I was a DJ at parties and used these speakers ! I drove them with the Cayin A50 -T integrated tube amp ! People always came up to me to comment on the quality of sound ! I also used a turntable and two high end SACD players . It played loud and clean with emotion ! Many DJ' s have terrible sound today !
That's because they think if they can just drop a couple speakers a cheap mixer a junk amp and a turntable they will get paid ! Now days they have there song lists in a computer and just push play ! That ain't proper DJing !! Proper DJing is a lost art ! Plus your clarity of sound is everything !!
As a DJ, sound quality is an obsession to me but I was also influenced by live sound engineers and the sound system culture. A lot of DJs today don’t really care about sound because they don’t know how to use their gear and to your point, use junk equipment and just plug and play.
I was a rep for Cerwin Vega in the '70's back when those were sold. Toured the company and met Gene Czerwinski. He had a real thing against dome drivers so he cut a basketball in half and glued each half as a dome to a set of his 10" woofers in cabinets. the only dome woofer at the time! Quite the character!
Cerwin Vegas claim to fame was never to be a high fidelity product. Gene Czerwinski introduced outdoor loudspeaker systems for concerts. Also, Cerwin Vega is the only speaker company to win an Academy Award for the film Earthquake with their folding horn design. Some theaters had to stop showing the film because the walls were cracking from the low frequencies. Amazin.
Folded horns don't have anything to do with low frequency. It's that Their woofers are almost built to meet the sub-woofer category. That's why they require so much power to properly drive.
@@beesting6135 I had a pair of their VS-150's. They weren't audiophile material, but they dug right down to 20 Hz without the need for a subwoofer and they had the punch to make you feel like you're at the concert, standing up close to the stage.
I got my first credit card back in my late teens, then got my first pair of Cerwin Vega speakers. Mine were the 15" woofers with dual 3" ports on the rear. I'm here to tell ya, once bi-amped and EQ'd, those things would dig a hole straight to hell on the low end. They can be very impressive if you're willing to push them. I learned a lot about speakers and cabinets with Cerwin Vega, finally sold them in my early 30's to a friend and he still uses them today. With today's digital EQ's, I'll bet one could really make these sing.... Way back when all I had were analog sliders and some really crude analysis gear. No, not the good ole days! Not in this regard. Cheers 🍻 P.S. Back when I bought my 15" version of this speaker, I got them at Sears and paid $500 for the pair. They were sold individually. Funny how I can remember meaningless crap like this 🤷♂.
If you got yours in the late 70's it was probably the Model U315 designating 15" 3-way. The U15 was a 15" 2-way. Great sounding speakers that'll blow out the windows along with the frame. I didn't find them fatiguing at all. The U series was followed by the D series, VE series, AT series. Don't know the model names after that.
True test of a great speaker is to run it without having to EQ the heck out of it. If you have to EQ it, move on to something else. Bi-amping doesn't improve sound quality, just allows you to dedicate wattage to the low and mid/high frequencies separately.
This brings back some memories. These are party speakers. They are designed to be hot on the top end for when the room is full of drunk treble absorbing bodies. I was in a fraternity in college when these were current models. Built some 3 way party speakers using four CV 12" woofers, dome mids and horn piezo tweeters and simple crossovers designed solely to protect the mids from damage. I knew nothing, but still knew enough to put a coil on the woofer to roll it off though. Piezo tweeters were indestructible and required no crossover to protect them as they are high resistance and "ignore" low frequencies. The piezo tweeters would make your ears bleed when the room was empty but they "came in" once we had 100+ people packed into the bar. The old CV woofers had nice cast aluminum baskets on them. The house system had four 12's and it thumped hard for that pre powered subwoofer era. The usual deal was to turn the 100 WPC Yamaha integrated amp we had up to clipping, then back itt off a tad, and the party was on. We ran the amp with a fan on it as it got toasty hot otherwise 😆 It is a credit to the amp that it drove that 4 ohm load hard and it didn't melt. Old school Yamama is tuff stuff. I am shocked the orange foam surround isn't all rotted out though.
Pretty sure that woofer has been recently reconed. Agree on the party curve response. A crouded/loud audience needs more top end to over come. And the breaker on the mids/highs is super critical (drunk DJ protection).
D7s here, and yes, best party speakers ever. Ultimately paired with a Hafler pre-amp and Carver amp, Let's Go! Succumbed to "too big" lable. I've had several "higher end" systems since, none I enjoyed more than that one.
Still remember fondly the first pair of loudspeakers I ever bought new--A set of Cerwin Vega AT-15s. Ran them with a 400w/ch Carver amp and they'd shake the walls.
Back in 87-88 I was stationed in Korea and bought the CV M-100's. M stood for military. They have a 12" woofer and 2 drivers, and 2 tweeters. Those things were loud and rocked. I drove them with a SAE A1001 amplifier 😊
I've got the D-5, 12" version ... I haven't played them in thirty years. Late 80's, I opened them up ... diagramed the x-over and was blown away the woofers operate wide open! No filtering. Sure, you hear the upper breakup ... but you're treated to a good woofer, in a good box, directly connected to the amplifier. No resistive, no reactive component, just direct coupled. They're calked chokes for a reason! My D-5s had PTC resistor protection instead of a breaker.
Danny helped me with a crossover upgrade on a newer pair of CerwinVega! SL12 and I couldn’t be happier! CV speakers respond really well to crossover upgrades, and NoRez. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in doing this to there CV speakers to do so. Hopefully we see more CerwinVega speakers come through GR Reserch.
