I bought a set of CS Ensemble satellite/subwoofers a few years back. I wasn't terribly happy with them in my apartment bedroom (11x13') then or my bedroom now (12x14').
There seems to be little bottom end (with subs set together or apart), there is little to no imaging, and the dynamics sound very compressed.
I was driving them with a (cheap) Onkyo stereo receiver (that burnt up recenty) and a (cheap) Sony single-disc CD player.
Are these generally considered to be good sounding speakers? A coworker suggested it might be the quality of the amp I was using.
Does anyone know anything about these speakers? When we move into our next place I would like to setup a library/listening room and I'm not sure if I should stick with these or spend a little money and buy a kit from madisound or something.
Thanks!
-Jacob
There seems to be little bottom end (with subs set together or apart), there is little to no imaging, and the dynamics sound very compressed.
I was driving them with a (cheap) Onkyo stereo receiver (that burnt up recenty) and a (cheap) Sony single-disc CD player.
Are these generally considered to be good sounding speakers? A coworker suggested it might be the quality of the amp I was using.
Does anyone know anything about these speakers? When we move into our next place I would like to setup a library/listening room and I'm not sure if I should stick with these or spend a little money and buy a kit from madisound or something.
Thanks!
-Jacob
Hi Jacob and welcome to the forums.
Well, as this is a diy forum can you guess what advice I'm going to give you?😉
Firstly, I have to say I don't know the speakers, but as Cambridge Soundworks make mostly computer sound systems, I will be diplomatic and say they are probably built to a budget
But in case I am wrong, the first thing I would do is build or borrow a decent amp and try them out properly. some of the symptoms you have sound like it might have been an underpowered amp.
As you currently have no amp, and if you want to get a bit of practice soldering, have a look at the Chip Amp forum and build a gainclone amp, even built with cheap components they are excellent, and will show any problems with your speakers.
Then if need be, come back to us and I'm sure there will be many suggestions as to a good kit speaker once we know the size and budget constraints you're working under.
It is always better value to build than buy, and you have something you can always look at and say to yourself, "I built that"
Good luck
Well, as this is a diy forum can you guess what advice I'm going to give you?😉
Firstly, I have to say I don't know the speakers, but as Cambridge Soundworks make mostly computer sound systems, I will be diplomatic and say they are probably built to a budget
But in case I am wrong, the first thing I would do is build or borrow a decent amp and try them out properly. some of the symptoms you have sound like it might have been an underpowered amp.
As you currently have no amp, and if you want to get a bit of practice soldering, have a look at the Chip Amp forum and build a gainclone amp, even built with cheap components they are excellent, and will show any problems with your speakers.
Then if need be, come back to us and I'm sure there will be many suggestions as to a good kit speaker once we know the size and budget constraints you're working under.
It is always better value to build than buy, and you have something you can always look at and say to yourself, "I built that"
Good luck
A mini-diy suggestion: check the polarity of everything. Make sure the satellites are connected with the same polarity and ditto for the woofers. If not, correct the situation. If so, try reversing the polarity of BOTH woofers (i.e., reversed with respect to the polarity of the satellites).
If that doesn't work, what you got there are some crummy speakers.
If that doesn't work, what you got there are some crummy speakers.
depends what you were comparing them to and what your reference was. however i did not think CS would be as bad as you describe.
i might suspect their system should be as good or bad as any of the HTiB systems out there (HTiB = Home Theater in a box).
These systems normally came with 1 or 2 (in CS's case the second woofer was passive) 8" woofers and 5 3" ful range or 4" 2way sats. Today they are accompanied by a DVD+AVR. The DVD is normally ok and the AVR is about 50W rms.
They are all built to serve a price point (regardless of brand). None of them can compete with a larger system built with seperates.
i might suspect their system should be as good or bad as any of the HTiB systems out there (HTiB = Home Theater in a box).
These systems normally came with 1 or 2 (in CS's case the second woofer was passive) 8" woofers and 5 3" ful range or 4" 2way sats. Today they are accompanied by a DVD+AVR. The DVD is normally ok and the AVR is about 50W rms.
They are all built to serve a price point (regardless of brand). None of them can compete with a larger system built with seperates.
More Info...
I should mention, I bought my Ensembles shortly after CS started making computer speakers and home theater setups. CS was started by Henry Kloss and was originally a price-point "hifi" speaker maker.
The setup I have has a pair of satellites with a 4.5" mid/woofer, a 2" cone tweeter and two 8" sealed subwoofers.
