For a whole bunch of reasons, many of them related to room esthetics and WAF, I recently decided to replace my fronts with the Newton MC-300 satellites and P500 sub from Cambridge Soundworks. They'd gotten several good reviews, I'd had good experiences with the local CSW store and, most important, they sounded great in the store: the kind of disciplined, smooth response I like for classical music, with no boom-y resonance in the sub and with a very airy, open sound without sharp edges at the high end.
When I got them home and set up, however, it was a different story entirely. The sub was fine, and, as I'd hoped, the outboard controller allowed me to partially tame a nasty room resonance at around 70hz. The high end was smooth and detailed, and the imaging was great. BUT, the overall sound was just plain THIN. Male voices lacked depth, and there was clearly a lower mid-range hole in music of every type.
Running low freq sweep tests confirmed the problem. Response just dropped right off a cliff at around 105 - 110 HZ, not to reappear until the sub kicked in around 80. The drop-off was so severe (-20db or more at 100hz) I could have sworn there was some kind of high-order filter in the speakers.
A trip to the store with my Avia disc and meter in hand confirmed the source of the problem. The MC-300 satellites do, in fact, roll off sharply below 120hz. In the store, however they had the bass crossover set above 120 so that sub picked up smoothly and everything was cool. (Or maybe they weren't using bass management at all. I couldn't find out)
On the other hand, my Onkyo 898 receiver has the crossover locked at 80hz (I believe that's part of the THX spec) resulting in that all-too-obvious hole. Since I'm not ready to toss my the receiver, the MC-300s went back to the store and the search goes on.
My bottom line on this Newton combo: IF, and only if, you can set your bass crossover up around 130 HZ, this is a really fine speaker for the money (the 2 satellites and the sub were $855 before tax.) The sub has dual 8-inch drivers in an acoustic suspension enclosure, so going that high is no problem. However, if your receiver, like many, only allows an 80hz crossover, you will NOT be a happy camper.
When I got them home and set up, however, it was a different story entirely. The sub was fine, and, as I'd hoped, the outboard controller allowed me to partially tame a nasty room resonance at around 70hz. The high end was smooth and detailed, and the imaging was great. BUT, the overall sound was just plain THIN. Male voices lacked depth, and there was clearly a lower mid-range hole in music of every type.
Running low freq sweep tests confirmed the problem. Response just dropped right off a cliff at around 105 - 110 HZ, not to reappear until the sub kicked in around 80. The drop-off was so severe (-20db or more at 100hz) I could have sworn there was some kind of high-order filter in the speakers.
A trip to the store with my Avia disc and meter in hand confirmed the source of the problem. The MC-300 satellites do, in fact, roll off sharply below 120hz. In the store, however they had the bass crossover set above 120 so that sub picked up smoothly and everything was cool. (Or maybe they weren't using bass management at all. I couldn't find out)
On the other hand, my Onkyo 898 receiver has the crossover locked at 80hz (I believe that's part of the THX spec) resulting in that all-too-obvious hole. Since I'm not ready to toss my the receiver, the MC-300s went back to the store and the search goes on.
My bottom line on this Newton combo: IF, and only if, you can set your bass crossover up around 130 HZ, this is a really fine speaker for the money (the 2 satellites and the sub were $855 before tax.) The sub has dual 8-inch drivers in an acoustic suspension enclosure, so going that high is no problem. However, if your receiver, like many, only allows an 80hz crossover, you will NOT be a happy camper.