@@StephenHopson-g5k I sent my stock crossovers to Danny at GR and he sent me back everything I needed to point to point wire new crossovers with original schematics
Back in the 80's bought a pair of CERWIN VEGA D-5's and a pair of D-3's "WOW THOSE THINGS WOULD SHAKE THE HOUSE".. Got my share of police calls, for "LITERALLY WAKING UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD, DISTURBING THE PEACE" during parties. Kept those speakers for over 30 years, the woofer orange speaker section started getting old and fell apart on two, blew a tweeter on one but other that they lasted me a long time. Sold all 4 speakers about 8 years ago to young guy for $150. Got my money's worth from them over the years.
in 1992-3 I have the huge Cerwin Vega 15" version of this one much newer. These were Loud. I had a adcom GFA 535 and wow you could hear them though the whole campus. Any one commenting if you were at RIT in 92-3 you heard us. :) took up a third of the apartment . Good times. Nice one Danny
If there's ever a speaker that needs a crossover upgrade, it's a Cerwin Vega. I remember being a proud owner of a pair of D-2s in High School until I opened them up and saw no crossover on the 10" woofer and a cheesy electrolytic cap in series with the tweeter. I sold them to my brother a year later and got some JBLs :)
It brings back memories. I once had a ´high end´ set that I think was called S1. 15" woofer, 5" mid woofer and 2 screamer tweeters, one front and one backfiring. I dismounted the 2 screamers and installed an EV tweeter of some kind on top of the cab, and they served me well in my 20´s.
A blast from the past. Wow. I've been dreaming about Cerwin Vega speakers, and now I'm happy that they were only dreams. Very surprised that the iconic bass drivers were so muted!?
My dad had some very nice Cerwin Vega speakers growing up...I literally blasted windows out of the frames of our old house when he wasnt home one day. You could crank them to the moon with very little distortion. At first he got super mad.but eventually he asked me how I got them to soind so good and had to show him how tp use his digital amp controls...he was used to the slider eq from the past and had no clue you could even adjust levels and whatnot. He had all sorts of effects turned on lol. Edit - he still uses those speakers, though he added a massive subwoofer for watching movies (16" I think...in a 12x12 living room.originally lol), and Sony center and rear speakers. He did have to replace the woofers a few years back but he got the actual OEM replacements. They have been in daily use for about 35 years now. I think he still uses the same Yamaha amp from the early 90's as well. Flanks his massive approx. 70" television.
I still have my old CV MX250 speakers I bought as a young US soldier in Korea. I refoamed the 12" woofers around 2015 as they had been unusable for years. We rocked the barracks with them back in 1995.. I have always known they aren't the most accurate speakers out there, but yeah they were loud... :)
Greetings, just got the SL-15, already had tge SL-12. To me they are great, Classical piano is great, got the lowest piano strings sounding great. Herb Alpert sounds pretty good as so other brass. Yup, very satisfied.
Just picked up a pair of 39p Cerwin Vegas and a Yamaha CR-840 at an estate sale for $55. Work perfectly after some internal cleaning on the Yamaha. Not sure of the difference in these and the D3, but so far enjoying them right now as I type.
I still have a pair of E-312s that I got 25 years ago. I replaced the 12" woofers with some 12" car subs for reasons. But I'd love to do a project like this on them!!
I just installed 4 Cerwin Vega V468 coaxial speakers in my old Ford Explorer and they are of really very nice quality. Heavy frame, large magnet and they have the bright red surround rubber CV is known for. And they sound pretty darn good too!. I know Danny is playing with some of their older house speakers but I thought I'd mention these car speakers. And like most consumer level products, CV makes many products of varying price and quality. I wish someone would analyze car speakers as well as Danny does the home stereo speakers. Although TH-cam sites like Williston Audio Labs are a lot of fun!
The Cerwin Vega D3 was my first pair back in 1990 when I was 16. I absolutely loved them & replaced them with the DX9’s in 1997. I’d love to get my hands on a pair of Q1’s.
I owned a pair of VS-120 in 1992. My ADCOM 100W GFA-545. The Cerwin Vegas just kept blowing fuses. They sounded average. I returned then after 2 month’s and Circuit City traded me up for a pair of JBL LX-500. No blown fuses and a lovely soundstage. Cerwin Vegas were mid-fi. Good for compressed FM Rock and cheap Turntables.
Vegas will always bring great memories for me,just super loud and always took a beating but just kept on thumping......Sabbath and zepplein never sounded better.
I had a pair of D5s back in the day. Good for Rock music, not much else. After a couple of loud songs, they seemed to beam high frequencies directly to your brain. If I'd had seen this before I got rid of them, I would have rebuilt them though.
I have the big Cerwin Vega DX9’s and they were my first real speakers into the world of HiFi. Now you got me thinking that I should upgrade them and get them singing again! Classic! 🔊🔊😎
Definitely upgrade them. You will enjoy the process and results! Send them to Danny, I would love to see a crossover upgrade on the DX9. That’s a popular speaker
Cerwin Vegas were my first pair of real speakers when a kid over 30 years ago. Had a pair of the 15's from Circuit City and had then in a 10 by 10 foot bedroom with a Kenwood receiver. The bass was absolutely crushing and they had good highs also. My dad would come up from the basement 2 levels down and get mad because the whole house was shaking..lol For the money they were amazing speakers for back in the day. These days I have an ultra high end system but when you are a kid most just want the boom, boom sound and clear highs.
I was going to write my 2 cents in the comments, but you just wrote pretty much exactly what I was going to! First speakers, when I was 13 etc. I have a great system now, but back then, those speakers were the beet!
Danny, you're a great guy, honestly! I applaud the effort and the wisdom yo bring the people to the dyi world of audio acoustic. Now , we know that is an Alice run once the bug bite
Out in my garage there's a set of these speakers; haven't used them in over 10 years. I never dreamed that anyone would think they were worth investing $461 into them for an upgrade. That's amazing. Maybe I just need to put them on an amp instead of using the late model surround sound system I have in my workshop!
When you installed the tube connectors, did you remove the input cup and replace it with a piece of wood or something?...It would have been nice to see the back side and show how you did it
The ultimate party speaker? No Danny, the ORIGINAL party speaker! I even believe those are the speakers used by Rick Rubin in his NYU dorm room studio.
