Received my Carnegie CSB1's today, a lot of people wanted to know what I thought...

[Jimz711]

Well, I have my old speakers moved, and some of the furniture moving I need to do done, the fill should be here today and the speakers will be fired up tonight.

Has anyone tried the towers both before and after adding no rez or some other substance?

 

[afterlife2]

Jim I expect a comparison to the Pioneer 52's and CSB1's with pictures. I'm kidding, but the pics I'm not.

 

[sawzalot]

Well, I have my old speakers moved, and some of the furniture moving I need to do done, the fill should be here today and the speakers will be fired up tonight.

Has anyone tried the towers both before and after adding no rez or some other substance?

I am running them in stereo without adding/removing/disturbing anything. I have every intention of opening them up and adding the no rez as per Danny but I have been too busy and to be quite frank, it looks like its gonna be some what tricky getting material through the smaller openings so I am not looking forward to that. I have them hooked up to my Pioneer SC37 in Stereo mode, no subs , no surrounds and no center they are about 16-18 inches off the wall about 9 feet apart maybe 5 feet from side walls and toed in at approx. 10 to 12 degrees, they sound great almost like a phantom center mode, it is hard to tell where the sound comes from at listening position which is 10-11 feet away , even when we walk up closer you have to get your head right up next to the speaker to be sure that is where all this music is coming from, I love it. I cant wait to get more done and address the no rez situation.

These sound a lot better and so much more convincing from a movie standpoint than the Klipsch RF 35 that I had before these and that's without doing the suggested lo rez work so they can only get better from here.

 

[j_garcia]

The CSBs also image so well that I've had to check a few times to make sure the right sound mode was being used. That's the way it should be.

 

[slipperybidness]

The CSBs also image so well that I've had to check a few times to make sure the right sound mode was being used. That's the way it should be.

+1 to that.

Same with my GE Triton 2s. The girlfriend didn't believe me at first when I told here the center speaker wasn't even playing!

 

[Jimz711]

I've got everything hooked up and running. For room aesthetics, I'm running without center, surrounds or sub. What seems very odd is I cannot get any sound to my speakers in pure direct mode which is my favorite for music. I basically have to set the receiver to multi channel stereo. I have never used a receiver with just 2 channels so maybe I am missing something but I feel I will not get the best quality music if the receiver is in any way processing the signal. I guess I have to actually read through the manual.

I have yet to add any fill to my speakers either but what I'm hearing in the first 20 minutes is quite good, I'm guessing it will be easier to add no rez if you cut it to the sizes in the instructions but even then to get it to stick that is a long reach. I don't know if I can get my arm very far through the port on the bottom but it might be worth a try.

I haven't played with positioning much since I'm sure hoping the sound changes when I add fill or I'll be rather upset going through the effort.

I still have more furniture and equipment to move around since I do not have to make room for a center channel anymore. Pics to follow. They sure are shiny though.

 

[Jimz711]

Figured out the pure direct issue, seems when I turned off the center and surrounds the receiver decided the stereo speakers would be the surround back ones, yikes. Now music is not leaps and bounds better but it has put a smile on my face versus the previous speakers.

 

[ImcLoud]

I have another friend who just got his set of the csb1's, he is very happy, hes going to order another set and a center for a 5.1 system should be very nice, at that price point $1100 ish you can not go wrong..

 

[alphaiii]

I have another friend who just got his set of the csb1's, he is very happy, hes going to order another set and a center for a 5.1 system should be very nice, at that price point $1100 ish you can not go wrong..

I'm curious how you think these compare to the Wharfedale Evo2-8 and Jade 1?

I had the Evo2, and thought they were great speakers with the exception that the bass was weak and they sounded a little too lean.

I've been very impressed with the Jade 1. Again, bass is a little understated (not as lean as the Evo2-8), but very well controlled, and I'd rather have that than exaggerated bass (like the Diamond 10.1 or Mordaunt Aviano 1).

 

[slipperybidness]

For all yall dealing with the no-rez / peel and stick, typically you would warm up the adhesive with a hair-dryer immediately before applying it. That will make it more tacky and get a better grip. It's not 100% necessary if working at room temp. For some of yall up north where it's already getting colder, you would certainly not want to apply the stuff while it is cold, warm it up first.

 

[ImcLoud]

I'm curious how you think these compare to the Wharfedale Evo2-8 and Jade 1?

I had the Evo2, and thought they were great speakers with the exception that the bass was weak and they sounded a little too lean.

I've been very impressed with the Jade 1. Again, bass is a little understated (not as lean as the Evo2-8), but very well controlled, and I'd rather have that than exaggerated bass (like the Diamond 10.1 or Mordaunt Aviano 1).

The evo2-08 sound good where I have them, they are a very capable bookshelf, the msrp on them is over $1000 but thehy were on sale in the us towards the end of the import agreement, when they started to run out of center channels to match the evo2 series.. I bought my evo2's when they were all on sale, I can honestly say the lows when listening to the 08's at close range are on par with any thing in its price range, but I always cross bookshelfs to a sub so, its a moot point. THe 08's are small-ish bookshelfs and I like them a lot, I think the csb's image better and have a better sounding high end, while the mids are impressive I think the wharfedales shine in this area, over most speakers I have heard. My evo2-40's midrange is the best I have ever heard, I prefer it to my jade 5's, I also prefer the evo2's high end over the jades, but the jades when standing alone have an impressive lower end, the bass is on par with any other tower I have listened to, also a moot point with me, because I'm using subs...

