What to buy with $600?

[Drifter]

The CMX series looks like a new approach, but I wouldn't go as far to say they are some ground breaking speakers that just blow everything away for the money. It seems they are web only speakers (All the retailers that have them only sell them online) so you can't go and listen to them. Additionally, I'm not sure where your prices are coming from, but they seem a bit salty from the looks of it. I wouldn't gamble on Cerwin Vega's new speakers with $600, gambling is foolish.

Cerwin Vega isn't known for producing accurate speaker systems, they are known for producing speakers that are loud, and that have "slam" bass. Definitely not accurate. The CMX may be different, but I see nothing in reference to even a well known subjective reviewer that seems to have anything to say about them, let alone an objective review based on measured performance.

The Primus 360/2 towers are time tested and proven to be an outstanding value in terms of out of the box performance. Their drivers are excellent as was noted above, however with modification they can best a great many speaker systems costing stacks of bills more.

Actually, I've been checking out the Primus 360's. They have received excellent reviews and also have a nice appearance. I was not suggesting the Cerwin-Vega CMX were some big and exciting new deal, just that $600 will go a lot further with Cerwin-Vega than it will with other lines. And, my main point is that if someone has only $600.00 to spend on a home theater speaker system/set-up, why not get the entire shootin match now, and then in a couple of years, upgrade to some truly special gear?. As for not being "accurate" speakers, well, I think a person should ask themselves if for home theater they want quantity AND reasonable audio quality, or do they want to shoot their wad on just the left and right fronts and have to scrounge miss-matching center and surrounds?

I think I'd go for the total matching HT system now, and then eventually upgrade to higher end gear as budget and desire permit. Meanwhile, enjoy movies with your family and friends with a decent and affordable speaker system. And it doesn't have to their CMX line, they have several lines to choose from.

Just saying . . . .

 

[Barnaby]

If I were building my system from scratch and had $600 to spend on the fronts, I would consider PSB, Energy and Ascend and plan on adding a quality budget sub from Rythmik, SVS, or Hsu as my budget allowed.

I'd also look to stretch my dollar by shopping Audiogon -- a lot of folks unloading quality gear at good prices to fund their next upgrade.

 

[Seth=L]

Actually, I've been checking out the Primus 360's. They have received excellent reviews and also have a nice appearance. I was not suggesting the Cerwin-Vega CMX were some big and exciting new deal, just that $600 will go a lot further with Cerwin-Vega than it will with other lines. And, my main point is that if someone has only $600.00 to spend on a home theater speaker system/set-up, why not get the entire shootin match now, and then in a couple of years, upgrade to some truly special gear?. As for not being "accurate" speakers, well, I think a person should ask themselves if for home theater they want quantity AND reasonable audio quality, or do they want to shoot their wad on just the left and right fronts and have to scrounge miss-matching center and surrounds?

I think I'd go for the total matching HT system now, and then eventually upgrade to higher end gear as budget and desire permit. Meanwhile, enjoy movies with your family and friends with a decent and affordable speaker system. And it doesn't have to their CMX line, they have several lines to choose from.

Just saying . . . .

Considering how low the prices are commonly on the Primus 360s I am pretty sure they could also get a matching center and Primus 160 surrounds. IN any case, if on a budget constraint I always recommend getting the best front pair you can at the time then add on the matching parts later as budget allows. I would call settling for a lesser 5.1 system "blowing my wad" since it's relatively short sited. In less than a year one could have assembled a great system around the Primus 360 that would give them several years of enjoyment.

As mentioned before it appears the CMX speakers are quite pricey. Even the bookshelf pair costs more than a pair of Primus 360s when they go on sale. There's a link to some place that sells the pair shipped for under $400. The lowest price I found in quick searching for the CMX bookshelfs was right around $400, it would seem this is a no brainer too me.

