Cerwin Vega VS-150

efigalaxie

Novice Member
Joined
Dec 12, 2020
Messages
1
Reaction score
0
Points
26
Age
53
Location
Virginia, USA
Hello,
First Post

I am at a half century in age. I have been around music and amps my entire life.
In the 80s, I was exposed to my uncles Kenwood Eleven III and his set of JBL LS150 speakers. Astounding sound that was clear, thumped where appropriate, and rattled a concrete slab foundation.

I currently have a Denon AVR 4311x. I let it drive the surrounds and center. For the fronts, I am using the pre-amp outs to drive an adcom 555ii. This is driving a set of Cerwin Vega VS-150 speakers.

it seems to me that I have never gotten the sound out of an AV receiver that I got from a stereo receiver. The bass is nonexistent without subwoofers. The mids are lacking in weight. The highs are accurate and too much.

I thought....fine. I am going to drive the adcom and the Vegas with the Adcom stereo preamp. I bet I get that 70s to 80s sound. Nope! The Adcom preamp sounded the same as the Denon.
Now, I DO have that Kenwood Eleven III. It is beat up and has pot and switch issues. So I have to fiddle with it to get both channels playing correctly. It is powering a set of no name home speakers I bought at a flea market. I use that in my garage. Unfortunately, my uncle threw the JBLs away long before I could have interfered. I nabbed that Kenwood though. This thing in my garage sounds phenomenal. I actually prefer the stereo sound off it and these smaller no name speakers to that of the above described equipment in my house.
I remember demoing a set of vs150 speakers in a circuit city long ago. The bass was incredible. These were bought from a credible hifi shop. They have been gone through.
Is my memory faulty, or am I missing something. It seems even my old MCS receiver at 65wpc and set of MCS Honeycomb woofer floor speakers sounded warmer with more mid bass punch.
I guess I could always drag the Kenwood into the house and drive the VS150s and see how that sounds.
Without subs being used, it seems that it is hard to find a great system that derives great bottom end from the front channels. It’s as if the AV receivers have some sort of frequency cutoff on the fronts...even set to large and no subs, it seems as if the bottom is lacking. This has been the case with every AV receiver I have ever had.
 
No AV amp will match a suitable stereo amp for music.. they are specifically designed for 2 totally different purposes. AV amps are made for dialogue and transient power .. where stereo amps are just there for well.. amplication in general and will sound according to how the manufacturer intends them to sound.. a Denon for example will sound punchy and at its best with music like pop.. something like a Roksan, which i have...., will simply power through any genre of music but will be hugely reliant in being fed a quality input and feeding a quality set of speakers as they are pretty much flat response and if fed and feeding cheap.. then the roksan will sound terrible. The Kenwoods have always been good with bass related music from day one.. thats how they were made for dance, reggae, etc... JVC and Yamaha also were alot more bass heavy than the likes of denon, sony, nad..


The weak link on your system with the Adcom is not the 555ii ... that is a darn nice amp.. the problem is the pre-amp.. it needs to be fed with a high quality pre .. something that is well documented and is mentioned to even stay away from their own pre-amp.

Now onto the CV's !! They need very little power to drive them due to their sensitivity .. CV's motto has always been.. "If it's too loud, you're too old" .. they have a huge high output relevant to their bass and as such need careful partnering with a more tonally dark source to allow that bass driver to do its work more evenly.
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is Home Theater DEAD in 2024?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom