Second Vandersteen 2w?

[steverm]

What will I gain from adding a 2nd 2w. I am looking for a little more volumn in my large room.

 

[Dan]

I have two 2Wqs. I started with one and added the second when I could afford it about nine months later. I find that the room is more evenly filled with bass. When there was one sub an area to the side of the center prime position had a noticable peak in bass confirmed by spl measurements with test tones. This evened out well with two subs and some gentle room eq. I also found the stereo image for bass and drums improved with two subs.

Regarding movies and explosions I didn't appreciate a huge bump in volume but that's not what I got them for. I set the q relatively tight at about 0.7. There is plenty of boom when I want it.

What's the rest of your gear?

 

[steverm]

I have ADS L1290 speakers an Outlaw 950 pre/pro and an earthquake amp. I am curious, how did you do the room equalization? My sub is old enough not to have the q adjustment.

 

[Dan]

The room eq is built into my processor. It produces test tones every 2 Hz between 20 and 300 Hz. A SPL meter from radio shack measures the room acoustics. Most newer prepros have this function. You can also buy CDs which contain test tones.

The 2w is an older model. It is upgradable both to the 2Wq and the V2w for between $480 and 640 depending upon the serial number. See the Vandersteen website.

 

[av_phile]

If you have a relatively big room, a second sub will produce a more uniform bass dispersion. I think 4 subs around the room will do a better job at making the bass more uniform anywhere in a large room. That, however, is not the same as saying more subs will produce a flatter bass response.

 

[Dan]

AV Phile-

What you say is true. My second sub fills the valleys in the room well. It makes the peak spot less noticeable that way. I did not mean to imply otherwise. Flat frequency response is a function of the sub itself as well as positioning. Obvious reverberation or resonance from items in the room should be minimized prior to doing any room eq. Vandersteens especially when the adjustable q is set low 0.7 - 0.5 are very flat well into the subsonic range.