 

[Drifter]

Considering how low the prices are commonly on the Primus 360s I am pretty sure they could also get a matching center and Primus 160 surrounds. IN any case, if on a budget constraint I always recommend getting the best front pair you can at the time then add on the matching parts later as budget allows. I would call settling for a lesser 5.1 system "blowing my wad" since it's relatively short sited. In less than a year one could have assembled a great system around the Primus 360 that would give them several years of enjoyment.

As mentioned before it appears the CMX speakers are quite pricey. Even the bookshelf pair costs more than a pair of Primus 360s when they go on sale. There's a link to some place that sells the pair shipped for under $400. The lowest price I found in quick searching for the CMX bookshelfs was right around $400, it would seem this is a no brainer too me.

Hmmm . . . I'll have to check CMX prices again. This afternoon UPS delivered the CMX 45C Center Channel I ordered and bot it for $149.00 total! No sales tax and no shipping charges. I got it from A1 Components online. It has 4, 5 inch drivers 2 mids and 2 woofers and a dome/horn tweeter in the center. So far it sounds prety good right out of the box, but obviously, won't really know much more until they break-in.

 

[Drifter]

Considering how low the prices are commonly on the Primus 360s I am pretty sure they could also get a matching center and Primus 160 surrounds. IN any case, if on a budget constraint I always recommend getting the best front pair you can at the time then add on the matching parts later as budget allows. I would call settling for a lesser 5.1 system "blowing my wad" since it's relatively short sited. In less than a year one could have assembled a great system around the Primus 360 that would give them several years of enjoyment.

As mentioned before it appears the CMX speakers are quite pricey. Even the bookshelf pair costs more than a pair of Primus 360s when they go on sale. There's a link to some place that sells the pair shipped for under $400. The lowest price I found in quick searching for the CMX bookshelfs was right around $400, it would seem this is a no brainer too me.

Well something to possibly consider is that the younger folks really like Cerwin-Vega and so, I think that if one was going to sell there Cerwin-Vega gear after a couple of years, should be no problem finding buyers. Every time I've mentioned Cerwin-Vega to an almost twenty somthing, their eyes light up and they smile.

Personally tho, from what I've learned as of late regarding home theater audio, if you have the room, bigger is better IMO. If I ever put another large home theater together, I'm going to use very large speakers e.g. dual 15inch drivers, 8 inch midrange and a horn tweeter. Doesn't mean you have to run them loud, but it does mean that you should get a very robust, fully emersed, deep and rich audio experience -- like the big commercial theaters.

 

[Seth=L]

Well something to possibly consider is that the younger folks really like Cerwin-Vega and so, I think that if one was going to sell there Cerwin-Vega gear after a couple of years, should be no problem finding buyers. Every time I've mentioned Cerwin-Vega to an almost twenty somthing, their eyes light up and they smile.

Personally tho, from what I've learned as of late regarding home theater audio, if you have the room, bigger is better IMO. If I ever put another large home theater together, I'm going to use very large speakers e.g. dual 15inch drivers, 8 inch midrange and a horn tweeter. Doesn't mean you have to run them loud, but it does mean that you should get a very robust, fully emersed, deep and rich audio experience -- like the big commercial theaters.

I'm 20 something and my eyes don't light up when I hear Cerwin Vega, although there usually is something going on my face, my palm.

Your recommendation comes purely from a subjective point of view. No offense meant to you, but I don't think you've had your eyes openned entirely on a great many things concerning audio and sound reproduction.

Large speakers does not equate to good sound, more often than not it equates to bad sound. Large Cerwin Vega speakers have a particular problem with cabinet resonance. This means the cabinet reproduces it's own sound at certain frequencies coloring the natural sound of the driver and cross-over components. Furthermore Cerwin Vega doesn't typically use drivers of high quality, rather of high efficiency. This is why many Cerwin Vega speakers are well over 90dB at 1 watt.

Large woofers are great for producing lots of bass, and there's no doubt about Cerwin Vega's reputation when it comes to lots of impactful bass. The bass is often exaggerated, and not true to the original recording.

