Sir Terrence the Terrible
02-11-2010, 03:04 PM
I have had the chance of auditioning many speakers in an effort to choose which speakers would eventually become my mixing and monitoring speakers. For one of my larger rooms, I choose speakers I already own, and have spent close to $60,000 to outfit my studio with five permanent Dunlavy SC-V, and two more roll ins for 7.1 mixing and monitoring.
For my 5 channel monitoring system I choose 5 stand mounted ATC SCM-300A pro speakers which cost me close to $70,000 for the five plus stands.
These two speaker systems where the best sounding out of the more than 30 pairs of speakers I auditioned.
After listening to these two speaker systems, I am rarely impressed by hearing others as these two are so transparent in their presentation, others seem to sound like I am hearing sound reproduced through speakers.
I was not ready for the surprise I got when I told my son he could put together a surround speaker package for a new addition to my Oakland house. Since he has so many speaker to choose from that we already owned, I fully expect him to choose something out of storage to go in that room. He had different plans.
He came home yesterday jumping up and down with excitement telling me about a pair of speakers he heard at his friends house in his fathers study, which is a room that is acoustically treated, with speakers perfectly placed for serious listening. So I asked, what kind of speakers are these? He responded kind of looking at me sideways, Cerwin Vega CLS-15's. Cerwin Vega ARE YOUR FRIGGIN SERIOUS, I exclaimed. He stood and looked at me very seriously and said quietly yes!. After laughing at him for a few seconds, I realized he was quite serious. He told me to stop the cackling, open my mind and my ears. So he arranged with his friend for me to go over and listen to this setup. I went in with some serious doubts because the name Cerwin Vega stood for loud, unrefined harsh sound with lots of bass, a speaker I could never take all that seriously.
My son setup a listening session with his friends father, and armed with CD material of Gospel, Classical, Jazz, and R&B music I have mixed myself and am very familar with, we headed over to his friends house, fired up the system, and sat down for some "serious" listening. Gents, I was not prepared for what I heard from a Cerwin Vega speaker.
The first disc we put on was a two channel 24/96khz PCM recording I did of my church choir at their 5th anniversay celebration. This consisted of a 75 voice choir, a 15 piece band, a 6 voice ensemble, and an occasional lead singer(or three). I was stunned!!! The soundstage was wide and deep(just as it was in my studio), had excellent clarity and imaging(though not as specific as with my Dunlavy's), great bass slam and extension, and the female voice sounded heavenly, if not a hair fuzzy when compared to my ATC system. I listened to the more complex cuts on the disc, and the sound was just stunning. I just could not grasp that this was coming from a Cerwin Vega speaker.
Next, Mozart's Requiem which is a recording I mixed at a concert featuring the LA Philharmonic, LA Smphony Chorus, a terrific local organist, and a guest director. Once again, I was stunned at what I heard. I kept thinking "this should not come from a CV speaker".
Everything we threw at this speaker sounded very good to excellent.
After going through my small pile of disc, I told my son I would never dismiss anything he had to say ever again. These speakers were by no means perfect, but they did so many things right, I found myself overlooking their weakness because their strengths were so in my face. The speakers are no competition for my expensive monitors, but they were WAY better sounding than the Klipsch RF-3 II and the Klipsch RF-82, two speakers more in its price class than my monitors. As a matter of fact, these were the best sounding under $1000 per pair speakers I have heard in years.
When my son told me he wanted three match speakers up front, and 6 CLS-6's for the surrounds, and was thinking maybe he is on to something. When we went online to find the best price for the system, we found a total price of about $1500 dollars for the setup. That is a bargain for the quality of sound you get from this speaker.
I have heard JBL's and Klipsch under $1000 a pair speaker systems, and not one of them came even close to what I heard from the CV's. As strange as this sounds, after listening to music on these speakers, I cannot wait to hear a soundtrack coming from them. They are probably better at reproducing soundtracks than music, like most speakers in this price catagory are.
Who would believe little low brow CV speakers actually sounded pretty damn good. I certainly didn't before I listened. Soundstage did a review on this speakers bigger brother the CLS-215. They gave it a pretty good review, and the issues they had with the bigger speaker, were not present with the smaller speakers(such as the correct downward tilt to get the best treble response).
