Cambridge Soundworks opinions?

I have had a Cambridge Soundworks center channel speaker, and I'm debating whether or not to get rid of it. To me, it sounds a little too "stuffy" and small. When I re-do the system a little, I'm going to be using all Boston Acoustics.

FWIW, I never was all that impressed with CSW's speakers. I tried the center with some speakers I already had, and while it was OK, it really didn't sound like I'd hoped. It could have been the conditions at Best Buy, but I never thought the speakers really sounded all that clear. Theirs were also some of the poorer computer speakers I'd heard...even the cheaper Altec Lansing set I bought sounded better to me. I don't know anyone else who's owned these.

I don't even know if these CSW speakers fetch much on eBay. Most of the listings I see are for factory refurbs being sold by CSW (user ID hifi.com). Still have the original box if I do decide to dump it. If I wouldn't get much for it, I'd just hang onto it.

 

i think the newton series speakers are decent. i have a home theater set up using the newton speakers. what CSW speakers are you talking about?

 

These would have been maybe 5, 6 years ago.

 

Cambridge Soundworks speakers are actually very good for the money, and I always thought they sounded really good next to doing it yourself.

However, I've rebuilt a few Boston Acoustic speakers. Talk about cheep-cheep drivers they put in those things!! I still have a very small pair that my dad gave to me. The cones on the original drivers started to rot on the edges! Once I took them out, I was shocked to see a VERY cheaply made driver, and my dad paid almost $300 for that pair. I recently replaced the tweeters and they sound great now....

Just be very careful what you buy, and you might want to do research into models you're interested in. There are really good deals out there, but right next to them, very chinsy construction behind the scenes. Beware.

 

That foam rot happens on just about all drivers that use foam vs. rubber...Advents had a problem with that as well. The original Boston A series drivers were likely sourced from others. (The A40 used an Audax tweeter.) The Series II seemed to have better components.

 

Fairly sure they were A's. But that's true, and I hope things have gotten better

 

I've had the cheap ($200) 3 piece powered Soundworks speaker system for about 7-8 years on the television in my bedroom. For my purpose - a replacement for the speakers built into the two different Sony's I've used these with - they sound nice, and are a very good value. Besides properly setting the level of the woofer, I've also had to tweak the TVs' built in bass and treble controls a bit to get the sound as natural as I can, but I've enjoyed these.

I should add that part of the bass and treble adjustment I find necessary is a cut in the bass control, and a relatively smaller cut in the treble. I think I was able to get away with either no cut or just a slight cut in the treble and less of a bass cut (than I do now) with my old set. I suspect my current TV has a bit of "boom/tizz" built in, making me have to make a bit larger adjustments to the bass/treble than I had to with my old set.

 

I still hook up a pair of battered A40-IIs just to listen to them. The sound they throw out of those small cabinets is incredible, IMHO.

 

I have a pair of Boston A-60 Series II that I'm using right now with a little 8-w/ch push-pull tube amp and the sound is fantastic. They have that classic acoustic suspension sound, with a smooth midrange and high end and surprisingly powerful bass for the small cabinet size. I picked them up at a thrift store for $25 a few months ago--one hell of a deal!

 

The A-60's are a weird animal. In their original form, they had a paper cone tweeter, and it was the only model to have it. Series II got it the much better dome tweeter. I think for the II series, Boston may have switched to producing all of their own drivers.

The A-40II's also have that nice midrange. That's why I like to plug 'em in every now and then...they have a huge sound that you usually don't know is from a small box until you notice the bass isn't quite as powerful as the A150's for example.

 

I recently purchased the top of the line Newton center speaker. It proved a much better match to my Dahlquist DQ-10's than the Infinity center speaker I had been using. (It is now a rear speaker for Dolby EX encodded DVD's), The Newton fully satisfied my quest for better sound. Their e-bay site sells some of their better stuff all the time at the best sale prices.

Richard.