Cerwin-Vega! sound

ppontiac

Active Member
I don't get it. C-V's sound great. I have and owned Klipsch KG 4.2, JBL L46, Baby Advents, Pioneer HPM-1100 & S-1010, Infinity 12" 3-way with EMIT tweeters, & AR-1. I had a roommate with C-V Premium S2 and Klipsch Lascala. I had a friend that owned an audio store that sold only American audio eqiupment. I spent a lot of time under the spell of Klipschorns at his store. I think Cerwin-Vega speakers sound as good, or better that anything out there. I currently run a pair of D9s & DX-9's. The sound is awesome. Tone controls, room environment, audio equipment all effect the output. Garbage in, Garbage out. C-V's are like Klipsch; revealing the weak link(s) in the audio chain. Of course, personal preference and bias are the ultimate deciding factors. I think the "audiophile" speakers with their puny woofers and cone tweeters are cleaver marketing tools aimed at the wealthy audio ignorant. $15,000 for a pair of speakers? Crazy. The mighty Klipschorn has no equal. And the price is a bargain. Speakers should sound "live". That's the whole point of making speakers. I don't understand how Bose survives with that "canned" sound. I know there are better speakers out there, but say C-V's are terrible is just petty.
 
alot of folks here hate em, kinda like bose 901's...........me, gimme a good ole 15" cv 3 way(at 15 anyone?), and about 100rms, some back in black, a beer (well, im more mature now, make that a rum-n-coke, hold the coke) and im the happiest guy on the planet!
 
Like a lot of speaker companies, CV has been around a long time and made a lot of different speakers. Virtually no one has listened to them all, so when they make a judgment about the brand, it is based on only some of the products made. Some people are so lax about such judgments that they condemn a brand based upon one item. Others are so lax about their judgments that their opinion is based upon general reputation rather than any actual listening.

There are many factors that go into whether someone likes a speaker or not. These include the type of music, the room and position of the speakers (i.e., room acoustics) and the other speakers to which they compare them. Sometimes the comparisons are fairly ridiculous, as when someone compares a $200 speaker with a $5000 speaker; if the more expensive of those two is not a lot better, then it is a horrible deal, but some imagine that the $200 speaker ought to be more like the $5000 speaker, and blast whatever brand it is for not being better.

For my part, I have liked some CV speakers, and very much disliked some others. I cannot recall any of the models; I never owned any CV speakers.
 
I had a pair of the 15" 2 ways in college with a phase linear 400.
Made a lot of sound! Good memories
 
To put this on a positive note before it goes up in flames (and I know lots of your are showing great restraint), what are the GREATEST CERWIN-VEGA SPEAKERS?

(I should note I picked up an orphan CV AT-10 my first CV, a coupla weeks ago for 12 bux.) Seemed to be worth it for the drivers, but it's not a bad sounding midsized speaker.
 
I picked up a pair at the thrift for $15.Solid wood cabinets and massive.These were the only speakers that i need a dolly to move.The back indicated that they are model 313 but one ak members info came back with a different speaker for that model #.The surrounds were shot but i am going to have them refoamed.They have one 15 inch woofer and two tweeters above and a tweeter int the back of the speaker.Like another ak member said the woofer frame is like a mag wheel.Anyway I plan on bringing these back to life for some heavy duty rock.Anybody know about this speaker? I can't find any info on it.
 
superdog, it was I who compared the woofer out of a pair of Cerwin Vega HED CV-3000s to a mag wheel off a musclecar. The build quality that Cerwin Vega used in construction of their speakers, despite what some feel about the sound, was top-quality. From the heavy-duty cab inets, to the cast woofer baskets, these were no mass-market late-model Fisher Studio pros, or Panasonic Thrusters.

My pair went to member Birddog, as he had a pair already, and now he has a stacked pair. Can you imagine how big that wall of four CV-3000s play?

ppontiac,

I'm glad you have found nirvana in Cerwin-Vega speakers. But you're right-of course, personal preference and bias are the ultimate deciding factors. i enjoyed my CVs while I oned them.