I'd be interested in purchasing a kit for my Cerwin Vega Re30 series 12" woofer speakers if you ever make that model a project on your end. Keep me posted if you do. Thanks
The D-9 is the legend. 101db @1w/1m. Probably measures terrible. I'll bet the MTM design has some major issues. But once your ears are bleeding, it won't matter much. CW was never really meant for high end - they were party animals. Emphasis on animal. They were beasts. They were rated at 350w, but my brothers 200w amp could blow the fuse. We replaced a lot of fuses back then.
Great look at a vintage speaker and an amazing upgrade. Years ago I had a chance to listen to a pair of CV speakers and wondered where the mid range was. The voices were lost. Now I know - it was buried at the high end of a low playing woofer. Ugh!
I wonder how the dx9 would be with improvements .. I use to own 2 pairs of them .. Id run a sansui au 717 with them and they were very nice to listen to ... Not mix on .. LOL .. That combo seemed to make everything sound better then it was ... I grew up learning to produce music on dx9's .. Not really knowing what i was doing ... I also had a pair of dx3's i found cheap .. Anyhow ... Id love to see a pair of them tri amped for each driver ... That would be a fun project ... I still have the drivers and x-overs to a pair of the dx9's and dx3's .. The boxs are kinda junk now n days in storage ...
Yeah, me too. Had an original pair of D9s I recently I replaced them with XLS215. Honestly the ancient D 9s blow the doors of the new china built XLS215s. Not even close.
I have a soft spot for Cerwin Vega. My dad had a pair of the 12" woofer floor standers and he would play the intro to Top Gun at insane ear piercing levels.
I've seen the old Cerwin Vega 1215, the old top of the line speaker of theirs, are sought after today. I don't know why. Maybe it's a good speaker compared with their other ones. I've read that the speakers themselves are of good quality but the crossovers not so. So those would perhaps be interresting for Danny.
It would be great to see Danny measure the newer CerwinVega! SL model. There is allot more parts on the crossovers now I’m assuming they measure better out of the box nowadays
Nice job Danny. Are you ever tempted to embrace some of the original design aims? For this speaker maybe a rising HF would be a good thing? Looks like the HF drops off a lot off axis so some on-axis boost might be desirable. And a smiley curve response would keep this speaker sounding like a party speaker.
The party speaker I remember was the Realistic Mach One from Radio Shack. One of the few things we sold at the Shack that was popular. We sold lots of them and the Minimus 7 speakers when they went on sale.
i can remember most everybody graduated from handheld transistor radios, and most people were not audiophiles, and something with loud booming bass and sizzling mids and highs were what most people wanted as it impressed them most did not become audiophiles. i lived in a town that had a fresh batch of customers each semester from chicago, they had money and most lived in fraternity houses and dorms, in the late 60s and 70s there were 7 or 8 audio specialty stores in a community of about 60000-- very unique in the world, most speakers were for party activities these listening rooms were not conducive for critical listening, and or critical listening was unheard of. at this time most people did not know,what Bass or deep bass was[low C on the pipe organ] is or was a goal for some of us. of course clean sound and imaging were there, there were times a few of us did our own recordings to get the best sound, i had a friend who cut a hole in the floor to affix an iron pipe to a concrete pad to get better sound from the turn table. i had to put my turntable in the bathroom closet because the bass power of my home built klipsch corner horns forced to put the turn table in another room[ late 1970s] eventually compact disk came out things were changing, then changing op amp chips etc,,speakers got better everywhere, still people have different values on what they want in speaker sound, they have that right to their values, by the way part of my profession was hearing conservation , using octave band spectrum analyzers , time weighted dosimeters in a million square foot industrial plant , i have listened to a lot of live orchestral music as well a church music, people today have it so much better then when i got started in audio as a teenager in the kik ate 1960s---- i look at that cerwin vega speaker i think at the 1974,winter consumer electronic show were cerwin had a 18 inch woofer he would plug inyo the wall outlet an blow circuit breakers , there were a lot of nice people in the speaker business.
A friend had a pair of Vegas in the early 80's. I could listen to about 3 songs then had to go outside to rest my ears!!! Jeez, they were ringers. Thing about it, everyone thought they were the bomb cause they were so loud.
Hi from down under ! Great work getting that classic CV sounding better ! Is there any chance you could show the schematic for your upgraded crossover ? I'd buy your kit but postage is an absolute killer and I can get the components locally. I have a copy of the factory x-over schematic if you would like it ? cheers ! I have a pair of D5's ( which use the same x-over as the D3, same mid and tweeter, but different woofer. ) Also D8's and D9's Would be great if you could work your magic on those as well !!
Hi Danny, have you ever considered just selling the schematic values you design? No parts, just the design. The 12" and 15" Cerwin Vega DIY fans would certainly like upgrades. Thanks
Cerwin Vega...Definitely not an audiophile speaker, but definitely a party speaker. I used the commercial variants when I was a DJ back in the day and they were very good low end performers, but not so much on the high end. Horns are definitely shrill and midrange is usually dull. However, I had found that using them outdoors with large crowds, they worked well. They were very efficient speakers and didn't need a huge amplifier to drive them. Much of this is true of their home speakers as well. This was definitely not the speaker to sit down and do critical listening with. It was the speaker of choice when you had parties and get togethers and really wanted something that thumps and shakes the walls, like if you were in a night club. I am not sure I would go through the trouble to rework one of these, except to tame the highs down and perhaps put No-Rez in the cabinet. But I wouldn't do much more with these. For audiophile use, there are definitely much better options.
Interesting video. I have a set of DX-9s and some DX-1s that I'd love to upgrade. I'm actually planning a 5.1 setup with these using older Adcom power amps. I honestly don't need a sub, as the DX-9s shake the house as-is. But, who doesn't love more bass? 😂 Sub'd and looking forward to more of your content.
