soundstaging is not good when volume up.Fault in crossover.overwhelming treble

I purchase this speaker because i get attracted to it's look not the sound quality it have.When I set it up with my system, i get very surprise with it sound qulity because with it's low price it would not have sound so good.Tonal balance is ok but when volume up it become too crappy.This speaker sounds good with jazz,R&B and slow music but not good for rock music.Overall the speaker is worth of money.

Similar Products Used:

Musical fidelity A120(modified 80 watts)
Marantz CD player

I have had a lot of speakers!!!
This is one of the finest speakers for the money ever made.

True, like most bookshelf speakers, it is deficient in the first octave, but three little words..."Sunfire True Subwoofer" and $1500 bucks or so solves that problem real fast. I am currently driving these speakers with a Cary 300sei and the detail is even hard for me to believe. While not that efficient (89db), they present a very constant load and therefore (with the help of the sub handling the lower passages) most of the 11 BIG watts that the Cary commands is free to do its magic with the 1SE's. Even if you take the combined price of the CDM-1SE and the Sunfire (a little less that $3K) this combo will more than hold its own with any floorstander in the $3-$5,000 price range. They also sound very good with better solid state amps. I have hooked my Krell to these puppies with very good results. Cheap SS electronics have the tendency to come off shrill. Even without the sub, teamed with a good SS integrated like the Classe, Krell, Plinius, Bryson or the like, it is all that most listeners/enthuiasts would ever require.

If you already own these speakers, please beg or borrow a good tube amp, push-pull or SET, for a 2-3 day audition. Also, take the little wire mesh dome cover off the tweeter, it snaps right off (much easier than it goes back on) and really opens up the width and depth of the soundstage.

There are many good speakers on the market, but I can't think of any speaker that I could recommend to any friend, without reservation, as these B&W's... especially for $1100 retail.

Overall rating 4 stars (compared to any other speaker on the market)

At their price point, 5 BIG STARS!

Detailed, neutral highs and midrange.

What other reviewers have said about bass.

This is an outstanding speaker for the price. I purchased mine for $825 and I know of no other speaker on the current market at that price point that sound as good.

The highs and mids are neutral and detailed, with a bit of a lean toward smoothness. These speakers do very well with any form of Jazz, Classical, R&B and acoustic rock/folk, but if you're looking for something for hard-edge music, you may want to carefully audition them first. I find they don't have the low-end punch for a convincing kick drum and don't have the drive needed to make good sound out of distorted guitars.

I own a pair of Energy C-2s for my second system and the bass on those speakers is much more extended and real sounding, while not impacting too adversely on the midrange. This is apparently achieved through careful tuning of the port; so, it's possible to get good bass extension from a small speaker. While the B&W is definitely a better speaker overall, maybe B&W needs to work on this.

I recently had a chance to listen to the CDM1NT. The CM1NTs do have a wider soundstage and maybe a bit more detail, but they weren't that much greater in sound for me to want to lose a few hundred dollars to trade up. Besides, I think the CM1SEs have a more focused and coherent sound. If you have a decent preamp and amp, the difference may not be that great. I think I'll wait for the next generation in the CDM1 series. This is a very good line of speakers that offers real bang for the buck and I will probably stick with it.

Similar Products Used:

Energy C-2

I bought my CDM1-SE a couple months ago to replace my Harbeth P3. They are connected to my Yamaha DSP-A1 for both DVD and CD. The bass and dynamic range is better than the P3, and it retains the sweet sound that is what I like in UK speakers. It is good for both AV and pure music. I highly recommend it.P.S. A good subwoofer is needed if you want more impact for AV.

Imaging, smooth midrange

No real weaknesses for the price

I am very impressed with this little speaker. Once you have it on stands, you need to make sure your speaker cables and interconnects are on the smooth side rather than bright. When it is running on good stands, with good wires, this is a fine speaker that even has reasonable bass. I am very impressed for the money.

Similar Products Used:

Blue Circle BC 21 Preamp, Classe DR 15 amp, Linn Ikemi CD deck, Linn Sondek turntable.

Excellent resolutin....

Not any that I can think of....

I just to add a few things here:

1. All the good review has been mentioned here
(about CDM1SE)
2. I DO NOT own the speaker nor I have affiliated with B&W.
3. I DO auditioned B&W CDM1 SE.

