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Was just looking online at Cerwin Vega speakers. Are they any good? Does anyone out there have newer CV speakers? My uncle has 4 small floor standing CV speakers from back in the day and they sound pretty good.
Are Cerwin Vega speakers any good???
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They're generally regarded as speakers that play LOUD but are not very refined (ie good party speakers). However, there was a rave review of the CLS-215 at Soundstage:
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/c...ega_cls215.htm
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/c...ega_cls215.htm
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I have an older "E" series set. I'm happy with them. 2 15" mains, a center & 2 surrounds.
I come from a pro sound environment & for home use I'm used to loud.
Music & movies sound GREAT to me.
I come from a pro sound environment & for home use I'm used to loud.
Music & movies sound GREAT to me.
A friend of mine run's full size CVs front, center, and rear in his home cinema. Very good performance considering the money invested. Note the models he uses are 5-8 year old (E series I believe - same as poster above me), no idea what the new range is like.
I used Cerwin AT-10s as my main front speakers for almost 15 years. Bought them when their main purpose was to shake the house with Metallica and Led Zeppelin. They are tanks. As others have said they are not as "refined" as some other brands but they can certainly handle punishing volumes.
They were a happy part of my HT configuration until a few weeks ago, when I bought some new gear and sold them to a lucky friend. At least I can still go over there to visit
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They were a happy part of my HT configuration until a few weeks ago, when I bought some new gear and sold them to a lucky friend. At least I can still go over there to visit
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I have a pair of CLS-215's for stereo music listening. I really like them. They do need to be set up properly to get them to sound there best. I also have a 7.1 theater that has CLS-6 mains and center, four CLS15s subs and VE-5M's for surrounds. It sounds good. I also have a 2.1 system in my second bedroom that has a pair of CV V-5M's and a CLS15s sub. It's sounds pretty impressive being in a 12x12 bedroom.
I have a pair of CLS-215's for stereo music listening. I really like them. They do need to be set up properly to get them to sound there best. I also have a 7.1 theater that has CLS-6 mains and center, four CLS15s subs and VE-5M's for surrounds. It sounds good. I also have a 2.1 system in my second bedroom that has a pair of CV V-5M's and a CLS15s sub. It's sounds pretty impressive being in a 12x12 bedroom.
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It depends on what Vegas you are looking at. Most people unfairly judge them by constanly comparing 15+ year old models to many of today's current offerings from today's manufacturers. The other common notion of these speakers come from generic "when I was in college back in the 70's" views of these speakers when they catered towards college dorms and frat houses. But like most of America Cerwin Vega has grown up over time. Most of their new model speakers still excel in the mid bass dept. however they have really cleaned up the mids and highs of their current speaker lines.
But somehow the latter of what I said always gets lost in translation and people merely judge based on what was rather than having an open mind to what IS available from this company in today's marketplace. If you're a guy with a bottomless budget then don't look for miracles from a company who is not meant for your target market. However if you are someone on a budget of 1 grand and below for speakers Cerwin Vega has some very good offerings that offer a lot of value for the dollar at this time.
It depends on what Vegas you are looking at. Most people unfairly judge them by constanly comparing 15+ year old models to many of today's current offerings from today's manufacturers. The other common notion of these speakers come from generic "when I was in college back in the 70's" views of these speakers when they catered towards college dorms and frat houses. But like most of America Cerwin Vega has grown up over time. Most of their new model speakers still excel in the mid bass dept. however they have really cleaned up the mids and highs of their current speaker lines.
But somehow the latter of what I said always gets lost in translation and people merely judge based on what was rather than having an open mind to what IS available from this company in today's marketplace. If you're a guy with a bottomless budget then don't look for miracles from a company who is not meant for your target market. However if you are someone on a budget of 1 grand and below for speakers Cerwin Vega has some very good offerings that offer a lot of value for the dollar at this time.
