Vandersteen 2

davidballou2022

I bought a pair of used Vandersteen 2 loudspeakers years ago. I believe they are the CE type. The person really abused the speakers and one of the woofers had a burned out voice-coil. I really didn’t like the working Scan-Speak P21WO20-08 polypropylene 8-inch woofer. Vandersteen uses 6 db/octave crossovers and the 8-inch woofer has a rising frequency response beyond the crossover point (500 Hz). In the late 1980’s I worked for Radio Shack and I bought the 8-inch polypropylene woofers they carried, I still have them 30+ years later. I installed the Radio Shacks in place of the Scan-Speaks and the Radio Shacks did not have the energy the Scan-Speaks had although the Scan-Speaks seemed to have too much of that 400-500-600 Hz that I usually like to EQ out when I was using a 1/3 band equalizer. Why did Vandersteen ever put an 8-inch woofer in the cabinet? Vandersteen uses a 10-inch woofer for the very bottom end. I decided to use a Polk 6502 (6 ½ inch woofer). I added an extra magnet to the Polk’s, way more dynamic Polk’s now. So far the Polk’s sound great and the speakers are just sitting in the hole for the 8-inch woofer. I plan on building my 10-inch Dayton Titanic IIs directly under the Vandersteen 2s. I think Vandersteen made a mistake using an 8-inch woofer instead of today’s norm of 6-1/2 inch woofers. The only issue I have is, do I set back the Polk woofer when I install it or do I move the midrange/tweeter assembly forward to try to get the voice-coils aligned between the woofer and the midrange. I am a little worried that if I reposition the mid/tweeter assembly that I might end up with a mess. The only crossover change I plan on doing is using a high quality bypass capacitor (.1 uF) across the tweeter capacitor. The bypass capacitor is totally worth it and I find adds so much to the top end.

Does anyone have a suggestion about setting the woofer back or to move the mid/tweeter assembly forward?
Thanks,
Dave

jbreezy5

I wouldn’t alter a Vandersteen 2.