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Bottlehead Forum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share you ideas and experiences. |
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Bottlehead Forum Welcome! Need support, you got it. Or share you ideas and experiences. |
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In Reply to: Its amazing what you find when you read your own old posts. posted by Gandalfcrow on April 21, 2001 at 02:50:18:
Hey folks,I've been just getting into the hifi scene over the last two years or so . . reading everything that I can get my hands on and trying to store away as much info for when I take the plunge and set up a dedicated 2 channel music system. I just recently stumbled accross this bottlehead forum and I have a feeling that a SET system is what I've really been looking for.
Anyways, I have a pair of Cerwin Vega VS120's that I bought in '92 - they were cheap and after trying out every speaker Circuit City had to offer (yeah, yeah . . now I know better . . but I was younger and dumber then), and taking several hours to audition each speaker with my own music, they were the best sounding of the lot. Over the last two years I've auditioned a lot of speakers at hi fi shops . . and I've heard some really great sounding speakers. And I've poured over Stereophile reviews and compulsively spent dozens of hours reading reviews at audioreview.com, and more recently the audioasylum . . and I've seen how much my Cerwin Vegas are supposed to suck. I keep trying to tell myself that these are bad speakers and that I'm somehow defective for not hearing it.
But you know what? They're great speakers! Everytime I hear a set of speakers at a hi fi shop that really moves me (I'm mostly looking in the sub-$2500 range and so far the linn Ninka is what moves me most) . . I stop and ask myself, "now how exactly are these better than your Cerwin Vega's?" And then I run home and try out my same audition CDs that I used at the shop. MY CV's still sound fantastic! I can honestly say that the Cerwin Vega's are one of the best purchases I've ever made. Strong, clean, tight bass (although I think the -3db cuttoff is 28 Hz or so, so they're not the sub-bass monsters that all the frat neanderthalls on audioreview think they are); smooth mids, and clean highs (bordering on bright . . but not quite - I've found that they sound perfect with the grills left on). They also have a decent soundstage and pretty huge sweet spot.
Right now I'm listening to the Pizza Tapes with Grisman/Rice/Garcia - and the sound just melts my heart.
I think that the reason these things have such a bad rep is two-fold: they're primarily purchased by college kids who want speakers that pound out bass and which are indestructible (which they do, and which they are), and they're sold at circuit city by salesmen who don't know how to properly position a speaker and who crank the bass up on the demo receiver to impress college kids. This results in the misguided reviews on audioreview.com and horrible in-store setups.
I'm not saying that they're the best speakers in the world .. but I would say that I have yet to hear anything under $1500 that sounds better.
Pros:
They sound great (on all source material - I listen to about 35% jazz, 20%classic rock/funk/soul, 20% acoustic instrumental/bluegrass, 15% breakbeat electronica, and 10% classical.If you need a lot of bass (say when using them in a home theater), they can provide (although remember the 28 hz thing).
They are indestructible (from abuse at least - we'll see how time affects the surrounds over the next ten years).
They originally cost $400/pr.
They have sturdy 5-way binding posts.
They're 97 db-watt/meter sensitivity (yaay, if that's what you've been waiting for - sorry for the long post)
Cons:
They're big.They're not subwoofers - so for home theater they aren't the final solution.
Tweeters could be a bit more refined.
They're ugly - and realy, really ugly with the grills off (-7 WAF)
They have a nominal impedance of 4 Ohm or so (dunno if that's a con, but it doesn't really fall into the Pro category)
I've had this burning desire to stand up and defend these speakers for a while now - since I really do enjoy listening to them so much. When I do get around to trying these things out on a SET system (6 months or so??), I'll definitely come back and let you know how they sound).Oh, and my system:
A/D/S P2 direct drive TT
Creek OBH-8SE phono stage
Ortofon Mag 2E MM cartridgePioneer DV-F727 301 disc DVD changer
Marantz SR7000 receiverBetter Cables 1M 75ohm digital coax (DVD-Receiver)
MIT Terminator 3 1M interconnects (Creek-Receiver)
Cat-5 11' speaker cables (VenHaus recipe - full 27 pair)
(Alternate the Cat5 with 12' MIT Terminator 2)Cerwin Vega VS120
Salamander rack (bare-bones, three sheves, cherry wood)
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Follow Ups
- Cerwin Vega vs120's = terribly misunderstood speakers - brewthunda 01:52:06 04/23/01 (0)
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