Cerwin Vega CVA 28
First impressions on these active PA speakers, is the sheer size of them. For what they are rated at, they are tiny! Measuring in at 52cm tall, 28cm wide, and with a depth of 31cm it is hard to imagine that these can produce 400 watts RMS and up to 800 watts peak EACH. Generally speakers with smaller cones are only really suitable for vocal and quiet work (such as conferences, background music, in-fills etc…) and even though these have 8″ cones, they can be used in a disco/PA environment.
After unpacking it, straight away you notice the quality of the build, and you can tell it is a Cerwin Vega product. The cabinet weighs in at just under 22kg, is made of a tough multi-ply hardwood and is finished in a coolex polyurethane paint for that pro-touring look. The striking cast aluminium grill not only makes the cabinet look menacing with the now famous deep red Cerwin Vega drivers peering through, but doubles as a heat sink for the tri-amplified heart of this speaker.
Spec wise, it seems to good to be true. As mentioned, this is an active speaker, and has an intergrated 3 way amplifier, driving two 8″ drivers and a 1″ compression driver neatly concealed into the top woofer. This provides time aligned high frequencies for true sound representation. Rubber feet are mounted on the bottom of the cabinet, and also the side of the cabinet, making these ideal for foldback monitors or studio monitors too.
On the control panel you’ll find a contour switch which boosts frequencies, for a smoother sound at higher volumes, and also a sub bypass switch, so if you are using a CVA 115, CVA 118 or a CVA 121 subwoofer, it rolls off low end frequencies, in the CVA 28, ensuring you have no competing frequencies. The third switch on the back switches the input from a line level to a microphone/DI input, giving you the option of using these as a set of standard PA speakers, or plugging a microphone or instrument straight into it, for bands and conference work.
Connection wise, its the standard layout with active speakers these days with 6.3mm jacks and XLR inputs and thrus. A great bonus on these is the IEC thru too, which enables you to daisy chain the power too, so one 13 amp plug can power 3 of the speakers, which is ideal if your using these in addition to the flying kit or the double & tripple antlers, making your set up and pack down time easier and quicker.
After hooking a pair of these up to my mixer (Denon DNX 500) via XLR cables, I was instantly impressed. The crisp clear quality they produced were outstanding for a speaker of this size. What surprised me the most was the amount of bass these little 8″ cones were throwing out! Running them full range they handle every genre of music I through at them, from D&B, Bassline, Grime, Electro House to Country & Weston and Punk! Only when I pushed them to their clipping levels it seemed to lose the tight punch of the bass, and distort, which for the volumes they were performing at, were impressive! These are more than happy to be running full range at loud volumes, if your not going to push them to their absolute limits, which in reality, you wouldn’t really do anyway with any speaker. Adding an active subwoofer to them, and they impress again. Flicking the “sub” switch, they now only produce mids & highs, letting the sub take care of the thunderous rumbles of bass frequencies, meaning you can really push the CVA 28s and they sound awesome.
For me, a pair of these will easily cope with wedding parties up to around 100 people, or small functions such as pubs and family parties. If you like heavy bass, or do lots of 18th & 21st parties, I’d suggest adding one if not 2 bass bins to the set up. Adding two of the CVA 115 or CVA 118 subs would let you do crowds of up to around 200/250 with ease.
RRP for these in pairs are £399 each, or £798 a pair, which, for how they perform, are great value.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by DJMaxG