I checked my Onkyo receiver last night and found it was only rated at 6 ohms minimum. My Ensembles are 6 ohms, right at the limit. I also found a blown fuse on the power supply board, so I will replace that just to see if the receiver works after that.
I suspect my Onkyo wasn't really made for driving a 6 ohm load, especially since the satellites and subs are run in parallel and if there is a significant amount of overlap at the crossover point, there might be a significantly lower impedance there... which may have resulted in my burnt out channel (or blown fuse as the case may be)
I have been reading some of the gainclone threads... I read 6 or 7 pages of TINAGC. Wow... I never new a "good" amp could have so few components.
Is there an "official" gainclone page with schematics, parts lists, theory of operation, etc. or is it all spread throughout the threads?
Thanks for the information!
-Jacob
I should mention, I bought my Ensembles shortly after CS started making computer speakers and home theater setups. CS was started by Henry Kloss and was originally a price-point "hifi" speaker maker.
The setup I have has a pair of satellites with a 4.5" mid/woofer, a 2" cone tweeter and two 8" sealed subwoofers.
I checked my Onkyo receiver last night and found it was only rated at 6 ohms minimum. My Ensembles are 6 ohms, right at the limit. I also found a blown fuse on the power supply board, so I will replace that just to see if the receiver works after that.
I suspect my Onkyo wasn't really made for driving a 6 ohm load, especially since the satellites and subs are run in parallel and if there is a significant amount of overlap at the crossover point, there might be a significantly lower impedance there... which may have resulted in my burnt out channel (or blown fuse as the case may be)
I have been reading some of the gainclone threads... I read 6 or 7 pages of TINAGC. Wow... I never new a "good" amp could have so few components.
Is there an "official" gainclone page with schematics, parts lists, theory of operation, etc. or is it all spread throughout the threads?
Thanks for the information!
-Jacob
jmartinson....your Onkyo amp should be able to handle that set up fine....there is something wrong with the speakers or amp....a blown fuse is a serious condition as if it was the speakers then you might have problems in the output of the amp....further more...you would have fried the speakers upon shorting....this is just a gestimate
The Ensemble system seemed to garner favorable reviews for cost/performance. It was an AM5 competitor from the early 90's.
Based on your description, it sounds like you have an equipment setup problem. As suggested by SY, make sure everything is wired red to red and black to black.
You might want to pull them apart and post some pics of the crossover and drivers. I'm sure they would respond favorably some simple mods.
Based on your description, it sounds like you have an equipment setup problem. As suggested by SY, make sure everything is wired red to red and black to black.
You might want to pull them apart and post some pics of the crossover and drivers. I'm sure they would respond favorably some simple mods.
ultrachrome said:
I am reading about the gainclone amps. There's a couple decent parts stores in Houston and I'm thinking about (and this is too much of a long shot to be my first project) converting the Ensemble to a fully active crossover plus several gainclones in a single large chassis.
The crossover I would use is here:
http://sound.westhost.com/project09.htm
I have a lot of questions about the gainclones, in particular if it is possible to use a single large power supply to run several channels, but my electronics background isn't very strong, so I am going to try to pickup as much as I can over the next few weeks from the forum b/f I start asking a bunch of newb questions.
Assuming I got the polarity right on the speakers, would you expect them to sound at least decent with the Onkyo receiver? I looked at it last night and it is actually a 5 channel ProLogic surround sound job... I don't imagine that says good things for its sonic qualities compared to a dedicated amp system.
Thanks for your help!
-Jacob
dave, depends what you mean by regularly.
http://novtiaz.com is founded in Fremont, CA. I am over there 3-4 times a year for periods of 2-4 weeks.
next trip to NYC (many major customers for novitaz are there) is schedlued for June 1th. I might be coming over teh west coast (fremont) to interface with the CEO. want anything from here. Tea perhaps?
today (since 1995 or so) i travel a lot less. 1992-93 saw me live on 3 continents and in 5 countries. I put over 200,000 miles in the air then. My friends began calling me "Gypsy".
http://novtiaz.com is founded in Fremont, CA. I am over there 3-4 times a year for periods of 2-4 weeks.
next trip to NYC (many major customers for novitaz are there) is schedlued for June 1th. I might be coming over teh west coast (fremont) to interface with the CEO. want anything from here. Tea perhaps?
today (since 1995 or so) i travel a lot less. 1992-93 saw me live on 3 continents and in 5 countries. I put over 200,000 miles in the air then. My friends began calling me "Gypsy".
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