The Ultimate Party Speaker?! Danny Takes on Cerwin Vega!

The Ultimate Party Speaker?! Danny Takes on Cerwin Vega!

[dennisryan]

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 !

[glenncurry]

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!

[Finite-Tuning]

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 🤷‍♂.

[fishypictures]

My wife and I went to the good guys back in the seventies . We got a pair of Cerwin Vega hard rockers.
Great speakers.

[craighoffman]

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.

[rancosteel]

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.

[reelanalog]

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!

[troyhunt]

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.

[FOH]

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.

[sgtjosozo]

It's about time we see some Cerwin Vegas here.

[jasonme]

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

[JR-hoqm]

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.

[Audioholics]

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 :)

[jikester]

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.

[bobczz]

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 😊

[ZERO]

I have no idea what any of that means, but I do know the Cerwin Vega identified thier target audience and delivered.

[rinkopr]

I have a pair of D9s and love them. Had them since 1984

[stephenyoud]

Danny - you’re a genius.. Excellent result there. There’s life in the old dog yet !! (The speaker not you !!), well, clearly you also!!

[AaronHendu]

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.

[swd]

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!?