I am going to be getting rid of my jade 5's and the matching sw300 subs, and using the csb'1s and svs12's in that room instead... The jade 5's sound great, I just like what I like... Plus the entire csb/svs/outlaw/parasound system costs less than the jade 5's alone...

 

[Jimz711]

Thought I would give some my initial impressions of the towers. I've had family visiting this weekend so no critical listening was done. I've also been doing a major renovation of my apartment so putting the damping material will have to wait until next weekend.

I think for the price these speakers are really impressive, and have ended any speaker searches for the foreseeable future. The bass is actually rather impressive for such small woofers. I'm not someone who needs a lot of bass as some days it actually gives me a headache so for me no sub is needed, surely many would want a sub as I'm not going to be rattling any walls. Plus the no sub creates a much cleaner look as does running with a phantom center. It simply sounds as if a center channel is on, at least for TV watching, I've yet to try any demanding movie watching but I can't imagine my opinion will change. If the bass tightens up once I add no rez to the towers well I'm not going to be complaining and I'll be even more impressed.

I even like the look with the grills on, but might prefer them off.

 

[ImcLoud]

great to hear, 2.0 HT systems can be a tough sell... but it definitely looks better than anything else, nothing more simple than a pair of towers...

 

[Jimz711]

great to hear, 2.0 HT systems can be a tough sell... but it definitely looks better than anything else, nothing more simple than a pair of towers...

I agree, and they will get plenty of HT use, but I'm more interested in musicality than theater. I do like subs for HT but with a downstairs neighbor and the cleaner look of 2.0 it just makes sense at this time to go 2.0.

 

[ImcLoud]

I agree, and they will get plenty of HT use, but I'm more interested in musicality than theater. I do like subs for HT but with a downstairs neighbor and the cleaner look of 2.0 it just makes sense at this time to go 2.0.

I used a pair of Polk lsi15's, with a pair of amps {300x1 @4ohm} for a 2.0 system for a while and it worked great, they went down to the low 30's {hz} and had so much output and threw suck a large sound stage you couldn't tell there wasn't a center or a sub until you looked for them... I agree the looks are super clean, my uncle also did the no sub thing for a while too with a pair of OM5's...

 

[darien87]

So I wasted about an hour of my time last night using the Rives test disc to try and EQ my system. I say "wasted" because after spending said hour getting the curve a little closer to flat, I found I didn't like the way it sounded. I liked the sound much better with the curve that Audyssey came up with.

Unfortunately it seemed like most of the big peaks or dips I had in the curve were in between EQ points that the AV7005 gives for tweaking. I was a little surprised. With my UMC-1 I was able to get my VR2's much better sounding than what I got from EmoQ. Either Audyssey actually does a pretty good job or I just don't like the sound of a somewhat flat EQ curve.

 

[j_garcia]

So I wasted about an hour of my time last night using the Rives test disc to try and EQ my system. I say "wasted" because after spending said hour getting the curve a little closer to flat, I found I didn't like the way it sounded. I liked the sound much better with the curve that Audyssey came up with.

Unfortunately it seemed like most of the big peaks or dips I had in the curve were in between EQ points that the AV7005 gives for tweaking. I was a little surprised. With my UMC-1 I was able to get my VR2's much better sounding than what I got from EmoQ. Either Audyssey actually does a pretty good job or I just don't like the sound of a somewhat flat EQ curve.

Or a little of both? With my A/V-2s, I really didn't like what EmoQ did to them, but with the CSB-1s, it seems to do a bit better. Not sure if they tweaked EmoQ in the last firmware update or if it is the Carnegies.

 

[JonnyFive23517]

Either Audyssey actually does a pretty good job or I just don't like the sound of a somewhat flat EQ curve.

Audyssey does shoot for flat up until the higher frequencies. There, Audyssey "flat" attempts a flat response, whereas the standard "Audyssey" setting introduces a slight high end roll off.

I believe that using a test disc to try and EQ your system is generally not recommended as a reliable way to improve the sound. Whatever the gradation of the test disc (5 hz or so) there may be many other things going on. In addition, it's unclear how you would manually set the "Q" of each PEQ with only a test disc.

I'd go with Audyssey or bypass, but I wouldn't try and manually eq a system without room measuring equipment (UMIK-1 + REW + miniDSP, for example).

 

[darien87]

I believe that using a test disc to try and EQ your system is generally not recommended as a reliable way to improve the sound.

Well it worked well for me with my last set of speakers and processor. Not so much this time though. I'm just back to using the Audyssey curve. Sucks though because my processor doesn't let me see the curve. It displays it after setting up Audyssey but that's the only time it lets you see it and I didn't think to take pictures at the time. Oh well.

 

[j_garcia]

That's weird? Wonder if that is a Marantz thing or Audessey thing? With the UMC-200 I can see and edit them after the fact.