Cerwin Vega Speakers: Any good?

[dicky]

Hi guys - you probably mostly know by now that I come across a lot of stuff while dealing with the pub trade in my 'day job'

My latest find is a couple of these 'Cerwin Vega' 15" full range cabs

I think they are probably like these ones but should have got a better look at the front of them to be honest - or at least took more notice of them.

http://www.planetdj.com/i--PSX-153 or like the Cerwin Vega on this listing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SOUND-SYSTEM-PA-STSTEM-/161791734356?hash=item25ab89f254 which may be the same model

I only got a photo of the back plate and there are no model numbers on that unfortunately - can anyone shed any light upon this conundrum?

They seem to be about the same physical size of the 15" Class D full range speakers that I bought of Peter (Excalibur) but may well be a bit larger/deeper to be honest

They have 15" bass drivers. Anyway up shot of all this is that the guy wants 200 quid for the pair as he seems to rate them but says one of the bass spakers ain't working - I guess that could be at worse a blown driver and at best a bad connection

I've kinda heard of the name Cerwin Vega but never heard the speakers up close and personal -are they something similar to my 15" Class D cabs (which seem pretty much to handle anything I throw at them) or something rather better? I must admit to being quite interested in them despite the issue with one speaker as they seemed to be very well constructed and quite a tasty bit of kit.

Here is the only pic I got, sorry if it don't help much

Rich

[ckpr2]

Cerwin-Vega are famous for their subs.
They do some very high power subs as well.
There are a few on ebay of you want to compare prices.

[Sapphire Disco]

I don't think they would be worth paying much more than £100 for the pair with one not working look well used and made in China ?

[Excalibur]

They seem to be about the same physical size of the 15" Class D full range speakers that I bought of Peter (Excalibur) but may well be a bit larger/deeper to be honest
Rich
Tee hee. :D It was a source of amusement that those Class Ds were often mistaken for far more expensive Cerwin Vega ones. The horn flare was the same.

Are these ones any good? Sorry, no idea, but I'd want a far higher grade of cab for £200 a pair with one blown driver. If I'm honest, I'd put them at £100 a pair, both working. I could be wrong, these may have been 1K a pair when new, but I doubt it.

As far as I know there's no link at all with Class D, but there were a lot of boxes on the market at that time which looked identical. I'm pretty sure that most of them had different internals, though.

manual here. (http://www.cerwinvega.com/manuals/pro/prostax-manual.pdf)
A quick google of some forums suggests they were quite prone to self immolation!

[dicky]

Call me a jammy git - but against the best advice of those who commented I bought these Cerwin Vega Pro Stax PSX153 speakers and paid £200 even though one 'has a blown bass driver'..... only to connect them to my amp and find there is nowt wrong with either of them!

They sound real sweet too..... they have a very rich rounded sound that I like a lot ;)

The cabinets could do with a bit of a clean but I'm actually rather happy with them. I'll bring them along to the DJ demo day next year :)

[Excalibur]

I'm still not prepared to call you a jammy git, as having read the instructions, while they ought to sound lovely, being a three way box, I thought the rated power was on the low side. At £150 I'd have grudgingly admitted you weren't robbed, but not at £200

I wouldn't rush to stick 'em on any good sized amps. Nevertheless, I wish you luck with them.

[dicky]

Aww come on Peter, what's £50 difference of opinion matter between mates? lol:p

These are not a replacement for the Class D's by the way - if anything I will run them alongside each other in large venues, and maybe run the Cerwins alone in smaller venues as they are easier and lighter to lug around than the Class D's. I'm sure the Crown 2x1100 I use for driving the Class Ds can more than handle both the cabs in parallel and if not well I ain't short of amplifiers I could use to drive them separately.

IMHO the Class Ds are an almost indestructable workhorse :)

It's all quite interesting really though, these and the Class D's do have a distinctly different sound without a doubt, though I haven't had chance to drive the Cerwin Vega's 'in anger' just yet as my test amp is only around 50W RMS per channel (but then again my workshop is rather small and that proved to be bloody loud on these before I even got near to clipping so they must have a decent SPL per Watt rating).

I would say at a first impression, the Class Ds have a more harsh 'in your face' sort of sound and quite possibly a more pounding bassline... and these Cerwin Vega have a warmer more rounded sound that it rather pleasant to listen to.

Maybe that comes from them being 3-way cabs?

Rich

[Excalibur]

I would say at a first impression, the Class Ds have a more harsh 'in your face' sort of sound and quite possibly a more pounding bassline... and these Cerwin Vega have a warmer more rounded sound that it rather pleasant to listen to.

Maybe that comes from them being 3-way cabs?

Rich

That's interesting. I always regarded the Class Ds as warmer than many cabs. If your Cerwins are in fact a more pleasing sound, then they must sound very nice.

