Ahhhhh, Cerwin-Vega
They got bought out by Stanton in 2003 then Gibson about 9 years ago so a shadow of what they once were. Several factors took them out, mostly the market shifted from really high efficiency, large speakers to low efficiency small speakers as power was cheap and getting cheaper. The cabinet costs, shipping costs and even the cost of copper used in inductors continued going up as the price for decent drivers fell thanks to CNC machining, China etc.
It is considerably cheaper to make small 2-way speakers and couple them with a sub as that shifts the huge costs of crossovers required for a 3-way to the AVR. Small 2-ways that are not efficient require more power but power is cheap. Spent $700 on a 250 WPC amp back in 1991, recalculate that to inflation it would be $1,400 in 2017 dollars. No problem picking up a Crown XLS1500 with crossover filters built-in for $350 now so power has fallen 75% in costs--but the prices on wood, shipping and materials have outpaced inflation due to demand globally. A large, efficient 3-way speaker with large, copper inductors, big caps and such to crossover an 8 ohm load down at 500Hz is very expensive! Build the large enclosure correctly, ship the heavy weight to distributors, ship it to stores etc and the cost goes through the roof!
Demand fell for large speakers because of the high cost, they take up a lot of space, heavy to move around and so on. In the 90's, the writing was on the wall as computers starting sucking up entertainment money. The internet cost money so that kept dropping and in the mid-2000's--flat screen TVs and BluRays starting taking chunks out of the budget. 30 years ago you had a TV, a VCR and blew big bucks on the sound system as that was the center piece. 20 years ago that money went to computers and internet fees--10 years ago large screen TVs we sucking up the funds but at least computers didn't cost 2 grand.
Speaker companies felt the squeeze as the audio market peaked in 1990 and went into decline. The best way to cut costs is to make smaller speakers and consumers lost their taste for giant boxes since computers, TVs etc. take up space. If you looked at "audio style" in the late 70's and 80's, it was a matching, very large rack system that was huge! Once the big racks went away, that signaled the shift to smaller speakers and that is still true today.
Hindsite is 20/20 so CV should of adapted and went to efficient 2-ways with woofers from 6.5" to 10" and made 12 to 18" subwoofers--maybe offered PA type subs that were really efficient. Not sure if it would of helped, the college kids were heavy into computers and cell phones so audio systems were not that "cool" anymore.
I owned Cerwin-Vega 3-way 15" PA speakers for PA use 27 years ago--they were very efficient, very loud and durable for that purpose although not clean sounding. A friend of mine had the CV M series which was a giant speaker, very efficient and had fuses for the mid and self-resetting breakers for the tweeter horns. You could make your ears ring from a simple receiver, great bass for the time and sounded decent enough when not in party mode. He sold them when he got married sort of thing and wish he kept them. Great speakers to have parties, beat them because of drinking too much and making mistakes and durable for surviving your single years.
In summation, CV did not respond to the changing market in the '90's to smaller/cheaper/less efficient speakers so got taken out in 2003. The market for large, efficient speakers is not there in the consumer market, you can get them from Klipsch with a price tag to match. The closest thing at a reasonable price for a party speaker are PA speakers--basically what a CV speaker actually was. A pair of Mackie C200 10" 2-way PA speakers ($400) and a JTR 118HT ($1,400 ???) a Yamaha 100 WPC integrated amp at around $300 will set you back around $2,100 total but would be close. Swap the Yamaha for a Crown XLS1500 with it's active crossovers--mesh it with the crossover of the JTR while using some sort of pre-amp, mixer or whatever would bump the price up another $100 to $200 and you'll be in full party speaker mode but have better extension down low, better sound quality and more flexibility.
The market moves on, the big, efficient speakers are a niche' but you can still get that sort of thing without going broke by mixing PA and really efficient cinema speakers together. Or, just pick up a pair of huge JBL 4722N cinema speakers at 104dB 1w/1m and enjoy very clean sound, insane amounts of output by slapping on a PA amp to drive them. $3K for those beasts, they are ugly, huge, heavy so no style points for you.
Other people get the same thing by building their own, the DIY Sound Group has a beast with two 18" PA woofers, a 12" PA mid and a massive horn that stands about 5 feet tall. $1,800 for the kit with everything you need including the front baffle piece. You have to build the massive cabinet but if you want to kick it old school with beastly speakers but gain great sound quality that well engineered drivers offer--always an option.
Cerwin-Vega went the way of massive sound systems, it was a good time having a 20" TV and 4 foot tall speakers--but running a 7 channel with the massive Vegas would be a bit much.
