My review of my CBM-170 SEs

A little background

I've always been a little interested in speakers and sound. I've owned several different sets of computer speakers, a Costco/Sony HTIAB circa 2001, and most recently a pretty nice Vizio soundbar (with subwoofer).

Even though I took care in selecting these setups, I knew (and was annoyed that) they weren't giving me the same smooth, room-filling sound of the "regular" bookshelf speakers I hear in restaurants, bars, and friends' houses.

So I finally decided to purchase a respectable stereo setup (2.0) for TV, movies, and music.


Selection process

I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir, but choosing which speakers to buy quickly becomes an exercise in frustration. 99% of the information written about speakers seems to be meaningless subjective drivel, even if you're reading the highest-regarded sites and magazines. For any particular speaker, I bet I can find one professional review that says it has "tight, accurate bass" and another professional review that says the bass is "one-note and muddy." Or whatever. You get the idea.

A lot of people will also tell you that you have to audition a lot of speakers and pick the one you think sounds the best. This strikes me as ridiculous. What I want from a speaker is for it to convert an electrical signal into waves of air pressure that go into my ears, as accurately as possible. What I "like" doesn't enter into that equation. When I'm listening to something, I would "like" to have some confidence that it's pretty close to what the artist intended, and isn't being colored by some semi-arbitrary decision I made on a showroom floor months or years ago.

So after several months of casual research I finally landed at Ascend, saw how freely they provided data and measurements on each speaker, and also found this interview:

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/in...acoustics.html

Basically Dave's opinions about measurements, accuracy, and "voicing" seemed to match mine perfectly. Along with the countless positive reviews and almost no negative reviews, the decision was made.


CBM-170 SEs: everything except the sound

The purchasing process was smooth. Shipping was prompt, with some nice personal interaction via email. The packaging was simple and effective.

Every review of the CBM-170s warns that they aren't "lookers," and they live up to expectations. The front and back pieces of the cabinet are slightly taller and wider than the middle part, so the speaker isn't really a rounded cube as it seems like it was intended to be. The drivers on mine had some minor cosmetic scuffs on the surrounds. They were also not mounted perfectly flush with the baffle. The logo stickers look cheap and are difficult to read, since the logo is edge-to-edge and the edges get warped due to the curve of the clear plastic on top. (Maybe print the logo 10 to 20% smaller...?)

But, the CBM-170s were never advertised to look good, only sound good, and I was prepared for all of this, so I don't mind at all.


CBM-170 SEs: the sound

I would be a hypocrite if I complained about reviewers' "meaningless subjective drivel" above and then posted my own subjective drivel here.

I can say that I'm pleased with the sound and I'm confident (based on all the data and measurements I've seen) that whatever I'm hearing from my speakers is as close to the original content as I'm going to get, given the size of the speakers and the acoustics of my living room.

While I don't want to post anything subjective, I do have some objective observations about the sound. Keep in mind that this is coming from a sound bar + subwoofer setup:

- I immediately noticed a huge lack of bass, but then realized that the CBMs were producing a lot of bass in some situations (e.g., "House of Cards" opening music, etc.). What was lacking was overemphasized and bloated mid-bass. So while the CBMs can't get nearly as deep as my old system, I think the bass situation has improved.

- Even though the bass is better, I notice that some bass lines that should be clear are somewhat muddy. (They're clear when I listen to them with my in-ear monitors.) I was worried that this might be due to the CBM's vented enclosure, because I think the group delay of the lower frequencies from a vented enclosure is supposed to be higher. I thought maybe I had made a mistake and should have gone with sealed bookshelves instead, like NHTs. But after playing around with a tone generator, I think I discovered a room mode around 60Hz, which makes sense because my room is 18 feet long. I think this is probably causing the muddiness more than enclosure type. Thoughts on the subject are welcome though.

- I would sometimes listen to music using my sound bar but quickly turn it off after I was done listening to the song/album in question. With the CBMs, I'm eager to listen to more music. I think this is the dictionary definition of non-fatiguing.

- Similarly, I would sometimes turn the volume up on the sound bar beyond my usual listening level and be impressed at how loud it was and then quickly turn it back down. I guess the system sounded bad at higher volumes for some reason that I can't articulate. With the CBMs, I find myself turning them up unconsciously way past what I would normally be comfortable with and it seems perfectly natural, and I only notice when I pause the music and come back to it later. I'm sure this means the CBMs are designed to sound good at higher volumes, which is nice.

- One objective measurement of clarity/transient response: there's a particular Honda commercial where I could swear the guy was saying he upgraded to a Kia. With the CBMs I can now clearly make out that he's saying the model name of a new Civic really quickly.

- To speak to the tweeter's quality, when somebody crinkles a plastic bag on-screen, it sounds startlingly realistic. :)

I realize that some (or most?) of these observations might apply to almost any other bookshelf speaker too, and not the CBMs specifically. But maybe if somebody is looking to do a similar upgrade they will find this post interesting. Thanks for reading!