Customer Reviews

Cerwin Vega! CLS-215 Dual 15" 3-Way Tower Speakers

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

These days small effecient loudspeakers are the trend and there are few choices if you're old school and believe that size really does matter. Even though I was unable to find a dealer close by where I could audition these speakers, I gambled by going ahead and purchasing a pair anyway.

All things considered, I think they sound very good and believe that 8 out of 10 people would agree with me. The 2 that would'nt agree with me are most likely to be the super hi-fi connosisseur types with inflated egos and bank accounts. If its true that you get what you pay for, then I know that you can buy better sounding speakers. But I'm satisfied with the speakers performance.

The manufacturer doesn't state the minimum power requirements to drive these speakers, only that they handle 500 watts peak. Sensitivity is 96 db 2.83v/1m so they are fairly efficient 8 ohm impedance speakers. Keeping to the rule that its better to have more power than you need as opposed to not having enough power will cause you to drive your amplifier into a clipping wave signal, I would warn against driving these speakers with anything less than 100 watts rms per channel. Having said that, I am only using 120 watts rms per channel to drive my speakers and it seems to be sufficient power. (a little more would be better) Sometimes I like it loud and I never have to push the volume past the halfway point to reach the THAT'S LOUD ENOUGH level. Even at that volume the music is clear and pleasant sounding. The two 15 inch woofers don't seem to over power the midrange and tweeter, they just share the low frequency load equally so the bass isn't over worked where as one 15 inch woofer might start to distort and break up a bit when pushed. The speakers can be biamped, seperating the tweeter and midrange section to be driven by one amp and the two woofers by another amp. The enclosures have rear facing ports in a bass reflex design that help achieve a stated low frequency response down to 24 hz. That's almost impossible to accomplish in a box smaller than a double wide fridge. Even the single 15 inch woofer model CLS-15 is stated to have a 26 hz low frequency capability.

Order
Ordered two of these together actually just based on the reviews I had read on various websites. I am glad I decided to take a chance on these monsters. First of all, be prepared to deal with the size, these speakers are 4" tall and deep, not to mention the weight; each one coming in around 110 lbs.

Installation
Carried one of these home since both would not fit in my car and hooking up to my Marantz SR8500 was a breeze. These speakers can be biampd so somewhere down the road, the preamp out from Marantz will drive couple of Crown amps. These speakers are rated 500W and the Marantz is capable of 175W per channel so I will be clipping the amp much sooner than these speakers. I ran out of space to put my subwoofer so temporarily placed it on top of these speakers..i know..not the best thing to do but I thought I will be replacing my sub with a Cerwin Vega as well.

Sound
Now for the first test, I played some Mozart just to get a feel for the midrange and tweeter...yes Mozart...it will sound strange to hear classical music coming from speakers that look like they want to be driven hard. The tracks were played "Pure Direct" without any preprocessing. Surprisingly the sound was clear and much better than a pair of Bose 701 that I replaced. Couldnt wait for the next test which was a track most of you may not have heard of [Group - Babble; Track - Tribe]. Slowly opened the volume from -40 db moving up -2 db at a time to -15 db. Let me tell you, these speakers played that track flawlessly and the bass was tight and the bottoms were low. Slowly moved from -15 db to 0 db and at this point every object on the mantel piece was vibrating. I decided to go to + 5 db (amp max is +20 db) and I must have triggered another amplifier stage..the sound jumped like turbo was kicked in a car and these speakers were pounding and replaying the track perfectly. Yes, serious audiophiles may disagree with me but I have not heard such serious bass from residential rigs. My couch was giving me a massage and I remember feeling that I was sliding off. I thought I would try the same without the sub turned on and see how much bass these speakers could muster and to my surprise I realized that the sub was not even playing, it had been off the whole time! At this point I have disconnected my sub because with the bottoms this speaker can hit, a sub is just a distraction.

Sound great, they need to be powered by more power than most home stereo
receivers have. I recomend a solid 250 rms to make them sing. A standard 100-110 rms receiver will not do these speakers justice.

ive had these for a month and ran them a couple ways. first ran them as full range from my sony reciever and dbx eq. they rock so hard by far the mons bass iv heard from a home stereo. then i ran them full range on mid and high and crossed over the subs with a elecronic crossover and ran 600watts to the subs. they take it like its nothing and have more bass than i have even heard at clubs or concerts. they really shake your body from anywhere in the house. very happy about the performance.

These speakers are awesome with a capital "A". If you are in an apartment, you a guarenteed to get evicted!!!! Unless you have a good relationship with your entire building. Great BASS, Nice mids and highs. Make sure you have room because they take up alot of space at over 100 pounds each. Would not trade them for the world. If you are the type of person that likes to literally feel your music then these are the speakers for you!

I had a movie on after I got these and suddenly realized that my couch was shaking during one of the fight scenes. I am only putting 200 watts into each of these right now which isnt really up to their full potential. I cant wait until my other 2 arrive and I can run them both @ 4ohms on my new amp that will give them all 300 watts.

i am so far impressed with these speakers. however they need alot of power so i hooked up two identical harmon kardon recievers with each reciever pushing out 120 watts per channel.so basically i have 240 watts going to each tower speaker. the cerwin vega users manual explains how to wire the speakers this way, it is very simple. i am not kidding when i say this, the combination i am running right now rivals night club systems. it is way more sound that i will ever need in the bottom 3rd story of my house wich has about 1100 square feet of pool table, bar and game room space. these speakers are very heavy.

These speakers ROCK! Huge amounts of bass, very clear mids, nice clean highs. Watching movies takes on a whole new dimension. Deep bass passages such as explosions are incredible. I had two 3-way Infinities with 12" woofers and a separate 250-watt powered 12" subwoofer before moving to these Cerwin Vegas. I liked my Infinities but they absolutely do not compare to the bass output of my new Cerwin Vegas. (Controlled and powerful) I highly recommend Cerwin's very capable CLS-215 speakers.

IAM VERY HAPPY WITH MY PURCHASE OF THESE CERWIN VEGA C215 DUAL 3WAY TOWER SPEAKERS AFTER I buy 4 more pair I will have the ultimate home theater system

If your looking for something cheap that looks and sounds good. The cls 215s are the way to go. The only complaint I have is that I think the mids and highs way overpower the 15s. Personally I think I can build better for less, but don't get me wrong they still rock!