Cambridge Soundworks Ensemble Satellite Refoam

[David_NC]

I finally got two of the satellites primed, painted, and reassembled. I listened to them for a couple hours so far, and they sound good. I had them set up on a table in the garage, which is less than idea; they tend to sound better closer to a wall. They are crisp but in no way fatiguing, and the imaging is really nice. They don't seem quite as full as the ADS L780/2's that I normally use in the garage, but I suppose that's to be expected. I'll do some more listening with a couple different amps in a better location and see how it goes. In the meantime, here's a pic of one of them.


They are not as shiny as they appear in the pic; the sun was bright when I took the pic, and it looks like I got some dusty handprints on them. I used truck bed liner spray on them, so there is a bit of sheen. If it's too much, I can always spray with a satin spray paint, but I think they'll be fine.

 

[Guido57]

Looks better than new.

 

[Yodathedog]

Looks good to me.

 

[Audio Fan]

The Ensembles: I finally got around to working on the Sats. Decided to paint/recap since I needed to refoam them anyway. Turned out really nice. Next, when I get to them, are to recap the woofers, but redo them in a nice wood veneer.

Sats before:


Sats after:

 

[jimbofish]

For the record, when I bought my first set I did a direct comparison with a pair of NLA's. Very similar sound.

I can't recall the last time I heard a pair of NLA's, but that's an impressive comparison and conclusion. The

When I bought my CSW Ensembles it was to displace my NLAs which were too big, according to the Fishwife.
They do sound very much like NLAs so I kept them. CSW actually gave me more time to decide than the 30 days.

 

[David_NC]

My main system is in my bedroom and consists of a Mac C31V preamp, dbx crossover, SVS subwoofer, Dynaco ST-70, and ADS L1090/2's (the last two have been rebuilt) plus analog and digital sources. I really like these speakers, but my space is awful, and they would def sound better with a bit more room. I decided to try the Ensembles earlier today, and they are quite impressive. They don't compare to the much bigger ADS speakers - no surprise - but they do sound good. They've always had decent bass from the two 8" woofer modules, but they do benefit from a dedicated subwoofer.
It'd be interesting to run the calibration function on the crossover to see what improvements it brings (or doesn't). I don't think these will stay in this system; I think I'm just too accustomed to the ADS sound! Still, I always enjoy hearing which combinations of equipment compliment each other.

 

[Guido57]

I put a pair of the 8" Ensemble drivers in a pair of EPI M110 cabinets (sacrilege to EPI fans and hard core devotees of T/S parameters), ran these with a subwoofer amp and blocked the lows to my main amp with a passive line level blocker of 100Hz high pass. Did not do any fine tuning (maybe next winter), but adjusting by ear it was an interesting project showing some potential and bass was better (subjectively of course) than in the original small (tiny) cabinet. At this point they do not challenge my main speakers, though neither do Large Advents.