Customer Reviews

Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble 208N Subwoofer/Satellite Speaker Package, White

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I recently purchased the Ensemble 208 Subwoofer/Satellite package. Once it was hooked up (following the good directions in the user's manual) it was ready to go. It's quite unbelievable that the sound from these small speakers can be so rich and room-filling

...they are now making me rich! How? I just made a bet with Trevor, a friend of a friend and (formerly-proud) owner of a Bose Companion 5 system, that I could find a better 2.1 system of computer speakers for the same price which would knock his socks off in a BLIND LISTENING test! That means we bring in a 3rd person who would switch the sound between his Bose system and a system of my choice, with him wearing a blindfold and choosing which system he preferred WITHOUT knowing what he was listening to. The loser would have to pay the winner a cool four C-notes plus shipping and tax.

So I brought over a pair of these Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble 208 speakers with matching sub, which I had ordered online just for this test---that's how confident I was about it. Trevor and I chose 3 CDs each for the test, and Cynthia our company's secretary was the switcher person. Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me," Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue," and Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" were my CDs, while Jeff used U2's "Achtung Baby," Eminem's "Slim Shady LP" and Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited."

The result? It wasn't even close...he chose the CSE 208s in 30 out of the 35 blind tests Cynthia put us through! Poor Trevor, he was so flabberghasted that he just didn't know what to say when she announced the final tally. Next I had him listen to both systems WITHOUT the blindfold, and THEN the words came pouring out of him! To wit: "Oh my God, I hate you so much! I was so in love with my Bose and now I'm so ashamed of them!"

Yep, it really was no contest: in every musical genre (jazz, rock, blues, classical), in every aspect of sound presentation (imaging, soundstage, detail, texture, emotional involvement), and in every part of the musical frequency range (bass, mid-range, treble), the Bose were simply put to shame. It was like comparing a moped to a motorcycle, just two completely different animals!

Trevor, who confessed to having owned nothing but all-in-one shelf stereo systems his whole life (Fisher, Akai, Sony ... sound familiar?), was amazed at just how GOOD music could really sound with the proper gear and actually thanked me for opening his eyes just in time --- he still had another week left on his return policy for this Bose system, thank God. I told him that he might've lost four hundred bucks but gained a lifetime of truly good music-listening since he was thinking about blowing over two grand on some Bose home theater setup.

To soften the blow I promised him that I'd help him spend just over a thousand bucks for a far better home theater setup (SVS subwoofers dot com and Hsu research dot com) so in the end he'll actually come out at least six hundred bucks ahead!

Personally, if I had four hundred bucks to spend on a computer sound system I'd buy a Super T-Amp and hook it up to a pair of good bookshelf speakers like the Onix XL-S, Infinity Primus 160s, Polk Monitor 30s, etc. Or I'd get a pair of powered studio monitors by M-Audio or Alesis, for maximum tonal accuracy and neutral frequency response.

But if you have to have small speakers and a nice kickin' sub, this 208 system does the job nicely. The Klipsch ProMedia 2.1 system is also pretty decent and just around a hundred fifty.