As for the CV sound? To qualtify...

Cerwin Vega Sound, to me, could be summed up as "Big Fun".
 
I will repeat, Speakers are subjective opinion, although some get a moderately good consensus, usually you will find whats good for one is not good for others. Having said that, CV-9 were pretty good deal, best party speakers out there, in Brooklyn we shut one guy up real quick with a pair of CV DX-9 paired with MTX amp, the next door neighbor's ghetto blaster shut down real quick :)
 
most of cerwin vegas best stuff is mostly vintage, thor has a really nice pair of what i believe are mk 1215's (iirc) and they're extremely rare, and iirc were made in 90-91, theres supposed to be a lot of rare cv oddities out there (from what i hear), the d and dx series are pretty nice, i haven't heard any of the vs line or the e-xxx line, although they look decent, and i have heard good things about both, i have the pleasure of owning the cls-215 towers and id say its prolly the best speaker cv has made in a long time, although the panels aint to thick their braced really good, and as far as heavy, i almost killed myself carrying them down a flight of stairs, stupid move on my part but i was really eager to get them set up,haha, but it don't really make me mad when people knock cv though, it seems people either love them or hate them, but hey every one is entitled to their own opinion,my opinion is that cerwin vega has some awesome speakers (duh), later, G
 
C-V's were/are IMHO, a good head-bangers speaker. Always giving pretty decent sound-per-buck value.
 
ppontiac said:
I don't get it. C-V's sound great. I have and owned Klipsch KG 4.2, JBL L46, Baby Advents, Pioneer HPM-1100 & S-1010, Infinity 12" 3-way with EMIT tweeters, & AR-1. I had a roommate with C-V Premium S2 and Klipsch Lascala. I had a friend that owned an audio store that sold only American audio eqiupment. I spent a lot of time under the spell of Klipschorns at his store. I think Cerwin-Vega speakers sound as good, or better that anything out there. I currently run a pair of D9s & DX-9's. The sound is awesome. Tone controls, room environment, audio equipment all effect the output. Garbage in, Garbage out. C-V's are like Klipsch; revealing the weak link(s) in the audio chain. Of course, personal preference and bias are the ultimate deciding factors. I think the "audiophile" speakers with their puny woofers and cone tweeters are cleaver marketing tools aimed at the wealthy audio ignorant. $15,000 for a pair of speakers? Crazy. The mighty Klipschorn has no equal. And the price is a bargain. Speakers should sound "live". That's the whole point of making speakers. I don't understand how Bose survives with that "canned" sound. I know there are better speakers out there, but say C-V's are terrible is just petty.

I normally stay away from these kinds of debates but are you serious that C-Vs are "as good as or better than anything out there" ? In the 1980s I owned three pairs of C-Vs, the D-9s, 380SEs and AT-15s. I listen to a very wide range of musical genres including rock, R&B, soul, metal, hip-hop/rap, classical, jazz, etc. The C-Vs sound great with music like rock, R&B, dance , etc. but little else. They are not accurate, don't reproduce instrumental timbre faithfully and have a certain amount of "grain" (harshness) in the upper mids and treble. Maybe you can't hear these shortcomings or they just don't matter to you. Some people equate boom and sizzle with quality or greatness. Others (like me) place greater value on things like timbral and tonal accuracy. To me a piano has to sound like the acoustic instrument it is, not like an electric piano to give but one example.

When I owned my C-Vs, I found myself constantly having to tweak the level controls in order to minimize some of the harshness I was hearing but in the end, I just could not live with it. I think my current PSB Stratus Gold i speakers, which are about as large as the big C-Vs give me the best of both worlds, offering some of that C-V grunt yet with the timbral and tonal accuracy that I desire.

