The CBM-170 Signature Edition (CBM-170SE)
It all started about 2 years… I auditioned a loudspeaker that I thought truly beat our 170 in the mids and highs.. This bookshelf loudspeaker was ridiculously expensive; it was not a retail or ID brand, rather a custom pair built by an old acquaintance. It was his labor of love and it was truly great…. What stood out for me was how delicate the highs were and how clean and smooth the upper mids were. So began my next obsession…
Every tweeter has a sweet spot in its response range, where distortion is lowest and resolution is greatest.. This range usually begins an octave or two above resonance and continues until the tweeter’s impedance begins to rise. For typical dome tweeters, impedance rises as frequency increases and while this can be somewhat compensated for in a crossover (Zobel network) it is still audibly evident. As frequency and impedance increases, instruments tend to blend together and lose distinctness, lose delicacy. As frequencies decrease and approach the tweeter’s resonance (typically between 2 – 4kHz) distortion increases dramatically and the sound will become “edgy”.
What attracted me to the tweeters we used were a relatively low resonant frequency and good impedance control which combined for a good sweet spot…
I simply fell in love with the exceptionally wide sweet spot on the tweeter used in these custom speakers. Incredible delicacy and absolutely no “edge”… What made these tweeters so incredible? Turned out that after a lengthy conversation with the designer, the tweeter themselves cost more than a pair of CBM-170. I pulled the grilles off these speakers and immediately recognized the tweeter.. a tweeter considered by many to be the very best….
I began researching ways how I could expand our tweeter’s sweet spot. I soon realized that this would require lowering the resonant frequency and making massive modifications to the motor assembly of the tweeter. I sampled dozens upon dozens of highly regarded neodymium tweeters from such prestigious companies as Vifa, Peerless, Morel, Foster… and dozens from various Asian manufacturers. No luck… In order to lower resonance I would need a chambered tweeter…A tweeter that was designed with a large air-pocket (a damping chamber) behind the dome, thus increasing the compliance of the air behind the dome (same principal as increasing box volume to improve bass response). Many of the well regarded tweeter manufactures are starting to produce chambered tweeters, but these are large, heavy tweeters using bulky ferrite magnets. I desired a chambered compact neodymium tweeter with similar timbre to our current tweeter…
I found nothing… and I nearly gave up until I decided to contact the source…
SEAS of Norway… synonymous with high-end audio and simply the highest quality tweeters in the world today. I approached them with exactly what I wanted, what specifications I needed, what size it must be… To my surprise, they were interested. For over a year their renowned engineers worked tirelessly and I rejected sample after sample… We worked closely together and I seriously thought that after rejecting so many samples, they would stop the project… I felt bad and I knew this “project” was becoming expensive for both of us and I really didn’t know if it was even possible.
Then finally... Success!!
I am proud to introduce what I feel is the world’s very best compact neodymium tweeter. The only double-chambered compact neodymium tweeter than I know of. We have a huge investment in this tweeter (both financially and time-wise) and it is truly one-of-a-kind. It is ours and ONLY ours…. being built specifically for us by SEAS of Norway.. a truly custom design and I will go on record and say that you will not find a more advanced tweeter in ANY loudspeaker at this price point. Not even close
Flat response easily extending to 22kHz, a very low resonant frequency and very low distortion, all combined with exceptionally wide dispersion…. all I can say is smooth and accurate to an entirely new level… This tweeter is expensive, and it should be… this is no $4.00 made-in-China tweeter.
Here are some pictures for you to gush over…. Notice the magnet assembly of our new tweeter compared to a very well regarded compact neo tweeter built by Vifa and another very well regarded compact neo tweeter found in a bookshelf speaker that costs more than twice as much as the CBM-170.
ours is in the middle of course
Notice the damping chamber with acoustic foam removed.
There is even a second damping chamber behind the chamber with the foam plug.
These chambers effectively lower resonance and also serve to absorb and cancel the back sound wave produced by the tweeter’s dome, which normally bounces off the magnet and travels back out the front of the tweeter thus causing phasing problems which leads to smearing and a loss of detail… If you can’t tell already.. I am really excited about this...
Next up on the CBM-170 SE.. Woofer Improvements:
While not nearly as dramatic a change as the tweeter, we have incorporated a few improvements to the CBM-170 woofers.
We have reformulated the cone material changing one of the components of the original aerogel. We have found over the years that while aerogel offers excellent detail, at loud volumes it becomes a bit “edgy” sounding and we determined that this was due to aerogel being a bit too brittle, corresponding to large cone-breakup modes at medium to loud volumes.
The new woofer sounds and looks the same but the modified cone material is more durable which subsequently allowed us to increase excursion and utilize a more powerful magnet, thus improving bass response and impact. Yes folks… the CBM-170 now has better bass
I know there will be loads and loads of questions, some of which I will answer online, others I will answer privately (for obvious reasons) but I will sum it up here:
The new CBM-170SE is unbelievable.. The same great sound, flat response and accuracy of the original… only better…. wider bandwidth (both lows and highs), cleaner, smoother and offering even higher resolution. As I have told several of our customers already.. this new speaker is FAR TOO GOOD to be offered at even its new price. These new upgrades will firmly secure this speaker to be the dollar for dollar, best sounding loudspeaker on the planet.. I don’t think anything on the market is even close and you simply can not find these types of advanced fully custom built drivers (both woofer and tweeter) in a loudspeaker anywhere near this price, and we all know that no matter how great the cabinet is or how wonderful the crossover, the heart of a loudspeaker is the drivers….
How much will a pair cost?
As I mentioned, the new tweeter is expensive but rather than maintain my already low margin on the speaker, I am simply going to increase the cost of a pair by an amount that I feel almost covers the cost of the new tweeter..
CBM-170SE price per pair = $348
The new 170 is also a bit heavier due to the tweeter and the larger woofer magnet so shipping costs will be increasing to $20 per pair (up from $16 /pr).
When will these be readily available?
I was hoping for before Christmas but as usual, things got delayed.. I expect these to start shipping mid January. (only 2 months away!)
Will upgrades be available from original CBM-170 (which I will refer to as 170 “classics”) to Signature Editions?
Yes.. absolutely..in limited monthly quantities, but please contact me privately..
Thanks for your time!
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Originally Posted by jeh
