I have had these speakers for almost a year now and I just have one thing to say about them. They are absolutely amazing, I have people come over and they just cannot believe that such sound comes from speakers that are so small. The looks of these speakers by the way are another plus, they just grab everyones attention. At times I play music reasonably loud and I have not been able to distort or make them sound bad. I have them hooked up on the following system.
Sherwood Newcastle Pre/Pro AVP-9080R
Sherwood Newcastle Amp AM-9080 (soon changing it for a ATI1505)
Full StraightWire Rapsody speaker cables and interconnects
Panasonic A100 DVD Player
Sony 20" Trinitron
B&W CDM-1SE for the front
B&W 302 for the surrounds

Getting soon:
ATI 1505 AMP
Pioneer 434 DVD player with DTS
CDM-CSE center channel
ASW-2000 subwoofer
Sherwood Newcastle CD-980 Cdplayer with DTS

I will let everyone know how this will eventually end up.

The new CDM1 Special Edition does not sound as good as the original CDM1 that was produced in 1995 and won the EISA award. The SE features a modified crossover circuit fot the Low pass section which is now a 2nd order filter instead of a 1st order. what does this mean ?
The slope of the 2nd order filter has an attenuation of 12dB/octave in the stop band and a flatter response in the pass band . THe 1st order filter used in the original CDM1 has an attenuation of 6dB/octave.
And so what ? one can simply say.
To answer this we must take into account the natural mid/bass driver response .
The combination of the xover filter and the natural response of the driver should ideally produce a flat acoustical response .
Due to the natural higher output of the driver at mid frequencies and since the 2nd order filter is almost flat at this region , the overall acoustical response is more prominent at the midband . The result is a sound with a forward imaging and prominent midband.
Human voices do not sound as natural . They sound heavier than usual and with some microphonic effect. Speaker placement does not help at all to remove this effect.
Overall it is a good speaker but not as good as its predecessor.
Treble xover filter has been improved by the use of MKP capacitors and this alone results in a crispier and more analytical sound. Some people , especially new comers in Hi-Fi , would like this .It is subjective , any way.
For this price , I would also like to see an air cored inductor in the Low pass filter section and not an iron cored one .

The original CDM1 is hard to find now . It was the best speaker ever made at this price range.
The new SE version comes close .

Midrange, Top end, built quality/finish, connectors, soundstaging

low bass

I have always been a B&W speaker fan. And they keep getting better. This little speaker has amazing soundstaging. Close your eyes and try and point to the speakers. They do require a fair amount of power and a good quality amp to get the best performace. A 100 watt receiver does not do them justice. The open tweeter gives a very open and wide image in the top end, and the kevlar midrange is excellent as well. I listened to a dozen speakers in this size and price, and nothing is clearly better for less than $900 more. Figure $100 for a good pair of stands when you buy these. I used these speakers on my Denon AVR 2800 receiver and was not impressed, I then switched to a NAD 2200 power amp, which was much better. I now run them with a Anthem Integrated 1 tube amp which makes them sound great. The detail and resolution is amazing for a speaker of this price. They do take several days to break in, so if yo get them home and are not happy, give them time.

Similar Products Used:

Theil CS.5, B&W CDM7SE, B&W Nautilis 805, B&W 602 series2

great

none

i read these bad reviews on the cdm-1 se. around 100 people have heard my speakers, they all say they blow away anything else.some say they lack bass. they have tremendous bass.but not in an auditorium. a concrete floor & concrete,brick, or a solid corner walls give better bass. only inferior equipment could hurt the bass.some reviewers say they are harsh in upper frequencies. everyone i know says these are the least harsh speakers they have ever heard.putting them in a closet or right against the wall will make them harsh.
carpet or material on the floor & walls will make them less harsh. leaving the grills & plugs in will make them less harsh. forget changing transistors in the tweeter. now, some say, speakers sound better with grills off. true. but, all speakers are compromised one way or the the other. with grills on, they are less harsh, but they blow everything else away. place your long ways in your room, far from the walls. these speakers with a sub is the best way to go, because woofer has more bass close to the wall, but tweeters close to the wall mask bass & make unwanted echoes.big speakers have no midrange sound cause they are all bass & no midrange.& the bas is tight as can be, contrary of some reviewers. set your speakers 23 inches off the ground, i was amazed. some of these reviewers are lying or jealous.

dynamics

none

the cdm1se has more dynamics than the older cdm1.dynamics does not mean loud music, it means the soft instruments in the background come alive.

cdm 1 se are not harsh, just dynamic. more dynamic than older cdm 1. exsperts will tell you, the more dynamic, the better.to make them not harsch, do this. set them 23 inches off ground. speaker drivers 5 foot from back & side walls. place speakers on the long part of the room. carpet on floor. carpet or material covering entire top-half of the back wall. thesame on the side walls, out 5 foot.u se speaker grills which also will improve imaging. use speaker plugs.i use the new audioquest 100 to 200 dollar interconnects & wires & integrated krell amp &cheap sony cd player & rel strata 2 sub. ive listened to almost all big brands. i believe these are the best for the money & the best b&w speakers. turn your speakers till the inside of the cabinet disappears. down the middle, between the speakers,from front of the speakers, to the back wall, build a wall. this keeps speakers from shooting sound long distances, & i mean it simply incredibly is the greatest improvement you could ever make, because it makes bass thunderous.

mid range power

none

the cdm 1 sounds better than the cdm 1 se in my room, but when i put some sound material on my walls, then the cdm 1 se sounded better. the cdm 1 has a more soothing sound, but with treated walls, it is too smooth, meaning the wall material can kill the sound of a weaker speaker.the cdm 1 se can be a little harsh, but wall material makes it perfect. the cdm 1 se with treated walls sounds better than the cdm 1 with untreated walls.

power

none

the cdm1 differs from the cdm1se in that it that the older cdm1 has a first order crossover in the bass driver, this crossover makes the bass more clear & the bass driver rolls off earlier,thus less loudness in the bass. i have had other first order speakers, but in the bass, i can not hear the clearness, except in avery small room, then in a very small room speakers will not image. the cdm1 was a 5star speaker, but i prefer the cdm1se.

CLEAR!!! Very detailed. Amazing sound from a bookshelf speaker. Quality construction. Attractive appearence.

Vocals are harsh.

These were upgrades for my system where I had been using B&W 601's. The improvement was VERY noticable despite claims of those who review 601's and say there is no need to pay any more for speakers. These speakers provide much more detail and are very articulate. There are sounds in the music that I hadn't heard before. There are also many "surprises." Surprises are levels of detail that are so obvious they 'surprise' listeners. I highly recommend these.

Similar Products Used:

B & W 601DM's

VERY SMOOTH! Exceptionally detailed for a speaker in its price range and neutral as well (although the DM302 can hold its own with this speaker in terms of absolute neutrality for $850 less!)

Needs a bit of power to sound its best. Probably not the best speaker for SET amps.

This speaker is exceptionally smooth and quite neutral across the frequency range, and this was while listening through commonly bright Rotel amplification. I heard exceptional detail that was realistic, never exaggerated. It threw up a nice 3D soundstage with lots of air around the instruments, and imaging was breathtaking.

The only caveat is that this speaker really needs 50WPC or more to sing. I could probably drive a pair with a 2A3 or 300B SET amp, but I wouldn't get the dynamics and slam that this speaker is capable of.

Overall, it's an amazing speaker that B&W should be quite proud of. I'm saving money for a pair as we speak!

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Reference Studio 20, Thiel .5