Conclusion:

1. For $ 1100 (retail), I think this speaker should be
auditioned. It might be not the best speaker for every
person but clearly one of there is. (Like old saying"
you can not satisfy everyone at the same time")

2. Reviewers who gave this speaker one or two star should
have their system check. If everything ok...then It might
be good idea for them to have a full medical check up

3. The weaknesses of this speaker already mentioned by
several reviewer. I don't need to repeat that. All I
can say that it DOES have some limitation
(like every other speaker in this planer).

4. I agree with the person from Germany, bring your own
CD and audition any speaker you want.

5.Use review & rating posted either here on the magazine as
starting point,not absolute dogma.


Oh...My System consist of:

Mark Levinson 380/334
Meridien 580.2
Kimber Kable Interconnect & Speaker
Revel Ultima Gem Speaker

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Spendor & Totem

Super clean mids and highs!
Delivers a punch despite its small size.
Good soundstaging
Very good separation on each instrument
Easily driven. Very efficient
Not only nice for the ears, but also for the eyes.

Can't think of any.

Highly recommended!!!!
You won't regret getting this baby!

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NHT 1.5, Paradigm Monitor 3, PSB 600i

Midrange clarity, speed and (with the right amp)all the bass you need in a small-ish room

None

I have been using this speaker for nearly four years now and I am still suprised how it still manages to hold its own despite massive changes to the front end of my system.

When I purchased the speakers I was running a Marantz CD63 KI Signiture CD player and a Rotel pre/power combo. I now use a complete Meridian system (500/566 and 502/577).

While the rest of the system (full details at the bottom) has changed dramtically, these speaker are still the best I have had in my room. They can throw an amazingly holographic soundstage and are broadly neutral in tonal balance. The bass in my room (approx 4x5m) is superb - very little boom - only the bottom octave and a half or so is missing.

But the most amazing abilty of these speakers is the midrange quality, down largely in my opinion, to the main driver construction. With both male and female voices the natural delivery continues to suprise me even now. If you want to hear every last word, breath and intonation you have got to try these speakers.

One word of caution though - as one previous reviewer noted, they drain power like nobody's business!!! Of course they work well with lower powered kit (but say 50wpc minimum) but they really are something else when you pile on the power!!

The 557 really takes them into another league and I certainly won't be buying another pair of speakers till I move into a newroom!! If you can pick a up a second hand paid you really can't go wrong in a smallish room provided you can feed them a fair bit of current.

System:

Meridian 500 Transport
Meridian 566 DAC
Meridian 502 Pre-Amp
Meridian 557 Power Amp
B&W CDM1SE Speakers
Kimber Select Balanced Interconnects
Kimber 8TC speaker cable (twin run for bi-wiring)
Kimber High Current Power Kords for each component
Kimber Power Block

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM9NT, Meridian M60, Audio Note AN/J SPx

Clean detailed sound

About to be beaten by it's replacement the CDM1NT

I've owned these speakers for about a year now and have really enjoyed them. For my small listening room they sound fantastic. Sure I could use a little more kick in the low end, but my neigbors wouldn't appreciate that. I listen to all different kinds of music on these and aside from revealing just how bad some recordings are they do justice to the music.

Now for the bad news. I just stopped by my local dealer and noticed that B&W just released the CDM1 NT. It now has the nautilus tweeter and golf ball like dimples around the port which makes it more like the Nautilus 805. One listen and I wanted to scream! These $1,125 speakers blew the special editions away! In fact, they sounded almost identical to my last audition of the N805's! I'm looking to trade my SE's in! The NT's were just so much more open and vivid and this was on a store set up with lesser cables than what I use! They had a Rotel CD player and Integrated connected to them and I was just blown away. I'm getting the NT's.

Excellent Midrange, good highs, outstanding feel for sound.

week base, expensive.

This is my first pair of B&W's and it won't be my last. These bookshelf speakers are incredible. They were more than I had planned to spend, but the sound from the 1SE's was incredible compared to several other high end speakers I listened to (Paradigm, Monitor, Polk, etc). They offer phenomenal midrange, incredible highs, but only moderate base (they are a book shelf speaker so I was not expecting a lot anyways).

True the BW's are a little more than many other brands out there, but once you listen to their clarity, the price seems to become reasonable.

(Apologizing in advance for this)
Listen and you will see.

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Polk Surround System