You may well enjoy the way the sound, but the don't produce objectively good results in terms of accurate performance. CMX could be different, but I won't get my hopes up.

In any case I get the feeling you are shill for Cerwin Vega considering you joined recently and they recently introduced this product line that no one seems to know about. This kind of marketing is more common than you think, but here it's not quite as accepted since it is quite clear the motive of AudioHolics is to look at things from an objective standpoint.

 

[Seth=L]

Hmmm . . . I'll have to check CMX prices again. This afternoon UPS delivered the CMX 45C Center Channel I ordered and bot it for $149.00 total! No sales tax and no shipping charges. I got it from A1 Components online. It has 4, 5 inch drivers 2 mids and 2 woofers and a dome/horn tweeter in the center. So far it sounds prety good right out of the box, but obviously, won't really know much more until they break-in.

What, this site?

http://www.a1components.com/searchn.aspx?Search=cerwin+vega+cmx

It hotlinks to amazon for the CMX-45C and it's $299, maybe your's was on sale when you got it but it seems to be consistantly this expensive at this point and time. I was refering the the CMX-6 btw, for the bookshelf speaker system.

 

[Seth=L]

Hmmm . . . I'll have to check CMX prices again. This afternoon UPS delivered the CMX 45C Center Channel I ordered and bot it for $149.00 total! No sales tax and no shipping charges. I got it from A1 Components online. It has 4, 5 inch drivers 2 mids and 2 woofers and a dome/horn tweeter in the center. So far it sounds prety good right out of the box, but obviously, won't really know much more until they break-in.

You know I'm looking at this center speaker and I'm wondering, why the tweeter waveguide is not the same as it is with the other speakers in the series (other than the other smaller center of course). You see, the waveguide on the CMX-45C would disperse a majority of the sound up and down instead of side to side like a regular horn waveguide. You will notice the towers and bookshelf speakers have the tweeter mounted correctly, as it should be. By default this makes the midrange and the rest of the speakers mismatched unless you mount the center vertically. This shows a lack of engineering and I would say this new CMX line is only meant to attempt to tap into a market for aesthetic purposes only, not acoustically.

 

[Drifter]

What, this site?

http://www.a1components.com/searchn.aspx?Search=cerwin+vega+cmx

It hotlinks to amazon for the CMX-45C and it's $299, maybe your's was on sale when you got it but it seems to be consistantly this expensive at this point and time. I was refering the the CMX-6 btw, for the bookshelf speaker system.

I purchased mine directly from the telephone customer service gal at A1 Component.com I think I bot the last one at that low price. I even questioned her about the price -- thinking that it was too low compared to other outlets. She assured me that the $149.00 was correct and that was in fact what I bot it for (unless she ripped me off at the credit card swipe?)

 

[Drifter]

You know I'm looking at this center speaker and I'm wondering, why the tweeter waveguide is not the same as it is with the other speakers in the series (other than the other smaller center of course). You see, the waveguide on the CMX-45C would disperse a majority of the sound up and down instead of side to side like a regular horn waveguide. You will notice the towers and bookshelf speakers have the tweeter mounted correctly, as it should be. By default this makes the midrange and the rest of the speakers mismatched unless you mount the center vertically. This shows a lack of engineering and I would say this new CMX line is only meant to attempt to tap into a market for aesthetic purposes only, not acoustically.

Interesting observation. You would think that all they had to do was make the enclosure a little wider and could turn the horn to the proper orientation to match the rest of the line. Curious. I might even call Cerwin-Vega and ask them about that -- not that I care all that much. My front speakers are 1980's cerwin-vegas with the standard dome tweeter. So they're not going to match sonically anyways.

 

[BufordTJustice]

How would Polk Monitor 70's/TSi 500 towers compare with the Infinity Primus 362s? Would the 362s be considered full range? Would the Monitor 70s?