i got a pair of e-712's last night and i have to admit, at first i was pretty disappointed. i thought the bass was excellent (which is probably the main selling point of cerwin vegas and one of the main reasons i wanted the speakers), but i thought that the highs and mids were pretty bad. i hooked them up to my computer (via my receiver) and i was messing around with both the equalizers in winamp and my soundcard and after a few hours i feel like they are definitely worth the money i paid for them. i wouldnt trade them for anything. these speakers require tweaking to get them to the level YOU want them to be at. they're not perfect for anybody right out of the box. i was watching return of the king last night and the sound was amazingly clear (it wasnt even the dvd, it was a movie i downloaded online), the bass was so loud that it was shaking my windows UPSTAIRS while keeping the highs and mids crystal clear.
today i played a few kinds of music (rap, rock, classic rock, heavy metal, even some of my dads doo wop) and each and every type of music sounded perfect on these speakers. even though the music and vocals in doo wop go extremely high, these speakers can output the sound at very high volumes without ANY distortion and it sounded perfect. even mp3's i have that are really bad quality sounded better than decent. and the really good quality mp3s i had sounded wonderful, i could hear everything with great detail.
i'm definitely not an audiophile but i am VERY picky when it comes to what i like and what i dont like. like i mentioned before, when i got these speakers i was extremely picky at the sound but after some tweaking they sound absolutely PERFECT to me. it just takes some time to get them to the right level.
they are even comparable to my dads vintage acousti-phase phase II speakers, made in the 1980's. those speakers POUND like crazy and are awesome, and right now after i finished tweaking my vegas i would have a hard time choosing between the two pairs (if i had to pick between the acousti-phase and the vegas to keep). before i got the vegas i would choose the acousti-phases in a heartbeat.