I sold them for years. Well, the store I managed sold them. I never sold a single pair. People LOVED them because they played louder than other speakers. Most people will always choose louder as better. Lost a LOT of commissions, but kept my dignity.
I love you speaker snobs. Speakers are a subjective thing. Machines measuring signals don't bring real humans joy like the old Digital Series from our beloved CV. Measure that...
@@PetePeety Hardly subjective at all. They either accurately reproduce the signal coming out of the amplifier or they don't. The VAST majority don't. Nor do they come close. Feel free to believe that's not true, but ALL the math fully supports my claim. It's perfectly fine to LIKE what destroys the waveform. Just don't call it audiophile.
@@PetePeety I;m not a speaker snob. I'm all about hearing exactly what's on the recording. Nothing more. Nothing less. You like speakers that color the sound. Why is it YOU'RE right and I'm the speaker snob? Because I understand the physics of speaker design? Just because I don't love Cerwin Vega's does NOT make me a speaker snob. You, on the other hand, seem to dismiss the physics and call me a snob.
@@PetePeety "Machines measuring signals don't bring real humans joy", say the guys that readily allow DSP to "Fix their room" using a computer algorithm and an I phone mic.
Aarrgghh! I sold mid-fi in the '70s and this was one of our brands. It paid a decent commission, so I didn't exactly refuse to sell it, but I sure chose my customers. If someone brought in a jazz or classical album, I knew that he would be returning it if I let him out the door. If he came in with anything recorded on the Mercury label, I knew that he would like it. One time we had a grand opening and Gene Czerwinski and a regional manager (I think that his name was Geoff) came out and spent some time in our store. They were really bugged anytime that I did not push a CV. They did not like my explanation.
Despite some bad models, there were some great ones. The AT-15 was a great model. Balance was decent. Not gonna say they're the best speaker brand out there, but I think they're by far the best mid market speakers you can buy. If I want better quality for mid market prices I'll just go Paradigm; or at least get some used ones.
I love your work Danny but can you please show us what a completed crossover looks like? It seems a bit strange to charge $400 but not show us the finished item. Thanks!
The $400 is for the crossover parts, wire, NoRez and tube connectors. It’s up to you to build the crossovers. Danny’s parts prices are extremely reasonable. And the fact that he doesn’t charge for his design time is a unbelievable blessing to the community
they were very sensitive, 92db would go super loud, never tried even half of full volume on my receiver they would damage your ears. you could use these as out door PA speakers if you really wanted to
Need to do a D-9 or 317p or RE38. I have had many of them . Still have the 317p and RE38. I happen to enjoy them very much. Running on a Onkyo TX-NR809. If you have to use analyzers to say they are not good. You've missed the mark. Ofcourse nothing is ever perfect. And sound is going to be infinitely variable unless you have a dedicated sound booth.
I was a DJ at parties and used these speakers ! I drove them with the Cayin A50 -T integrated tube amp ! People always came up to me to comment on the quality of sound ! I also used a turntable and two high end SACD players . It played loud and clean with emotion ! Many DJ' s have terrible sound today !
That's because they think if they can just drop a couple speakers a cheap mixer a junk amp and a turntable they will get paid ! Now days they have there song lists in a computer and just push play ! That ain't proper DJing !! Proper DJing is a lost art ! Plus your clarity of sound is everything !!
As a DJ, sound quality is an obsession to me but I was also influenced by live sound engineers and the sound system culture.
A lot of DJs today don’t really care about sound because they don’t know how to use their gear and to your point, use junk equipment and just plug and play.
I was a rep for Cerwin Vega in the '70's back when those were sold. Toured the company and met Gene Czerwinski. He had a real thing against dome drivers so he cut a basketball in half and glued each half as a dome to a set of his 10" woofers in cabinets. the only dome woofer at the time! Quite the character!
That's beautiful. Lol
,Frankensteinsky style?
My wife and I went to the good guys back in the seventies . We got a pair of Cerwin Vega hard rockers.
Great speakers.
Cerwin Vegas claim to fame was never to be a high fidelity product. Gene Czerwinski introduced outdoor loudspeaker systems for concerts. Also, Cerwin Vega is the only speaker company to win an Academy Award for the film Earthquake with their folding horn design. Some theaters had to stop showing the film because the walls were cracking from the low frequencies. Amazin.
Folded horns don't have anything to do with low frequency. It's that Their woofers are almost built to meet the sub-woofer category. That's why they require so much power to properly drive.
Wrong they are great speakers
@@beesting6135 I had a pair of their VS-150's. They weren't audiophile material, but they dug right down to 20 Hz without the need for a subwoofer and they had the punch to make you feel like you're at the concert, standing up close to the stage.
@@BigJeddak187How can you fit so much dumb BS into such a short comment? 😅😵
Study more, talk less. Cos right now, you're just propagating BS.
They won for the 18” subwoofers
I got my first credit card back in my late teens, then got my first pair of Cerwin Vega speakers. Mine were the 15" woofers with dual 3" ports on the rear. I'm here to tell ya, once bi-amped and EQ'd, those things would dig a hole straight to hell on the low end. They can be very impressive if you're willing to push them. I learned a lot about speakers and cabinets with Cerwin Vega, finally sold them in my early 30's to a friend and he still uses them today. With today's digital EQ's, I'll bet one could really make these sing.... Way back when all I had were analog sliders and some really crude analysis gear. No, not the good ole days! Not in this regard.
Cheers 🍻
P.S.
Back when I bought my 15" version of this speaker, I got them at Sears and paid $500 for the pair. They were sold individually. Funny how I can remember meaningless crap like this 🤷♂.
If you got yours in the late 70's it was probably the Model U315 designating 15" 3-way. The U15 was a 15" 2-way.
Great sounding speakers that'll blow out the windows along with the frame. I didn't find them fatiguing at all.
The U series was followed by the D series, VE series, AT series. Don't know the model names after that.