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/cerwinvega_cls215.htm
For my 5 channel monitoring system I choose 5 stand mounted ATC SCM-300A pro speakers which cost me close to $70,000 for the five plus stands.
These two speaker systems where the best sounding out of the more than 30 pairs of speakers I auditioned.
After listening to these two speaker systems, I am rarely impressed by hearing others as these two are so transparent in their presentation, others seem to sound like I am hearing sound reproduced through speakers.
I was not ready for the surprise I got when I told my son he could put together a surround speaker package for a new addition to my Oakland house. Since he has so many speaker to choose from that we already owned, I fully expect him to choose something out of storage to go in that room. He had different plans.
He came home yesterday jumping up and down with excitement telling me about a pair of speakers he heard at his friends house in his fathers study, which is a room that is acoustically treated, with speakers perfectly placed for serious listening. So I asked, what kind of speakers are these? He responded kind of looking at me sideways, Cerwin Vega CLS-15's. Cerwin Vega ARE YOUR FRIGGIN SERIOUS, I exclaimed. He stood and looked at me very seriously and said quietly yes!. After laughing at him for a few seconds, I realized he was quite serious. He told me to stop the cackling, open my mind and my ears. So he arranged with his friend for me to go over and listen to this setup. I went in with some serious doubts because the name Cerwin Vega stood for loud, unrefined harsh sound with lots of bass, a speaker I could never take all that seriously.
My son setup a listening session with his friends father, and armed with CD material of Gospel, Classical, Jazz, and R&B music I have mixed myself and am very familar with, we headed over to his friends house, fired up the system, and sat down for some "serious" listening. Gents, I was not prepared for what I heard from a Cerwin Vega speaker.
The first disc we put on was a two channel 24/96khz PCM recording I did of my church choir at their 5th anniversay celebration. This consisted of a 75 voice choir, a 15 piece band, a 6 voice ensemble, and an occasional lead singer(or three). I was stunned!!! The soundstage was wide and deep(just as it was in my studio), had excellent clarity and imaging(though not as specific as with my Dunlavy's), great bass slam and extension, and the female voice sounded heavenly, if not a hair fuzzy when compared to my ATC system. I listened to the more complex cuts on the disc, and the sound was just stunning. I just could not grasp that this was coming from a Cerwin Vega speaker.
Next, Mozart's Requiem which is a recording I mixed at a concert featuring the LA Philharmonic, LA Smphony Chorus, a terrific local organist, and a guest director. Once again, I was stunned at what I heard. I kept thinking "this should not come from a CV speaker".
Everything we threw at this speaker sounded very good to excellent.
After going through my small pile of disc, I told my son I would never dismiss anything he had to say ever again. These speakers were by no means perfect, but they did so many things right, I found myself overlooking their weakness because their strengths were so in my face. The speakers are no competition for my expensive monitors, but they were WAY better sounding than the Klipsch RF-3 II and the Klipsch RF-82, two speakers more in its price class than my monitors. As a matter of fact, these were the best sounding under $1000 per pair speakers I have heard in years.
When my son told me he wanted three match speakers up front, and 6 CLS-6's for the surrounds, and was thinking maybe he is on to something. When we went online to find the best price for the system, we found a total price of about $1500 dollars for the setup. That is a bargain for the quality of sound you get from this speaker.
I have heard JBL's and Klipsch under $1000 a pair speaker systems, and not one of them came even close to what I heard from the CV's. As strange as this sounds, after listening to music on these speakers, I cannot wait to hear a soundtrack coming from them. They are probably better at reproducing soundtracks than music, like most speakers in this price catagory are.
Who would believe little low brow CV speakers actually sounded pretty damn good. I certainly didn't before I listened. Soundstage did a review on this speakers bigger brother the CLS-215. They gave it a pretty good review, and the issues they had with the bigger speaker, were not present with the smaller speakers(such as the correct downward tilt to get the best treble response).
http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/cerwinvega_cls215.htm