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Not Thrilled with Vandersteen 2CE Sigs - where is the first place to work on?

Trying to build up the system this year, bought some Vandy 2CE Sigs.  Have the anchors, following instructions for placement, built bass traps and a couple of acoustic panels in my medium-sized but odd-shaped basement listening area - still not thrilled.  Using laptop with Tidal and Dragonfly Red - and some stuff sounds GREAT (Steely Dan, SRV, Beck, Dire Straits, Wilco) - but disappointed in a lot of other stuff.  Some objective opinions on where my issues might lie?  Expectations too high? Hearing the truth of production variations?  Running an NAD C272 at 150WPC and an original 1979 APT Holman Pre Amp.  Not MAC, Bryston, etc - but was expecting more.  Thoughts? Rebuild/recap the APT?  Amp upgrade?  Where might the low-hanging fruit be?
gjinwi
gosta's avatar
gosta
839 posts
 
You've just experienced that high-profile recordings like Steely Dan etc may not be the best to evaluate systems/speakers while they are made to sound good on anything and are actually an easy load.
rushfan71
291 posts
 
I would eliminate the laptop and the dragonfly first. 

Steely Dan, Dire Straits, ect recordings will always sound better than a lot of other recordings.
jnorris2005
185 posts
 
Although probably not the main culprit, the Dragonfly Red is a singularly uninspiring DAC.  It's missing low and high frequency extension as well as dynamics and punch.  I replaced it with a very old PeachTree DAC-IT (the original version) and heard an immediate improvement. 
turnbowm
353 posts
 
Had a pair of 2CEs that worked well in a medium-sized room but not so good in a small room. As others have said, they need room to breathe. The listening position also needs to be 9-10 feet away (min.) for a proper blend of the drivers.
kykat
40 posts
 
I had 2ce with McCormack 0.5 amp and tube preamp. Did the setup according to the Vandersteen manual and talked with John Rutan (thanks John!). Ultimately, to me they were more veiled on the top end than I cared for. Sold them extremely cheaply to help out a young audiophile friend just out of college and he loves them to this day.

I would recommend you take tomic601 up on his offer and pm him. He seems very knowledgeable and a great guy also. 
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