@@marvinmurakami8828:
I bought mine back in 1996 and sold them in 2010. But for the life of me I cannot remember their model number.
Cheers 🍻
Great story!! Thanks!!
True test of a great speaker is to run it without having to EQ the heck out of it. If you have to EQ it, move on to something else. Bi-amping doesn't improve sound quality, just allows you to dedicate wattage to the low and mid/high frequencies separately.
You forgot about the RE series, like my RE38’s… they are vicious!! 20hz-20,000hz… you just have to be there to experience these monsters.😎👍
This brings back some memories. These are party speakers. They are designed to be hot on the top end for when the room is full of drunk treble absorbing bodies. I was in a fraternity in college when these were current models. Built some 3 way party speakers using four CV 12" woofers, dome mids and horn piezo tweeters and simple crossovers designed solely to protect the mids from damage. I knew nothing, but still knew enough to put a coil on the woofer to roll it off though. Piezo tweeters were indestructible and required no crossover to protect them as they are high resistance and "ignore" low frequencies.
The piezo tweeters would make your ears bleed when the room was empty but they "came in" once we had 100+ people packed into the bar. The old CV woofers had nice cast aluminum baskets on them. The house system had four 12's and it thumped hard for that pre powered subwoofer era. The usual deal was to turn the 100 WPC Yamaha integrated amp we had up to clipping, then back itt off a tad, and the party was on. We ran the amp with a fan on it as it got toasty hot otherwise 😆
It is a credit to the amp that it drove that 4 ohm load hard and it didn't melt. Old school Yamama is tuff stuff. I am shocked the orange foam surround isn't all rotted out though.
Pretty sure that woofer has been recently reconed. Agree on the party curve response. A crouded/loud audience needs more top end to over come. And the breaker on the mids/highs is super critical (drunk DJ protection).
I had a pair of D9's back in the 80's. I still have Tinnitus to this day, almost 40 years later. Would I buy them again? Hell yes!
They’re made in china these days
same!
IN fact I'm still blasting the same speakers!
D7s here, and yes, best party speakers ever. Ultimately paired with a Hafler pre-amp and Carver amp, Let's Go! Succumbed to "too big" lable. I've had several "higher end" systems since, none I enjoyed more than that one.
So glad to see cv on your channel🙏
Still remember fondly the first pair of loudspeakers I ever bought new--A set of Cerwin Vega AT-15s. Ran them with a 400w/ch Carver amp and they'd shake the walls.
I had the same. At-15s on a carver a500x. That would deffintly Rock!!!
Back in 87-88 I was stationed in Korea and bought the CV M-100's. M stood for military. They have a 12" woofer and 2 drivers, and 2 tweeters. Those things were loud and rocked. I drove them with a SAE A1001 amplifier 😊
I've got the D-5, 12" version ... I haven't played them in thirty years.
Late 80's, I opened them up ... diagramed the x-over and was blown away the woofers operate wide open!
No filtering.
Sure, you hear the upper breakup ... but you're treated to a good woofer, in a good box, directly connected to the amplifier.
No resistive, no reactive component, just direct coupled.
They're calked chokes for a reason!
My D-5s had PTC resistor protection instead of a breaker.
Danny helped me with a crossover upgrade on a newer pair of CerwinVega! SL12 and I couldn’t be happier! CV speakers respond really well to crossover upgrades, and NoRez. I highly recommend anyone who is interested in doing this to there CV speakers to do so. Hopefully we see more CerwinVega speakers come through GR Reserch.
Where did you find the upgraded crossover from.
@@StephenHopson-g5k I sent my stock crossovers to Danny at GR and he sent me back everything I needed to point to point wire new crossovers with original schematics
Back in the 80's bought a pair of CERWIN VEGA D-5's and a pair of D-3's "WOW THOSE THINGS WOULD SHAKE THE HOUSE".. Got my share of police calls, for "LITERALLY WAKING UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD, DISTURBING THE PEACE" during parties. Kept those speakers for over 30 years, the woofer orange speaker section started getting old and fell apart on two, blew a tweeter on one but other that they lasted me a long time. Sold all 4 speakers about 8 years ago to young guy for $150. Got my money's worth from them over the years.
in 1992-3 I have the huge Cerwin Vega 15" version of this one much newer. These were Loud. I had a adcom GFA 535 and wow you could hear them though the whole campus. Any one commenting if you were at RIT in 92-3 you heard us. :) took up a third of the apartment . Good times.
Nice one Danny
I have the Adcom G535 my god your lucky you aren’t deaf. Lol
I have a pair of D9s and love them. Had them since 1984
Same here! still have them. For me it was 1982 that the neighbors started complaining!
If there's ever a speaker that needs a crossover upgrade, it's a Cerwin Vega. I remember being a proud owner of a pair of D-2s in High School until I opened them up and saw no crossover on the 10" woofer and a cheesy electrolytic cap in series with the tweeter. I sold them to my brother a year later and got some JBLs :)
it would have been a bipolar cap not an electrolytic. but yep the internals of CV's are awful
@paulclarke245 yep, you're right, my apologies. Garbage nonetheless
It brings back memories. I once had a ´high end´ set that I think was called S1. 15" woofer, 5" mid woofer and 2 screamer tweeters, one front and one backfiring. I dismounted the 2
screamers and installed an EV tweeter of some kind on top of the cab, and they served me well in my 20´s.
A blast from the past. Wow. I've been dreaming about Cerwin Vega speakers, and now I'm happy that they were only dreams. Very surprised that the iconic bass drivers were so muted!?
Have been using them for years always a trusted go to speaker!!!
That response looks great. Nice work Danny.
