympathetic and is willing to give me a full refund.  I hate to return it because the one channel that works sounds great. I can only imagine how stereo would sound.
Does anyone have any ideas?