TomBig58
Super Member
Recently I was lucky enough to score a nice pair or CS3008's at a decent price. Not a scroe mind you but I'm a cheap-ass so you would all probably say I scored. They needed a complete refoam but the wood veneer cabs are in great shape with no large or easily noticeable chips. I got the kit through Midwest, I didn't want to mess around with budget foams from 2nd tier ebay sellers, which I've done with lower end speakers.
The refoam was a bear with the glued plastic rings and some real stubborn factory glues. Alcohol was not getting it done so out came the laquer thinner and acetone. The woofers proved difficult to center with a 30Hz tone. I suspect the VC has a pretty tight tolerance. I've never removed a dust cap and shimmed so I consider myself lucky to have got it done.
I've owned a pair of Qb's for a couple of years and fell in love with the emit instantly. Seriously the Qb's have pushed Klipsch tower horns and even ESS AMT's to the side. Full disclosure it was the bass and mids that bested my Amt 1b bookshelfs, not that wonderful Heil tweeter. I also recently refoamed a pair of Kappa 6.1's but I'm having some low end problems that are unresolved so in all fairness I can't A/B those with the 3008's right now.
Well I've got to say the those 3008's do everything right to my ears. I favor acoustic suspension and don't like boomy bass but these rear ported babies are tight enough on the low end to the point I know I can improve any boominess with room treatment, placement, and fill if necessary. My room is pretty small and I had to pull them away from the wall, they probably are too big for the room. Being 4 ways the woofer high cuts at 200Hz (200/800/3000) so the woofer handles no vocals, etc. and that just works superbly in this speaker. Very well engineered imo.
With no attenuators the C/O meshes perfectly with the drivers, they did a good design job imo. I didn't spend much time with the Kappa polydome but I KNOW the mid/midbass coupler design in this speaker is going to best it easily. I was powering them with my MCS 3125, 120 watts and very clean power with onboard EQ. I like to use that for speaker testing (and most other times lol) because I can dial in/out speaker inadequacies with the EQ. The 3008's did excellent at flat contour. At volume I dialed down the -3dB at 1K because I thought it was a little overpowering in that range but when I backed up to 15ft or so I wanted that 3dB back. Any time I find a pair of speakers that sound best to my ears at totally flat settings I know they are something special.
I only A/B'd them with the Qb's and let me tell you, it was night and day. The 3008's filled the room to the point they made the Qb's sound like they had a cardboard box over their head. Okay, maybe a little exaggerated but soundstage wise there really was no comparison. I was shocked. I LOVE my Qb's!!
I went through some live Big Head Todd at moderate volume, then into Steely Dan "Gaucho", Santana Abraxas on vinyl, some streaming choices, Harry Nilsson on CD, some ripped mp3 cd's I had, then Who's Next on vinyl. Unlike some "precise" speakers I own these did the loud rock and roll justice for sure.
They are 90dB efficient (2.8V/1m for those of you who know what that means lol) and folks say they don't need a lot of power. In all my searching I never found an ohm rating. When Nilsson's "Jump Into the Fire" played I cranked up the volume to see just what those "below 200" woofers would handle it. Well, for the first time ever, my 3125 shut down in protection mode...with the volume pot at just past HALF!! I keep an eye on the clipping indicator when I play at volume but that caught me unawares. I have run that volume to 3/4 with my Kef 105's (much less efficient) until the clip indicator was flickering but never had it shut down.
Soooooo….all who say the CS series are NOT amp killers like the larger Kappa's must be mistaken. After I turned it down a bit and played the song at (what I thought) was a safer volume it went into protection again during the drum solo. So now we know these can have some serious impedance drops and the protection circuit in my 3125 works like a dream, thank God!
Thanks for listening. Even with my smallish place these are definitely keepers for me. I WILL try a bi-amp set up soon but for now I will enjoy them. Here are some pics I'll add some researched specs and info along with some cabinet comments down the line.
The refoam was a bear with the glued plastic rings and some real stubborn factory glues. Alcohol was not getting it done so out came the laquer thinner and acetone. The woofers proved difficult to center with a 30Hz tone. I suspect the VC has a pretty tight tolerance. I've never removed a dust cap and shimmed so I consider myself lucky to have got it done.
I've owned a pair of Qb's for a couple of years and fell in love with the emit instantly. Seriously the Qb's have pushed Klipsch tower horns and even ESS AMT's to the side. Full disclosure it was the bass and mids that bested my Amt 1b bookshelfs, not that wonderful Heil tweeter. I also recently refoamed a pair of Kappa 6.1's but I'm having some low end problems that are unresolved so in all fairness I can't A/B those with the 3008's right now.
Well I've got to say the those 3008's do everything right to my ears. I favor acoustic suspension and don't like boomy bass but these rear ported babies are tight enough on the low end to the point I know I can improve any boominess with room treatment, placement, and fill if necessary. My room is pretty small and I had to pull them away from the wall, they probably are too big for the room. Being 4 ways the woofer high cuts at 200Hz (200/800/3000) so the woofer handles no vocals, etc. and that just works superbly in this speaker. Very well engineered imo.
With no attenuators the C/O meshes perfectly with the drivers, they did a good design job imo. I didn't spend much time with the Kappa polydome but I KNOW the mid/midbass coupler design in this speaker is going to best it easily. I was powering them with my MCS 3125, 120 watts and very clean power with onboard EQ. I like to use that for speaker testing (and most other times lol) because I can dial in/out speaker inadequacies with the EQ. The 3008's did excellent at flat contour. At volume I dialed down the -3dB at 1K because I thought it was a little overpowering in that range but when I backed up to 15ft or so I wanted that 3dB back. Any time I find a pair of speakers that sound best to my ears at totally flat settings I know they are something special.
I only A/B'd them with the Qb's and let me tell you, it was night and day. The 3008's filled the room to the point they made the Qb's sound like they had a cardboard box over their head. Okay, maybe a little exaggerated but soundstage wise there really was no comparison. I was shocked. I LOVE my Qb's!!
I went through some live Big Head Todd at moderate volume, then into Steely Dan "Gaucho", Santana Abraxas on vinyl, some streaming choices, Harry Nilsson on CD, some ripped mp3 cd's I had, then Who's Next on vinyl. Unlike some "precise" speakers I own these did the loud rock and roll justice for sure.
They are 90dB efficient (2.8V/1m for those of you who know what that means lol) and folks say they don't need a lot of power. In all my searching I never found an ohm rating. When Nilsson's "Jump Into the Fire" played I cranked up the volume to see just what those "below 200" woofers would handle it. Well, for the first time ever, my 3125 shut down in protection mode...with the volume pot at just past HALF!! I keep an eye on the clipping indicator when I play at volume but that caught me unawares. I have run that volume to 3/4 with my Kef 105's (much less efficient) until the clip indicator was flickering but never had it shut down.
Soooooo….all who say the CS series are NOT amp killers like the larger Kappa's must be mistaken. After I turned it down a bit and played the song at (what I thought) was a safer volume it went into protection again during the drum solo. So now we know these can have some serious impedance drops and the protection circuit in my 3125 works like a dream, thank God!
Thanks for listening. Even with my smallish place these are definitely keepers for me. I WILL try a bi-amp set up soon but for now I will enjoy them. Here are some pics I'll add some researched specs and info along with some cabinet comments down the line.