My dad had some very nice Cerwin Vega speakers growing up...I literally blasted windows out of the frames of our old house when he wasnt home one day. You could crank them to the moon with very little distortion. At first he got super mad.but eventually he asked me how I got them to soind so good and had to show him how tp use his digital amp controls...he was used to the slider eq from the past and had no clue you could even adjust levels and whatnot. He had all sorts of effects turned on lol. Edit - he still uses those speakers, though he added a massive subwoofer for watching movies (16" I think...in a 12x12 living room.originally lol), and Sony center and rear speakers. He did have to replace the woofers a few years back but he got the actual OEM replacements. They have been in daily use for about 35 years now. I think he still uses the same Yamaha amp from the early 90's as well. Flanks his massive approx. 70" television.
It's about time we see some Cerwin Vegas here.
I got the Re 30,s. For 20 yrs now.
Best bass, mids n highs.
No need for subwoofer..
Go down to 28.
97 db.
Best bang for bucks
I still have my old CV MX250 speakers I bought as a young US soldier in Korea. I refoamed the 12" woofers around 2015 as they had been unusable for years. We rocked the barracks with them back in 1995.. I have always known they aren't the most accurate speakers out there, but yeah they were loud... :)
Greetings, just got the SL-15, already had tge SL-12. To me they are great, Classical piano is great, got the lowest piano strings sounding great.
Herb Alpert sounds pretty good as so other brass. Yup, very satisfied.
Just picked up a pair of 39p Cerwin Vegas and a Yamaha CR-840 at an estate sale for $55. Work perfectly after some internal cleaning on the Yamaha. Not sure of the difference in these and the D3, but so far enjoying them right now as I type.
Love Vega's.
Dad bought a pair way back in the day and I rocked the shit out of the house lol
You could make good money with aftermarket crossovers for Cerwin-Vega...huge following
I still have a pair of E-312s that I got 25 years ago. I replaced the 12" woofers with some 12" car subs for reasons. But I'd love to do a project like this on them!!
I just installed 4 Cerwin Vega V468 coaxial speakers in my old Ford Explorer and they are of really very nice quality. Heavy frame, large magnet and they have the bright red surround rubber CV is known for. And they sound pretty darn good too!. I know Danny is playing with some of their older house speakers but I thought I'd mention these car speakers. And like most consumer level products, CV makes many products of varying price and quality. I wish someone would analyze car speakers as well as Danny does the home stereo speakers. Although TH-cam sites like Williston Audio Labs are a lot of fun!
The Cerwin Vega D3 was my first pair back in 1990 when I was 16. I absolutely loved them & replaced them with the DX9’s in 1997. I’d love to get my hands on a pair of Q1’s.
My first ever speakers D3 were the sheet when they came out, all of my friends wanted them. We plugged them in a Metron M200 and they absolutely sang.
I owned a pair of VS-120 in 1992. My ADCOM 100W GFA-545. The Cerwin Vegas just kept blowing fuses. They sounded average. I returned then after 2 month’s and Circuit City traded me up for a pair of JBL LX-500. No blown fuses and a lovely soundstage. Cerwin Vegas were mid-fi. Good for compressed FM Rock and cheap Turntables.
back in the day I owned a pair of CV's with 15inch woofers. I called them lease breakers. And I had them in a smallish room. WOW ! Stand back !!!
Vegas will always bring great memories for me,just super loud and always took a beating but just kept on thumping......Sabbath and zepplein never sounded better.
God bless Danny. He must have helped thousands improve their speakers to levels far beyond the original. And dipping all the way down to CV? impressed
I had a pair of D5s back in the day. Good for Rock music, not much else. After a couple of loud songs, they seemed to beam high frequencies directly to your brain. If I'd had seen this before I got rid of them, I would have rebuilt them though.
OMG had them back in the late 70's with my Marantz 2265B receiver
I really enjoy all of the speaker upgrade videos! Thank you!
lol, what a difference. Love to hear 'em.
Acid Jazz, Funk & Brass 🔈🔉🔊
thanks for another vid - wish we were able to see the spectral decay prior to the revamp!
not cheap but this one may be worth it, amazing transformation. nice work.
I wonder what could be done with my Cerwin Vega e712, this was very cool and impressive.
I have the big Cerwin Vega DX9’s and they were my first real speakers into the world of HiFi.
Now you got me thinking that I should upgrade them and get them singing again!
Classic! 🔊🔊😎
Definitely upgrade them. You will enjoy the process and results! Send them to Danny, I would love to see a crossover upgrade on the DX9. That’s a popular speaker
I would be interested in a Dx9 upgrade as well@@JR-ho5qm
Anyone out there willing to ship Danny a pair of CV AT-15's?!?!? Pleeeeease! You'll be there hero of all us blue-collar audiophiles! haha!
Danny - you’re a genius.. Excellent result there. There’s life in the old dog yet !! (The speaker not you !!), well, clearly you also!!
Cerwin Vegas were my first pair of real speakers when a kid over 30 years ago. Had a pair of the 15's from Circuit City and had then in a 10 by 10 foot bedroom with a Kenwood receiver. The bass was absolutely crushing and they had good highs also. My dad would come up from the basement 2 levels down and get mad because the whole house was shaking..lol For the money they were amazing speakers for back in the day. These days I have an ultra high end system but when you are a kid most just want the boom, boom sound and clear highs.
I was going to write my 2 cents in the comments, but you just wrote pretty much exactly what I was going to! First speakers, when I was 13 etc. I have a great system now, but back then, those speakers were the beet!
Danny, you're a great guy, honestly! I applaud the effort and the wisdom yo bring the people to the dyi world of audio acoustic. Now , we know that is an Alice run once the bug bite
Out in my garage there's a set of these speakers; haven't used them in over 10 years. I never dreamed that anyone would think they were worth investing $461 into them for an upgrade. That's amazing. Maybe I just need to put them on an amp instead of using the late model surround sound system I have in my workshop!
