I need your help buying speakers

[dimme]

I'm going to buy a pair of new speakers to replace my current Gamma speakers with 12" woofers. The speakers will mostly be used for watching movies and a little for listening to music. Since I can't use a subwoofer on my amplifier, I need a pair that have good bass.
So I checked out a pair of Cerwin Vega speakers which should do they job.

I found a pair of used Cerwin Vega E-315 (15" woofer, 6.5" mid, 1" tweeter) for a reasonable price. http://www.cerwinvega.com/products/homeaudiovideo/eseries/e315.html
What should I look and listen for when buying used Cerwin Vega speakers?

Any help and hints are greatly appreciated

 

[outside looking in]

mmm...

Never been much of a fan for CV speakers for home use. I guess it depends on what your preferences are, and how you intend to use them.

What is the street price of those E15's? Perhaps if we knew your budget, we could suggest some others to take a look/listen at.

 

[dimme]

mmm...

Never been much of a fan for CV speakers for home use. I guess it depends on what your preferences are, and how you intend to use them.

What is the street price of those E15's? Perhaps if we knew your budget, we could suggest some others to take a look/listen at.

I intend to use the speakers at home for mainly watching movies and listening to music on occasion. They should be able to do the job of front speakers and subwoofers. I can get the used E-315 for about $340 (they are more expensive here) and that's pretty much my maximum budget.


Many love CV speakers and many hate them. I have only heard CVs PA systems before but will of course listen to the speakers before I make my final decision so I'm still open for suggestions. It would be very nice if you could say what you like and dislike about the CVs.

Thanks

 

[outside looking in]

My biggest beef with the CV's is that they use very high sensitivity mid/high drivers relative to the woofer, and they don't seem to pad them in the crossover network to have the same sensitivity (i.e., they don't seem to put resistors in-line with them to bring the volume of the mid/highs down to that of the woofers). I think they do this to keep the overall sensitivity high. The result is a pretty uneven frequency response, with highly boosted highs. An EQ can help correct this.

In that price range though, I'm not sure you'll find a whole lot that really have a lot of bass without a subwoofer. The modern approach seems to be going away from full-range floorstanding towers, and towards small stand mounted "monitor" type (often called bookshelf) with a powered sub. A separate sub can typically handle the low end better than even good floorstanders, and gives more flexibilty in placement options (since optimal sub placement and optimal midrange placement aren't aways, or even often, the same).

But, if buying new, just a decent sub will eat up at least $200 to $300 of that. Doesn't leave much for the monitors. And, sadly, I can't think of a floorstanding option in that price range that would really do much better. Perhaps an older pair of used polk's, if you could find them.

A good resource for people that might have more knowledge than I in that price bracket is www.hometheaterforum.com or www.avsforum.com

 

[dimme]

On tuesday I went and listened to the speakers, during a movie, during music and also in comparison to other speakers.
Overall I think that the sound of those speakers was pretty balanced although the tweeter was a little sharp and the overall sound wasn't as detailed as some other speakers. They were extremely clean and it was all in very good shape.

On wednesday I went to a Hifi-store and listend to the new line of Cerwin-Vega speakers, the V-12F to be exact. They sounded pretty well, but the E-315 with their 15" woofers sounded a bit better (both amps Denon)

I'm getting these speakers on monday, unfortunately I don't have a station-wagon or a car with a trunk big enough to hold both speakers so the seller helps me out with the shipment against a small (hopefully) fee.

 

[outside looking in]

For the money, it sounds like a pretty good decision. The guys at HTforums seem to agree. Doesn't look like there's really a better option in that price range.

BTW, my dad has CV speakers and he loves them too.