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I agree 100%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
I agree 100%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Revel M22 & C32, JBL P520WS, Revel W563 & Infinity ERS 110II, SVS SB-2000 (x2), Anthem MRX 720
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I also agree. Another way to frame this discussion is to recognize that CV is known for choosing efficiency over accuracy. IMO, this was more defensible when watts were more expensive than they are today, but it still a reasonable design priority. If you look at SoundStage's measurements of the CLS-215, I think you'll find a very efficient speaker with some not so unpleasant colorations.
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I would much rather populate my theater with Cerwin Vegas than some little, froo-froo, 85 dB sensitivity weak sauce *audiophile* bookshelf speakers that couldn't reproduce the sound of a mouse fart at a realistic volume level.
Not that I have an opinion.
Not that I have an opinion.
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LOVE it
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LOVE it
Well I've owned Cerwin Vega for around 16 years. The last five years I noticed I had stopped listening to music through my loudspeakers all together but was constantly listening to music through my headphones as they had much better clarity and fine detail. Brought home a little set of B&W towers for an in home demo one day on a whim and was taken by surprise by what a little speaker from a higher end brand could do with clarity and detail and still play fairly loud.
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The Vegas factory specs where a 3-way with large 15" woofers @ 102dB 1w/1m, 400watt RMS, and 28Hz to 28,000Hz +/- 3dB and the B&Ws where only a 2½-way with only 6.5 in woofers, a 90dB sensitivity rating, 150watt power handling, and 44Hz - 22kHz +/-3dB so I wasn't expecting much. But there was so comparison for the raw sound quality performance. I still remember the very first song I played had a bird chirping in the beginning and the B&Ws was just so much more clearer, detailed, and airy with a more 3D-like soundstage and got me closer to the fine detail and clarity I was hearing from headphones. They got me listening to music again through loudspeakers.
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Someone else in the B&W thread had the same experience as me with larger higher spec'd Vegas vs smaller lower spec'd B&Ws with how impressed they smoked the Vegas with sound quality.
![]()
And they can still play loud enough to drown out your own voice...
The Vegas factory specs where a 3-way with large 15" woofers @ 102dB 1w/1m, 400watt RMS, and 28Hz to 28,000Hz +/- 3dB and the B&Ws where only a 2½-way with only 6.5 in woofers, a 90dB sensitivity rating, 150watt power handling, and 44Hz - 22kHz +/-3dB so I wasn't expecting much. But there was so comparison for the raw sound quality performance. I still remember the very first song I played had a bird chirping in the beginning and the B&Ws was just so much more clearer, detailed, and airy with a more 3D-like soundstage and got me closer to the fine detail and clarity I was hearing from headphones. They got me listening to music again through loudspeakers.
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Like I said before. It's always the same generic story of a guy comparing modern day high end speakers to 15-20 year old Cerwin Vega speakers. It's about as useful as comparing a new 47" Samsung LED tv to an 20 year old 61" RCA projection tv and declaring that though the Samsung is smaller it still smokes the RCA in overall quality. A high end offering with today's technological advances catered towards those with much bigger budgets beats a budget priced offering from 20 years ago. Brilliant.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emig5m /forum/post/18194957
Well I've owned Cerwin Vega for around 16 years. The last five years I noticed I had stopped listening to music through my loudspeakers all together but was constantly listening to music through my headphones as they had much better clarity and fine detail. Brought home a little set of B&W towers for an in home demo one day on a whim and was taken by surprise by what a little speaker from a higher end brand could do with clarity and detail and still play fairly loud.
![]()
The Vegas factory specs where a 3-way with large 15" woofers @ 102dB 1w/1m, 400watt RMS, and 28Hz to 28,000Hz +/- 3dB and the B&Ws where only a 2½-way with only 6.5 in woofers, a 90dB sensitivity rating, 150watt power handling, and 44Hz - 22kHz +/-3dB so I wasn't expecting much. But there was so comparison for the raw sound quality performance. I still remember the very first song I played had a bird chirping in the beginning and the B&Ws was just so much more clearer, detailed, and airy with a more 3D-like soundstage and got me closer to the fine detail and clarity I was hearing from headphones. They got me listening to music again through loudspeakers.Someone else in the B&W thread had the same experience as me with larger higher spec'd Vegas vs smaller lower spec'd B&Ws with how impressed they smoked the Vegas with sound quality.![]()
And they can still play loud enough to drown out your own voice...![]()
Like I said before. It's always the same generic story of a guy comparing modern day high end speakers to 15-20 year old Cerwin Vega speakers. It's about as useful as comparing a new 47" Samsung LED tv to an 20 year old 61" RCA projection tv and declaring that though the Samsung is smaller it still smokes the RCA in overall quality. A high end offering with today's technological advances catered towards those with much bigger budgets beats a budget priced offering from 20 years ago. Brilliant.