Men... I could never thought these kind of vintage speakers could ever play at ruler flat response, no matter what! Great great job! 👋👋👍
When you installed the tube connectors, did you remove the input cup and replace it with a piece of wood or something?...It would have been nice to see the back side and show how you did it
The customer gets to do that, and it will be easiest to install them straight through the cabinet.
oh...in 1983 I had Cerwin Vega D3-E , I think I bought them because of the looks
The ultimate party speaker? No Danny, the ORIGINAL party speaker! I even believe those are the speakers used by Rick Rubin in his NYU dorm room studio.
Agree
@@joesshows6793 Obviously had exquisite taste in sound, be crackie! 😅 Party on! 🍺
I played bass thru a 18” cv with a peavey 210 watt head and the dance floor was always dancing
That's a pretty impressive improvement, Richie!
Amazing linearity after the mods. Looks to be within +/- 1.5 dB!
I'd be interested in purchasing a kit for my Cerwin Vega Re30 series 12" woofer speakers if you ever make that model a project on your end. Keep me posted if you do. Thanks
If you send him one of your RE30 speakers he will design a upgrade for it
Had a pair in my 10x10 bedroom, Pioneer sx8 receiver and a pile of Metal records. Miss the 80's.
Amazing to see a pair of CV's with intact surrounds. They usually crumble to dust.
Possibly been replaced already
Yes. I replaced them myself about 10 years ago.
Danny, I bet you probably design more crossovers in month then most designers do in their career.
Best Base I ever heard!!!
The D-9 is the legend. 101db @1w/1m. Probably measures terrible. I'll bet the MTM design has some major issues. But once your ears are bleeding, it won't matter much. CW was never really meant for high end - they were party animals. Emphasis on animal. They were beasts.
They were rated at 350w, but my brothers 200w amp could blow the fuse. We replaced a lot of fuses back then.
Great look at a vintage speaker and an amazing upgrade. Years ago I had a chance to listen to a pair of CV speakers and wondered where the mid range was. The voices were lost. Now I know - it was buried at the high end of a low playing woofer. Ugh!
they could have been the two way model
I miss the Cerwin Vega LS-12s I had in college.
I have a pair of DX7 and LS 12 CVs that I would love to overhaul 😮
I wonder how the dx9 would be with improvements .. I use to own 2 pairs of them .. Id run a sansui au 717 with them and they were very nice to listen to ... Not mix on .. LOL .. That combo seemed to make everything sound better then it was ... I grew up learning to produce music on dx9's .. Not really knowing what i was doing ... I also had a pair of dx3's i found cheap .. Anyhow ... Id love to see a pair of them tri amped for each driver ... That would be a fun project ... I still have the drivers and x-overs to a pair of the dx9's and dx3's .. The boxs are kinda junk now n days in storage ...
Would love to see what you could come up with for the XLS215...maybe a 3.5 way.
Yeah, me too. Had an original pair of D9s I recently I replaced them with XLS215. Honestly the ancient D 9s blow the doors of the new china built XLS215s. Not even close.
I have a soft spot for Cerwin Vega. My dad had a pair of the 12" woofer floor standers and he would play the intro to Top Gun at insane ear piercing levels.
I've seen the old Cerwin Vega 1215, the old top of the line speaker of theirs, are sought after today. I don't know why. Maybe it's a good speaker compared with their other ones. I've read that the speakers themselves are of good quality but the crossovers not so. So those would perhaps be interresting for Danny.
Yes that would definitely be a very good video
It would be great to see Danny measure the newer CerwinVega! SL model. There is allot more parts on the crossovers now I’m assuming they measure better out of the box nowadays
Wish somebody would send you a Realistic Mach One to upgrade!
Nice job Danny.
Are you ever tempted to embrace some of the original design aims? For this speaker maybe a rising HF would be a good thing? Looks like the HF drops off a lot off axis so some on-axis boost might be desirable. And a smiley curve response would keep this speaker sounding like a party speaker.
The party speaker I remember was the Realistic Mach One from Radio Shack. One of the few things we sold at the Shack that was popular. We sold lots of them and the Minimus 7 speakers when they went on sale.
I wanted the Mach One's. Somebody talked me out of them.
Cerwin Vega's moto was "loud is beautiful if it's clean"...
i can remember most everybody graduated from handheld transistor radios, and most people were not audiophiles, and something with loud booming bass and sizzling mids and highs were what most people wanted as it impressed them most did not become audiophiles. i lived in a town that had a fresh batch of customers each semester from chicago, they had money and most lived in fraternity houses and dorms, in the late 60s and 70s there were 7 or 8 audio specialty stores in a community of about 60000-- very unique in the world, most speakers were for party activities these listening rooms were not conducive for critical listening, and or critical listening was unheard of. at this time most people did not know,what Bass or deep bass was[low C on the pipe organ] is or was a goal for some of us. of course clean sound and imaging were there, there were times a few of us did our own recordings to get the best sound, i had a friend who cut a hole in the floor to affix an iron pipe to a concrete pad to get better sound from the turn table. i had to put my turntable in the bathroom closet because the bass power of my home built klipsch corner horns forced to put the turn table in another room[ late 1970s] eventually compact disk came out things were changing, then changing op amp chips etc,,speakers got better everywhere, still people have different values on what they want in speaker sound, they have that right to their values, by the way part of my profession was hearing conservation , using octave band spectrum analyzers , time weighted dosimeters in a million square foot industrial plant , i have listened to a lot of live orchestral music as well a church music, people today have it so much better then when i got started in audio as a teenager in the kik ate 1960s---- i look at that cerwin vega speaker i think at the 1974,winter consumer electronic show were cerwin had a 18 inch woofer he would plug inyo the wall outlet an blow circuit breakers , there were a lot of nice people in the speaker business.
Thanks Danny.
A friend had a pair of Vegas in the early 80's. I could listen to about 3 songs then had to go outside to rest my ears!!! Jeez, they were ringers. Thing about it, everyone thought they were the bomb cause they were so loud.
