Customer Reviews

Energy CB-5 Bookshelf Speakers (Pair,Black)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Great speakers - I heard this model at a big-box home electronics store and was impressed. They stuck in my mind and when I saw them on Amazon - at a far better price - I ordered them immediately. They have replaced the original speakers that came with a bookshelf stereo. Same settings, same location, and the improvement in sound is incredible. Good bass, clear midrange and crisp highs. No muffled sounds or tinniness, good solid build quality. Definitely recommended.

This is a very solid bookshelf/surround speaker whose sound belies it's size. Bass is warm and musical, and as such works well with or without a subwoofer. Highs are accurate and extended without being bright, which is sometimes be a concern with an aluminum dome tweeter.

Basically these speakers work as advertised: they are a good choice for speakers in a small room (say, a college dorm) or as surround speakers in a system that uses other speakers in Take's Connoisseur line.

First and foremost, I'd like to point out that in no way, shape, or form, am I an audiophile. I asked a coworker of mine, who is a self proclaimed audiophile, and he recommended these speakers to start with. They were in my price range, and I was told the quality is excellent for the price.

I have to say that I am very pleased with these speakers! This was my first step in getting better sound out of my TV, BluRay player, and Playstation 3 (along with a receiver; Sony STR-DH810) and so far it's been worth the purchase. I've only had the speakers for about one month now, but I have no complaints. They are medium range speakers, which (I think) means they can provide a good amount of bass without a sub woofer (I don't have one yet). While in general I like more bass than what I can currently get, the Energy CB-5 speakers provide plenty of bass themselves. TV shows, movies, and video games alike all have great sound to them.

I am only using them as front speakers at the moment, and with that in mind I would absolutely recommend these speakers. I have no doubt that they will continue to work well as I build towards surround sound over time.

I poured through many different speaker types before settling on these. I tried polks (t15 and tsi100), klipsch icons, Definitive Tech 800 and many others, before settling on these. I loved the definitives the most, but for my situation, the energy's were for me. I have a medium to small size viewing room in an apartment building, so I was looking to build a surround system with smaller satellites and no subwoofer. I was beginning to lose hope when I ran into the CB-5. Awesome speaker with great low end for the price. No, it won't get as low as a sub, but this has great bass for its size and you can forgo wiring a subwoofer. The rest of the range (trebles and mids) are great too. People looked at me in horror at suggesting not having a sub, but for those of us with size/sound limitations, a sub isn't ideal. When I buy my own place I'll look into a subwoofer and these will become my rear surrounds. For now, they work great as left and right mains. Remember, when looking for audio equipment, the search is have the fun. Enjoy your search folks!

This is the second set of speakers I have purchased that weren't the Sony discount style speaker. I have a polk center channel, which is awesome paired up with these Energy's, and Sony for the surround. Even running on my old pioneer amp these CB 5's sound incredible. The clarity and bass response is immaculate. I find that everything sounds great coming out of these; classical, hip-hop, dubstep, rock. The speakers make titillating highs, and produce very clear lows. For the cost, and the amount of space they take up, or don't take up, you can't beat these little guys. They aren't def. tech monitor 800's, but they make very nice sound, and the price just makes it better.

Prior to purchasing these speakers, my home theater consisted of the Energy Take 5 Classic Pack paired with a Polk PSW505 subwoofer. I bought the Energy CB-5 bookshelf speakers to replace the smaller front speakers from the Energy Take 5 Classic Pack, so I could re-use the smaller speakers as rear / surround speakers. I couldn't be happier, and would highly recommend these; they are some of the best sounding speakers I have ever heard. The sound reproduction that comes from these speakers is simply astounding

I needed some new computer speakers, and decided to upgrade to something nicer than the normal run-of-the-mill plug in speakers. I got the CB-5's on a GoldBox deal for a very reasonable price and hooked them up to a Denon 1911 receiver.

Let me tell you, I was more than impressed. They throw out some GREAT sound, are crisp at high volumes, and the amount of bass that comes out of the back is quite surprising. I never really realized how bad all of my other speakers were until I went with these. Now there is no way I could go back.