You might want to check on this. I have never seen CV list a +/- response of their speakers. They just list it as a response to 28hz. Heck an 8" sealed sub can have a response listed down to 10hz as long as the cone has some movement at all. From what I am able to find, it looks like they are 150 watt RMS with 400 watt peaks. It would be nice if CV would give specs like most every other manufacturer.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emig5m /forum/post/18194957
Well I've owned Cerwin Vega for around 16 years. The last five years I noticed I had stopped listening to music through my loudspeakers all together but was constantly listening to music through my headphones as they had much better clarity and fine detail. Brought home a little set of B&W towers for an in home demo one day on a whim and was taken by surprise by what a little speaker from a higher end brand could do with clarity and detail and still play fairly loud.
![]()
The Vegas factory specs where a 3-way with large 15" woofers @ 102dB 1w/1m, 400watt RMS, and 28Hz to 28,000Hz +/- 3dB and the B&Ws where only a 2½-way with only 6.5 in woofers, a 90dB sensitivity rating, 150watt power handling, and 44Hz - 22kHz +/-3dB so I wasn't expecting much. But there was so comparison for the raw sound quality performance. I still remember the very first song I played had a bird chirping in the beginning and the B&Ws was just so much more clearer, detailed, and airy with a more 3D-like soundstage and got me closer to the fine detail and clarity I was hearing from headphones. They got me listening to music again through loudspeakers.Someone else in the B&W thread had the same experience as me with larger higher spec'd Vegas vs smaller lower spec'd B&Ws with how impressed they smoked the Vegas with sound quality.![]()
And they can still play loud enough to drown out your own voice...![]()
You might want to check on this. I have never seen CV list a +/- response of their speakers. They just list it as a response to 28hz. Heck an 8" sealed sub can have a response listed down to 10hz as long as the cone has some movement at all. From what I am able to find, it looks like they are 150 watt RMS with 400 watt peaks. It would be nice if CV would give specs like most every other manufacturer.
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No, it's not the same old generic story. Display technology has changed markedly in the last 20 years; speaker technology has not. A good set of speakers 20 years ago is a good set today. While those B&W's may be higher end (so to speak) than the CV's, the man is of the opinion that he likes them better, and he has every right to state it. It wasn't as if he was comparing brand new Paradigm Sigs to 20 yr old Kraco car audio speakers.
We all understand you like CV's, I like CV's, but there is no need to posture every time an opinion is posted about them that you disagree with.
No, it's not the same old generic story. Display technology has changed markedly in the last 20 years; speaker technology has not. A good set of speakers 20 years ago is a good set today. While those B&W's may be higher end (so to speak) than the CV's, the man is of the opinion that he likes them better, and he has every right to state it. It wasn't as if he was comparing brand new Paradigm Sigs to 20 yr old Kraco car audio speakers.
We all understand you like CV's, I like CV's, but there is no need to posture every time an opinion is posted about them that you disagree with.
