Floorstanding loudspeakers — Vandersteen Audio 2Ce Signature III

The Model 2Ce Signature III is the current version of the Vandersteen Model 2, a floorstanding design that the Hanford, California company has kept in production and refined since 1977. It is the eighth iteration of that line and is built in the USA. Vandersteen lists it from USD 6,490 per pair, and that price includes the matching stands.

Key specs that matter

Vandersteen fits four drive units. A 1-inch dual-chamber, transmission-line loaded tweeter with a ceramic-coated alloy dome sits above a 4.5-inch tri-woven composite midrange in a die-cast aerodynamic basket. An 8-inch mineral-filled polycone woofer with a dual-layer voice coil on a ventilated aluminium former handles the bass, and a 10-inch critically damped long-fibre cone called the Active Acoustic Coupler - a passive radiator - extends the bottom end. Its motor pairs a 1.5-inch four-layer voice coil with a ventilated aluminium former. Rated response is 29 Hz to 29 kHz within 3 dB and 32 Hz to 21 kHz within 1.5 dB. Sensitivity is 86 dB at 1 m with a 2.83 V input, and impedance is 7 ohm nominal with a 4 ohm minimum. Each cabinet measures 406 x 1,010 x 260 mm and weighs 27.2 kg net, or about 31.8 kg when boxed.

Engineering and use context

All crossover slopes are first order at 6 dB per octave, with transitions at 80 Hz, 600 Hz and 5 kHz, which follows the brand's approach of keeping every driver aligned in time and phase. The tweeter's dual-chamber rear loading is meant to extend its range and improve linearity, and its damping is intended to stop the ringing often linked with metal domes. Both the woofer and the passive radiator use 1.13 kg focused-gap magnet structures, and the tweeter and midrange use ferrofluid for voice-coil cooling. A narrow baffle limits reflections from the cabinet front. The midrange unit is the same type used in the more expensive Treo CT and Quatro CT, and the crossover was revised for this Signature III version. Cabinets come in wood veneers - black with a charcoal grille, cherry, dark oak, maple or walnut, the last four with black grilles.

Pairing

Vandersteen recommends amplifiers of 40 to 160 W per channel into 8 ohm, so the impedance minimum should be kept in mind when choosing a lower-powered design. Speaker cables connect to barrier strips that accept terminations up to 11 mm wide, which suits spade lugs or bare wire rather than banana plugs.

Alternatives

The Vandersteen Model 3A Signature is the next floorstanding model to consider in the brand's range.