PSBs:
 
Cv

For what it's worth, I listen to a set of VS-150's. The reason for this is because my wife bought them for me app 12 yrs ago. If I were to sell them, I'm afraid that I would become a Hun of monumental proportions.

GlenB has a point. They were terribly harsh when I was pushing them with a 890DB. However, when I switched to tubes, the harshness pretty much went away.

Are there better speakers? I would imagine so. But there are for sure a lot worse. They certainly fill a room with sound.

I remember reading an interesting thread somewhere that suggested replacing the mids w Morels, & the tweets w Vifas. The fellow who wrote this claimed that this would bring them to a level that would be hard to beat. Unfortunately, the thread was short on specifics. I'd be willing to give this a shot if I had the information to do it right. Not only could I pull this off without becoming an even more insensitive lout, it would be a hell of a lot easier than moving them.

Charles
 
I had some VS-100s. I liked them quite a bit with my Pioneer SX-450 reciever. But after I got my SPEC stuff, I gave my old system to my girlfriend for her bedroom system. She likes it a hell of alot more than her old all in
one "100 watt" Sony shelf system she had before. But i think I have to agree with people that say vintage C-V's are good. My girlfriends dad has some in his shop with a SHARP power amp, and it sounds pretty darn good. I also had a pair of AT-8 C-Vs. They were kick ass with my SX-780 reciever!!
 
has anybody take some of the TOTL CV's , like the D-9 or DX-9 and run them on some vintage tube gear? maybe even some single ended amps?

they are pretty efficient, i bet the harshness would smooth out with some tube gear.

Robby
 
I have had a pair CV's for at least 15 years. I got them used for 100.00. These are from the HED line U123? Not sure if thats a model # or a serial #. They are a 12in. three way. I know that these are not one of CV's TOTL speakers. They were my first real speakers and I doubt I'll ever get rid of them. They may not be the most accurate speakers but for the price of these evan If you bought them new you definitly get your what you pay for. I think they are as good as most other similarly priced speakers. I still listen to these in my basement/workshop system powered by a bridged pair of NAD 2140's. They sound great for most pop music. They don't need much over 50 watts though on heavy bass I can bottem out the woofers easily but thats cranking loudly in a 26X30 room with about a 100 watts each. I think what there powered by makes a big difference. I never found them to be harsh with my 80's Technics,90's Pioneer or the current NAD set up.
 
C-V sound with tubes

Ithink the "tube sound" has a lot to due with the soft clipping of tubes. Distorted sound, but not percieved. SS amps hard clip and is noticable right away.
 
Too bad...

...I just sold my CV DX-9's (prolly too cheap at $150 for the pair). I originally bought them for use with a tube amp that has not yet appeared in my hands. At 102 db/W/m, I thought they might be an interesting match with the amp. However, with the SS stuff I had, they just didn't impress me with their sound, although they could peel the paint off the walls. Of course, they went out the door in part to pick up some additional tube gear, but I'm kinda regretful I didn't have a chance to try them on some non-silicon electrons...Oh well. The Klipsch Chorus I's I replaced them with sound better to my ears with either tube or SS power input....
 
Charles said:
I remember reading an interesting thread somewhere that suggested replacing the mids w Morels, & the tweets w Vifas. The fellow who wrote this claimed that this would bring them to a level that would be hard to beat. Unfortunately, the thread was short on specifics. I'd be willing to give this a shot if I had the information to do it right. Not only could I pull this off without becoming an even more insensitive lout, it would be a hell of a lot easier than moving them.

Charles

So ... if you replace two-thirds of the drivers (assuming it's a three-way),
it sounds great.
 
My pairs of D9's & DX9's sound just as good as my Klipsch kg4.2's but with more bass and a bit louder, of course. Turn down the bass all the way below flat and the sound similiar to my Heresy II's. Still trying to figure out how to do A-B comparisons at the same db level. The CV's for sure sound better than my Pioneer HPM-1100's they replaced. I have a pair Pioneer S-1010's with no woofers, so I don't know what they sound like.
 
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