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2,327 Posts
Thanks for the information, but none of it really does answer the OP's question. He wanted to get information on newer Cerwin Vega speakers. He NEVER asked for a comparison test of OLD CV speakers against other brands. Here we go again. Some things never change around here. If you don't have any experience with the newer stuff, then why post? Forget about the older stuff at beer parties. Auditioning a speakers sound quality at a drunk fest and then expecting everyone to believe that is a fair test is not really fair. Those poor speakers where most likely having the S--T beat out of them at high volumes while being powered by some crappy receiver. Almost anything is going to sound bad while being played like that. Come on. Things have changed with Cerwin Vega a little since then. Im not saying you posted about beer party tests. I want to make that clear.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emig5m /forum/post/18194957
Well I've owned Cerwin Vega for around 16 years. The last five years I noticed I had stopped listening to music through my loudspeakers all together but was constantly listening to music through my headphones as they had much better clarity and fine detail. Brought home a little set of B&W towers for an in home demo one day on a whim and was taken by surprise by what a little speaker from a higher end brand could do with clarity and detail and still play fairly loud.
![]()
The Vegas factory specs where a 3-way with large 15" woofers @ 102dB 1w/1m, 400watt RMS, and 28Hz to 28,000Hz +/- 3dB and the B&Ws where only a 2½-way with only 6.5 in woofers, a 90dB sensitivity rating, 150watt power handling, and 44Hz - 22kHz +/-3dB so I wasn't expecting much. But there was so comparison for the raw sound quality performance. I still remember the very first song I played had a bird chirping in the beginning and the B&Ws was just so much more clearer, detailed, and airy with a more 3D-like soundstage and got me closer to the fine detail and clarity I was hearing from headphones. They got me listening to music again through loudspeakers.Someone else in the B&W thread had the same experience as me with larger higher spec'd Vegas vs smaller lower spec'd B&Ws with how impressed they smoked the Vegas with sound quality.![]()
And they can still play loud enough to drown out your own voice...![]()
Thanks for the information, but none of it really does answer the OP's question. He wanted to get information on newer Cerwin Vega speakers. He NEVER asked for a comparison test of OLD CV speakers against other brands. Here we go again. Some things never change around here. If you don't have any experience with the newer stuff, then why post? Forget about the older stuff at beer parties. Auditioning a speakers sound quality at a drunk fest and then expecting everyone to believe that is a fair test is not really fair. Those poor speakers where most likely having the S--T beat out of them at high volumes while being powered by some crappy receiver. Almost anything is going to sound bad while being played like that. Come on. Things have changed with Cerwin Vega a little since then. Im not saying you posted about beer party tests. I want to make that clear.
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Great post.
Great post.
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Actually I am not a huge fan of Cerwin Vega. I only own one pair of cerwin vega speakers at this time. Though others here seem to think I favor them which I do not. All I am saying is if people are going to constantly make comparisons at least be fair. But it seems people always compare 15-20 year old pairs of cerwin vega speakers vs. high end modern day offerings. And to add to that it's usually the old school CV's with 15" woofers that were mainly for output and not clarity in the first place.
Actually I am not a huge fan of Cerwin Vega. I only own one pair of cerwin vega speakers at this time. Though others here seem to think I favor them which I do not. All I am saying is if people are going to constantly make comparisons at least be fair. But it seems people always compare 15-20 year old pairs of cerwin vega speakers vs. high end modern day offerings. And to add to that it's usually the old school CV's with 15" woofers that were mainly for output and not clarity in the first place.
Nope, they definitely stated +/- 3dB 28Hz to 28,000Hz (I still have the original brochures for the VS series along with others packed away somewhere that stated all specs in detail).
It's true I wasn't comparing to the new CV lines, but in all fairness, they where the same cup of tea rehashed every other year or so for as long as I could remember as I've owned many Cerwin Vega speakers from many years apart... I think people put down Bose because they're not comparing to the latest ones and comparing to Bose that are five years old.
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Anyhow...I still love my old Cerwin Vegas.... a pure fun-factor speaker, but just not for critical listening...
Nope, they definitely stated +/- 3dB 28Hz to 28,000Hz (I still have the original brochures for the VS series along with others packed away somewhere that stated all specs in detail).
It's true I wasn't comparing to the new CV lines, but in all fairness, they where the same cup of tea rehashed every other year or so for as long as I could remember as I've owned many Cerwin Vega speakers from many years apart... I think people put down Bose because they're not comparing to the latest ones and comparing to Bose that are five years old.
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