Cerwin-Vega's new CMX series - high WAF and a $X,XXX(!!) price tag

For now Radio Shack is one of the few companies that sells them:

Cerwin-Vega CMX-212

They have them listed at $1,999 for each speaker(!!), but with a line drawn through the price. BTW folks, to me these don't seem anything like the "frat boy" speakers many people associate with Cerwin-Vega (and anyway, during a party is the last place you want to "audition" any speaker).

Features:

* slim enclosure with gloss black front piece w/illuminated CV logo
* dual side-mounted 12" powered woofers
* dual 8" midbass drivers
* dual 6.5" midrange drivers
* one 1" soft-dome tweeter

* 64" tall
* 169lbs each

There is also a line of smaller versions including bookshelf models.

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Also...........

For those that don't care about WAF Cerwin's well-reviewed CLS series, now called the XLS series, has been redesigned.

Here's the new dual 8" woofer model.

FYI: in my opinion it looks like Cerwin's entry-level "VE" series is most akin to the "not-real-accurate-but-still-fun" speaker image many people seem to have in mind when this company is mentioned.

They are selling for $1799.99....which is about $1500 more then they should.

This type of speaker enclosure always seemed to be more of a joke to me than anything else. It's not a sonically good idea to have your sub(s) located in a small enclosure behind your mid drivers. In my opinion, towers like this have always sounded bad in HTs, but if you are looking for the perfect absurdly expensive tower speaker for house parties then this is your item.

As far as the powered CMX models: because of their built-in powered woofers (they don't go low enough to qualify as true subwoofers), I actually pictured these more for a music-only stereo system that can be used with one of the more powerful stereo receivers out there.* Though I'll bet the CMX-28 can probably work well with a $200 to $300 receiver since all it has to operate are two 6.5" midbass drivers.

I highly doubt these are of the "house party" variety of speakers. CV nearly went bankrupt @5 years ago and despite their success with the CLS line of speakers which were introduced after the Stanton Group acquired them back then, it looks like they need to sell a line of more upscale models to help them to stay solvent and such a sonic personality would IMO prevent them from selling to a wider range of buyers. To help with that endeavor I am sure that is why they hired - after the Stanton acquisition - Domenic Buonincontri as their director of engineering, who previously worked for Revel & who has earned several patents in loudspeaker design; and Bill Bush as their senior design engineer, who was previously NHT's lead engineer.

FYI: a large proportion of any speaker's price is their enclosure, lots of hand labor and the price of the material itself. For example checking the weight of even the smallest CMX model, the CMX-5, reveals it to weigh 21lbs. That's a lot for a small 2-way with a 5" woofer! So these definitely aren't typical Cerwin-Vegas.

Here's some examples of other manufacturers that use side-mounted woofers: NHT's Classic Four; Vienna Acoustics' Mahler V1.5 ($12,000 per pair); German manufacturer Canton and their Karat Reference 2 DC.

I don't mean to sound like a shill, but conventional large and affordable speakers are very rare these days and as an old guy  who grew up with such designs, I would like to see a few of them survive (including Cerwin's VE and new XLS series). And I think a few others think the same way: witness the return of the Klipsch RF-7s, large floorstanders with dual 10" drivers that are "back by popular demand" according to the website.


* for example, the Denon DRA-697

Edited by LanceJ - 10/25/09 at 4:25pm

these look pretty darn cool. Ive always been a fan of CV.
Id love to hear a demo of them.
I do wish they went a bit lower though.

>>> I do wish they went a bit lower though.<<<

The fact they don't go lower, as far as compared to many other speakers with similar-sized woofers and enclosures, is what increases their efficiency rating: since they don't have to reproduce those lower bass frequencies - those POWER hungry frequencies btw - the receiver or power amp doesn't have to work as hard. Though if these are used in an HT system, I would still include a good sub so you could hear those super-rumbly effects (30Hz and lower) many movies contain.

This type of design decision is what contributes to CV's (and Klipsch's) reputation for building speakers with "punchy" and hard-hitting bass for music.