I currently have the older Ensemble with 2 satellites and 2 8" woofers, the larger CenterStage center and dipole/bipole surrounds. I have been considering several different sets to upgrade hoping for a better more complete sound. I value most of the opinions here and I am curious what many of you would think. I want to know what kind of improvement you believe I would get by going with a new set.

SVS STS system
Ascend 340's or Sierra's
Aperion
etc etc

Thanks for the input and ideas.

I currently have the older Ensemble with 2 satellites and 2 8" woofers, the larger CenterStage center and dipole/bipole surrounds. I have been considering several different sets to upgrade hoping for a better more complete sound. I value most of the opinions here and I am curious what many of you would think. I want to know what kind of improvement you believe I would get by going with a new set.

My six [20 year old] Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiance speakers are still doing great work as centers and surrounds, so I would expect your Ensemble could be in good shape too.

You don't say exactly what bothers you about your current system. The only really obvious deficit is the omission of a real subwoofer; I'd suggest you try one and then see if you still think the system sounds 'incomplete'. The next option would be a subwoofer plus replacement mains [your CenterStage had a good reputation so it's possible you might still hang on to it...]

[Even if you replace the mains, don't discard the Ensemble; it could make a respectable enough surround pair - together with your existing dipole/bipole pair - to extend your system from 5.1 to 7.1 at some future date.]

I would just get the sub, the speakers are excelent

I have a seperate subwoofer and definitely plan to upgrade that. All these new ones seem incredible. I have a Boston Acoustics 12 inch sub. It is very compact and plays pretty well.

I guess I would say that the center certainly stresses above -20 or so on my yamaha 7 x 90 watts. The left and rights seem to be missing some mid bass. the surrounds are allright. I know part of it is upgraditis, but another part is the holes in the frequency response (seemingly of course) and the volume level. Maybe the receiver is limiting me more?

Hello, everyone.

We've had the four-piece Cambridge SoundWorks Original Ensemble since 1991, and it now functions as the two-channel speaker system for our living room television. The flat-panel TV speakers in our Sony TV were unremarkable, so we added a Sony receiver to which we connected the Ensemble. The Ensemble speakers provide exceptional TV audio. Even though the Ensemble is eighteen years old, like gold they hold their value. So we will keep them as long as we can.

We really like Cambridge SoundWorks speakers! In the lower level of our home, our Panasonic TC-P65S1 is centered with an LCR array of Cambridge SoundWorks MC300IW in-wall speakers along with four S300 surrounds. A P1000 subwoofer supplements bass. For music, TV, and film these speakers present a vivid soundscape.

Of course, for considerably more money, there are speakers that will outperform these CSW products. Like many others on these forums, I feel the pressure to upgrade, and I succumb to it from time to time. Be that as it may, the original Ensemble and its in-wall cousins offer a reasonable facsimile of live music performance and impressive enhancement of film viewing.