[dicky]

Or maybe not so jammy git......

Mac came round this morning and I was playing the CVs for him - and he totally agrees - the mid range is very well defined on these and they sound real nice.

However we then cranked them up to about as much as we comfortably could on the 50W per chanel test amp - and then they started to sound not so nice with some nasty crackling on the bass. The amp wasn't clipping and in my experience (please educate me if i am mistaken) blown speakers ether are open circuit so have no output or the voice coil windings are scraping against the magnet and they sound horrible at any volume :confused: :confused:

So opening them up I found things are not so nice as the outside

On the one that seemed to be crackling I found something unpleasant - and boys and girls this is not the way to fix a faulty crossover!

The yellow arrows on the second pic show where the input to and the outputs from the crossover have been cut (on cabinet number one)

The yellow arrows on the top pic show where the leads to the mid speaker and the top speaker have been fastened together - with 'Fragile' tape!! (on cabinet number two)

The red arrow shows where the crossover has been replaced by a terminal block - I just don't get it why anyone would possibly think that Cerwin Vega wasted their time putting all that stuff and sh1t onto a PCB when a terminal block could do the same job!!!

[dicky]

Having got the crossover PCB out on the bench it has quite clearly been butchered - one of the circular inductors has been replaced with a completely different sort (circled in yellow) and in one of the long inductors the metal cores have clearly fell out so some have been glued back in, and some obviusly have been hammered back in and bent over when they wouldn't go any further (red arrow)


All in all a good repair... NOT!

The other speaker crossover was actually missing altogether, I just don't get it - these are nice speakers (I'm amazed they sounded so good in this state though) all the drivers are fine (bass mid top) and replacement crossovers are available for £32 each which is hardly expensive. Why would anyone in thier right mind consider the 'repair' they undertook to be satisfactory? :confused: I just don't get it :rolleyes: :daft: :rolleyes:


New crossovers now on order.

[Excalibur]

Ah. So the bargains you bought at the knockdown price of only £200 now need nearly £70 spending on them at least just to find out if any other bits are wobbly. :whistle:
OK, jest over, but I'd advise caution if the lad tries to sell you any more " bargains ".

The old Class D bass bins were notorious for blowing crossovers, and were improved no end by throwing the offending bits away, and using an external crossover. I once A-B tested this, and could hardly believe the improvement. Let's hope that once restored to factory settings they sound as good as you'd hoped. I always liked three way cabs.

[dicky]

Well yeah I do admit maybe I was not so jammy after all....... I'm still amazed they work so well in the condition they are in, until you really start to crank the power up at least.

Thing is I guess when you are dealing with buying spares/repair stuff and keeping some nice bits for your own use and reselling some other nice bits at a good profit then it doesn't always go well.

I've had enough positively good deals, for example the 1.4W Mito Laser for about a tenner and the Wizard Extremes for £130, to be pragmatic about the deals that didn't go so well.

This is why I am happy to post here about things that went pear shaped and accept my mistake (I could have just said nothing) - but yes you are right Peter not such a bargain this time round and maybe this tale is of a cautionary and possibly even educational note.

Having said all that I will fix them though, I'm of a tenacious nature and two crossovers is still cheaper than the blown driver I thought I may find :)

Rich

[Excalibur]

Well yeah I do admit maybe I was not so jammy after all.......but yes you are right Peter not such a bargain this time round and maybe this tale is of a cautionary and possibly even educational note.

Having said all that I will fix them though, I'm of a tenacious nature and two crossovers is still cheaper than the blown driver I thought I may find :)

Rich

Dicky, I'm only teasing. :) I have done, and doubtless will do worse. Added to which, I think you'll end up with some very useful cabs, just not at a rock bottom price.

I've bought near scrap kit, and sometimes it's paid off big style. Some dead Class D bins for a start, on the hope that the crossovers, not the drivers were toast. They were, and I had a result. Some ancient moonflowers for £30, with £25 worth of accessories ( including a CA-8 I'm currently using on the Cheetahs) were a result also. I've lost on s/h deals more than once, as well, who hasn't? Half the fun. :)

[dicky]

Dicky, I'm only teasing. :) I have done, and doubtless will do worse. Added to which, I think you'll end up with some very useful cabs, just not at a rock bottom price.


Which just about sums it all up really

I decided to buy these when I spotted them based pretty much on the Badge - maybe I over stepped the mark a little bit.

I also think I will end up with some very useful and rather nice sounding cabs - and they say 'Cerwin Vega' on the front which could be considered a bonus - albeit like you say not at a bargain price.



However there is a bit of sting to the tale regards these cabs and why I stuck to my word to buy them even though advised not to.......... it was a kind of 'sweetener' to something else I have my eyes upon which may now come my way.... watch this space in about a month :)

Rich