First pic of the new room

[j_garcia]

They're here and they sound great!! CAOW1s. Thanks to Nogaro for these, they sound even better than I recall. I'll get around to cracking them open to find the loose binding post, but for now they're working and putting a smile on my face

 

[fuzz092888]

Pre-emptive like for when the pic resurfaces

 

[j_garcia]

First pic was a little blurred. Just took new ones

 

[fuzz092888]

Very nice, which one's are these? I think I recognize them, and I can't remember if you've said already.

 

[j_garcia]

Dennis Murphy CAOW1s, but they are modified. Larger cabinet, different drivers and x-over.

The differences being the upgraded drivers and the cabinet size(this is how they were purchased from Dennis by the original owner before me). The drivers are the Hiquphon OW2 (instead of OW1) and Seas ER15RLY (instead of CA15RLY)

 

[fuzz092888]

I thought that was the Hiq tweeter with the flecked cone woofer. Awesome, can't wait to hear your listening impressions of them.

 

[afterlife2]

Awesome looking JG congrats and enjoy. Dennis does great work. What recording did you use to test them out?

 

[j_garcia]

First disc was Patricia Barber Cafe Blue SACD. Second was Dave Brubeck Time Out SACD

 

[afterlife2]

I knew it. Patricia Barber Cafe Blue. How do they compare to the ones you and ImcLoud got?

 

[j_garcia]

They're different animals. The tweeters on the CSB-1s are excellent - wide, deep and very detailed yet smooth. The mids are very good. The CAOW1s the tweeter is softer than the BGs on the CSB-1s, more like my A/V-2s, but more detailed than the A/V-2s. The mids are where it is at with the CAOW1s - spacious and very detailed; vocals are very clean.

The third disc (now playing) was Patricia Barber Companion SACD - Nogaro and I listened to that when he brought these over the first time and he had never heard of her. When he looked at the liner notes, he used to go to the Jazz spot where they recorded that disc (it is live), which was kind of cool. He became a fan and picked that disc up I believe.

 

[afterlife2]

So where are the CSB-1s in another setup?

 

[j_garcia]

That's the right CSB-1 to the left of this one in the pics They're flanking the main system.

 

[Alex2507]

Dennis Murphy CAOW1s, but they are modified. Larger cabinet, different drivers and x-over.

Is that cabinet put together by Del?

You still have an OW1 tweeter, right?

I gotta go find that sales thread.

A new Dennis Murphy toy is always a good time.

 

[j_garcia]

Is that cabinet put together by Del?

You still have an OW1 tweeter, right?

I gotta go find that sales thread.

A new Dennis Murphy toy is always a good time.

Since Nogaro was the second owner, I don't have original specifics on these guys like who built them unfortunately. I may shoot an email to Dennis to see if he remembers them.

 

[j_garcia]

I rigged up some adapter cables so I didn't have to pull out any other amps and so I could run them off the current setup more easily. To be totally honest, these things are surprisingly decent. For the price, not bad at all. As the review mentioned, they do tend toward the higher end, but the top end is very smooth and pleasant. They throw a very wide stage for their size, and they are pretty darn tiny. To my ears they lack very fine detail across the board, but that's being really picky, especially for something with no x-over and at this price point.

First listen was Dave Brubeck Concord on a Midsummer Night SACD. An extremely well recorded live disc with a lot of quiet, soft, warm mids and fine details. The sounds are all there, they just lack some depth and three dimensionality, but they really don't disappoint. Highs are crisp and clean without sizzle, even when pushed pretty hard.

Currently listening to the Princess Mononoke Sountrack, which has a lot of busy orchestrations and other quiet tracks with subtle detail, and they're doing quite well with it as well. I'll throw some more stuff at them today and

 

[Seth=L]

I figured the 22s and 52s were the same footprint, but they aren't. 52s sound pretty darn good in this little budget setup.

I tried them out with the Sony executive system powering them and surprisingly, they do better than expected. It won't get as loud as I would like on occasion, but they have no issues at average listening with just 30W. First placement had them too close together so they didn't image and the bass was overbearing. Pushed them out a bit and adjusted the toe and they sound pretty solid with far better imaging than I expect from a speaker of this price and bass cleaned up noticeably at the listening position. Definitely won't need a sub with them in this setup. Going to hook up the PM7200 tonight. I will eventually pick up a cheap AVR for here to eliminate the unsightly cables going to the TV, and currently back. The BD79 doesn't have analog outs so I have to feed the system stereo analog from the TV for now.

Is that little Sony CD receiver full range or does it have a high pass filter around 60hz like some others.

 

[markosti]

I love the pics j_garcia

 

[afterlife2]

How are the vocals and low end?

 

[j_garcia]

Is that little Sony CD receiver full range or does it have a high pass filter around 60hz like some others.

Full range, no filter, but it is only 27W too.

How are the vocals and low end?

Low end is pretty good for their size, but not super defined. They don't sound like they're going as low as they claim, but they aren't bad; especially for how tiny they are. Vocals is where you can really kind of tell the difference between them and a more expensive speaker IMO. They are clear and clean, but not totally convincing, as one would expect from a smaller diameter driver. For a small system or surrounds, they're pretty surprising actually - not great, but better than I'd expect from $60/pr. A x-over might help there, but not sure how much with a higher excursion driver that would seem to be intended to get more bass than mids out of this design.

They liked to be pushed harder too - I never cranked them to their limit, they didn't bottom or become unclear (fed by the XPA-3 too though) even when full range. When cranked though, they don't exhibit more bass, they exhibit more highs - the tweeter seems quite good, but they are definitely skewed toward the highs. I wouldn't complain about them in a small bedroom system at all. I delivered them to my son right after the superbowl.

 

[Seth=L]

Full range, no filter, but it is only 27W too.

Odd. I have the HCD-EX1 (head unit for the CMT-EX1 system), which was a model up from the unit you have at the time. It came with nicer speakers that didn't have captive speaker wire. The unit has a high pass filter (I presume in the preamplifier stage) and loses a fair amount of output starting around 60hz. This is similar to how the JVC FS-1000 and subsequent models worked, hp filter in the preamp stage. Why the JVC did it in the preamp stage is quite bothersome because those units had a "subwoofer" output on them which was also affected by this filter.

The system model for yours is CMT-RB5 (HCD-RB5 head unit model). I like the design and the clever prism effect that's achieved through the front CD viewing window. I could be wrong on this but I believe the front is entirely plastic. The CMT-EX1 is glass, which looks very nice in person. The manufacturers suggested wattage ratings are similar for both models at 14-15 watts per channel respectively. I really wish the CMT-EX1 didn't have the filter, or I'd be using it right now as my main source and amplification for a bedroom sub/sat setup.