Any one familiar with Cambridge Soundworks?

[Unregistered]

I hope I might impose on the CSW experience of some of the folks in this forum.

I recently purchased the MovieWorks 208, with an upgraded receiver, the Onkyo TX-SR601. Well, a week later, the Basscube 8s subwoofer went back and a P200 came home.

At this point the setup includes an MC300 center, MC200 mains, S200 surrounds, and the P200, all driven by the SR-601.

The bass bump provided by the P200 is a huge improvement, and I'm generally happy with the movie performance. The music performance, however, does not compare. I'm not much of an audiophile, and my complaint may well stem from the source material - CD vs multichannel DVD, but there doesn't seem to be much sparkle or presence to the music. I generally run in "All-channel stereo" mode for music, as I find Prologic II for music less satisfactory.

At any rate, the upgrade urge has hit me again. Any recommendations as to where I'll get the most bang for my buck? Where's the weak link here?

My options are to swap the MC200 mains for MC300 mains, or the s200 surrounds for s300 surrounds, or upgrade the P200 to the P500.

Acoustically speaking, my room is not ideal - the separation between the main speakers is about three feet, and the room is long and relatively narrow, with several open doors/entryways. The room measures about 2800 - 2900 cubic feet. Also, my front speakers are olaced, by necessity, on top of an entertainment center - about 6 feet or so high. The space between the mains is about 3 feet, but I have toed them out a bit to compensate.

Any opinions or recommendations?

 

[Shinerman]

I can't comment on your specific speakers but can say that Cambridge is a good company that makes some nice speakers and other products. I have an old pair of small bookshelves from Cambridge that I use in my garage. They are suprisingly good for their size and age and condition. I used them as rears for several years.


That said, it could be a lot of things but for starters it sounds like your mains are pretty close together for music. 3 feet is not much. Also, if they are 6ft high you might need to aim them more toward your listening position and ear levels. This is generally important for music. Good musical sound is much more dependent on imaging and soundstage than HT and can be greatly effected by speaker positioning and room acoustics. In a nut shell, I would do a liltte more experimenting with positioning before spending more money on new speakers. If it's an acoustic or positioning problem, new speakers won't always solve this. Some speakers are more easily positioned than others but that only goes so far. Try getting them about 5 to 6 feet apart at least even if you have to mount them on a wall and try and aim them toward you listening position/ear level.

As far as all channel mode goes. It's really up to the individual person what they like best. I prefer 2 channel and actually DTS Neo6 for music.

Shinerman

 

[Unregistered]

Thanks for your response and advice, Shinerman.

Best regards.