From what I've read online, it seems that these CB-5's are a slight improvement over the speaker that is in the Take 5 Classic that is so highly reviewed for home theater surround sound setups.

You can't go wrong with these speakers, just remember that the price fluctuates quite a bit on them, so wait for a good deal!!!

These speakers have ample top end, and enough low end to make any situation sound great on a small scale. I use these for my TV and music from various cable channels and CD. They can handle loud volumes and seem to be pretty flat over all. I work in a recording studio and I'm used to expensive professional monitors all day, and when I come home to listen casually these speakers are friendly to the ear and do the job as good as any other on this scale. I am using a 15 band stereo EQ and a Pyle 2x75 amplifier before the speakers. A great buy at the price.

I got these kind of blindly on recommendation from people at the AVS forum and I couldn't be happier. Along with my Pioneer VSX-1020-K,these speakers produce a sound so perfect that even if I were rich I wouldn't care to spend more money on something more expensive, perhaps with the exception of the same line from Energy. I've listened to speakers far more expensive than these and the CB-5s sound better than anything else I've ever sampled or had.

Obviously these are not excellent for bass, given the size, but no bookshelf speakers are great on bass, you always need a subwoofer if you crave for good bass. In my case I got the BIC America F12 and I couldn't be happier with the match. The Energys provided superb high, mids and mid-lows, the BIC America superb lows. It's like a combination made in heaven.

I've been listening to different kinds of music since I got them, jazz, rock, and also TV and movies on Blu-Ray. They all sound excellent. Because of the huge discount on the CB-5s I also use one of them as center, instead of the CC-5 which is much more expensive. However, this doesn't diminish the sound quality in the least, voices coming through the center channel sound perfect.

I have been doing a lot of research on upgrading my TV (Samsung PN50A650 50-Inch 1080p Plasma HDTV with RED Touch of Color) speakers with a receiver, pair of bookshelves, and subwoofer. I had a limited budget (and did not want a full surround system at this time). I ended up going with a pair of Energy CB-5's after debating back and forth between Sony, Polk Audio, and Boston Acoustics. After listening to these at Best Buy I took the plunge. Here are my impressions (after having it for one week):

The speakers came in a high quality box with very good packaging. It was double boxed with an Amazon box on the outside and Energy box on the inside. The speakers themselves are small. Probably the smallest regular bookshelves I've seen when compared to others that cost similar to this. This was great, since no one else cares about high quality sound in my house except for me, so the low profile nature of these were welcome. The speakers look great, high quality, and dare I say "beautiful" in a very understated professional way.

One of my worries initially was the size of the speakers and if they would distort at higher volumes and if they had enough "power" to handle movies, games, and high quality music. So I hooked them up to a newly purchased Marantz NR1601 Audio Video Receiver (Black), turned on the PS3 and dropped in a CD. The sound? Awesome. Clear, well balanced, powerful, amazing. I can't believe how loud these get given they are so small. There is no distortion, no weakness, and no range these can't handle (from what I've thrown at it so far). It also handles bass amazingly well and pumps out clean, clear, low notes (and manages to rumble during movie playback). It is not a subwoofer (for that I purchased this: Energy ESW-C8 8-Inch 240 Watt Subwoofer (Black)) but again, super bass for such a small speaker.

So far I've used it for regular TV watching, playing PS3 games, and for listening to CD's. All sounded incredible (keep in mind I'm going from TV speakers to this) and life-like.

So with the Energy subwoofer and the Marantz receiver, these bookshelf speakers are gold. It literally sounds like a movie theater in my family room (which is about 15' x 21' with cathedral ceilings).

I'm sure audiophiles and true surround movie buffs will use these for satellite speakers, but if you are on a budget and want to get these for an upgrade to your current speakers as a pair of main bookshelves then go for it. You won't regret it. I have zero buyers remorse.

Small form factor, amazing sound, awesome build quality.