A favorite for bars and other drinking dancing establishments in the 70s. The only good thing I can say about them is that they never melted.
Hi from down under ! Great work getting that classic CV sounding better ! Is there any chance you could show the schematic for your upgraded crossover ? I'd buy your kit but postage is an absolute killer and I can get the components locally. I have a copy of the factory x-over schematic if you would like it ? cheers !
I have a pair of D5's ( which use the same x-over as the D3, same mid and tweeter, but different woofer. )
Also D8's and D9's
Would be great if you could work your magic on those as well !!
I have a pair of D9s and D3’s that I purchased new. Do you have crossovers for these? I love the way they shake the house when playing deep bass.
I just designed a kit for the D3's. Someone will have to send in those D9's and I will take a look at them.
I had a pair of cerwin Vega At 80. Amazing speakers I'm so sad I sold them
Hi Danny, have you ever considered just selling the schematic values you design? No parts, just the design. The 12" and 15" Cerwin Vega DIY fans would certainly like upgrades. Thanks
Cerwin Vega...Definitely not an audiophile speaker, but definitely a party speaker. I used the commercial variants when I was a DJ back in the day and they were very good low end performers, but not so much on the high end. Horns are definitely shrill and midrange is usually dull. However, I had found that using them outdoors with large crowds, they worked well. They were very efficient speakers and didn't need a huge amplifier to drive them. Much of this is true of their home speakers as well. This was definitely not the speaker to sit down and do critical listening with. It was the speaker of choice when you had parties and get togethers and really wanted something that thumps and shakes the walls, like if you were in a night club. I am not sure I would go through the trouble to rework one of these, except to tame the highs down and perhaps put No-Rez in the cabinet. But I wouldn't do much more with these. For audiophile use, there are definitely much better options.
Geez! Didn't know they were still around.
Bullet tweeter, easy way to the 100db spec published. And it was cheaper than a Klipsch.😅 Caught my eye as a teenager.
Interesting video. I have a set of DX-9s and some DX-1s that I'd love to upgrade. I'm actually planning a 5.1 setup with these using older Adcom power amps. I honestly don't need a sub, as the DX-9s shake the house as-is. But, who doesn't love more bass? 😂 Sub'd and looking forward to more of your content.
I would like to see what an upgraded crossover for the VS series would do
I own a set of D5's with the 15" Woofer - It has the same x-over, mid & tweet. It has a better balance.
I sold them for years. Well, the store I managed sold them. I never sold a single pair.
People LOVED them because they played louder than other speakers. Most people will always choose louder as better.
Lost a LOT of commissions, but kept my dignity.
I love you speaker snobs. Speakers are a subjective thing. Machines measuring signals don't bring real humans joy like the old Digital Series from our beloved CV. Measure that...
@@PetePeety Hardly subjective at all. They either accurately reproduce the signal coming out of the amplifier or they don't. The VAST majority don't. Nor do they come close. Feel free to believe that's not true, but ALL the math fully supports my claim. It's perfectly fine to LIKE what destroys the waveform. Just don't call it audiophile.
@@PetePeety I;m not a speaker snob. I'm all about hearing exactly what's on the recording. Nothing more. Nothing less.
You like speakers that color the sound. Why is it YOU'RE right and I'm the speaker snob? Because I understand the physics of speaker design? Just because I don't love Cerwin Vega's does NOT make me a speaker snob. You, on the other hand, seem to dismiss the physics and call me a snob.
@@PetePeety "Machines measuring signals don't bring real humans joy", say the guys that readily allow DSP to "Fix their room" using a computer algorithm and an I phone mic.
So how do I find out how to do the crossover and what to use?
Aarrgghh! I sold mid-fi in the '70s and this was one of our brands. It paid a decent commission, so I didn't exactly refuse to sell it, but I sure chose my customers. If someone brought in a jazz or classical album, I knew that he would be returning it if I let him out the door. If he came in with anything recorded on the Mercury label, I knew that he would like it. One time we had a grand opening and Gene Czerwinski and a regional manager (I think that his name was Geoff) came out and spent some time in our store. They were really bugged anytime that I did not push a CV. They did not like my explanation.
Despite some bad models, there were some great ones. The AT-15 was a great model. Balance was decent. Not gonna say they're the best speaker brand out there, but I think they're by far the best mid market speakers you can buy. If I want better quality for mid market prices I'll just go Paradigm; or at least get some used ones.
The Paradigm crossovers are just as bad.
@@dannyrichie9743 yes... But they perform a lot better from the factory in my experience.
paradigm 5.25" bookshelf speaker i have. it sound bright. like they don't contain the tweeter.
I have a pair of cerwin Vegas as well that I’d like to do some upgrades on. Would you be able to help me out with any suggestions?
I love your work Danny but can you please show us what a completed crossover looks like? It seems a bit strange to charge $400 but not show us the finished item. Thanks!
The $400 is for the crossover parts, wire, NoRez and tube connectors. It’s up to you to build the crossovers. Danny’s parts prices are extremely reasonable. And the fact that he doesn’t charge for his design time is a unbelievable blessing to the community
Could be fun to do a CW AT-100 👍 what you could do with that
I have 2 Marantz SP1515 3 way speakers since brand new. I was wondering if I can get it balanced out. I'm sure it suffers with some of the same.
they were very sensitive, 92db would go super loud, never tried even half of full volume on my receiver they would damage your ears. you could use these as out door PA speakers if you really wanted to
I have a pair of Cerwin Vega DX-7 speakers bought new January DX-7 speakers powered by a Realistic STA 2100 receiver.
Great legendary speakers
Need to do a D-9 or 317p or RE38. I have had many of them . Still have the 317p and RE38. I happen to enjoy them very much. Running on a Onkyo TX-NR809. If you have to use analyzers to say they are not good. You've missed the mark. Ofcourse nothing is ever perfect. And sound is going to be infinitely variable unless you have a dedicated sound booth.