I should say right now that I don't regard myself as an audio expert. I'm a guy who loves good sound, but I have never studied it very technically. I bought the CSW Ensemble speakers pretty much on faith, based on the catalog copy. I was disappointed. The sound seemed "correct" without being pleasing. I wanted more bass and more of a feeling of warmth. Months after I got my speakers I found this web site and quickly learned that other audio fans felt exactly about these speakers as I did. So I took a chance and ordered CSW's brand new BassCube 10 subwoofer. Theoretically, I already had two subwoofers, as they are called that in some CSW literature, but a CSW spokesperson felt more comfortable calling them "passive woofers," which seems about right to me.
Adding the BassCube 10 was exactly what I needed to do to make the sound come alive. Although my room is not small (14 x 21 ft), the BassCube 10 has enough power to sound right to me with the volume setting at 4. And yes, it shakes the room and jiggles my tummy when I play film tapes that have a lot of low pitched sound effects. I can't imagine needing more power.

Just as I'd hoped, the music from my speakers is now warm and full. As far as I'm concerned, the BassCube 10 should be sold with the Ensembles because, without it, they just don't make music.

The second thing I did that helped was to get a pair of cheap adjustable metal speaker stands for the satellites. I used to go crazy trying to get my speakers placed just right, and when I did this by moving screws on the wall it was a joke. Now with instant control of where my satellites are, getting perfect balance is easy.

These speakers are hard to rate. Without the subwoofer, I'd give them a weak four. With the subwoofer, this speaker system is a 5 in my book.

Have owned Ensemble for 5 years now. Sound great with music. Not impressed with center channel+ speaker. OK for dialog. Would prefer full range center. Speakers however do need enough power. Old 45w Yamaha caused clicking sound on certain music. 100W Sony's protection would trip at loud levels. Have been using 120W JVC since. Had to shorten wire run to right rear surround (CSW surrounds) to get same level of sound from both sides (power poss?). Heavier wire may have solved the problem. I am now looking for Sub for low end.

There's a lot of snobbery involved in reviews of less expensive equipment. It isn't warranted here. Just because you weren't as smart and spent more for less, don't get all crabby about it. I've had the New Ensemble system in place for two months hooked to a Harman Kardon AVR20II receiver, HK FL8300 CD changer and Panasonic A110 DVD player. I got the speakers for $450 on sale (at a New Hampshire store -- no sales tax), and have no payments or interest on the CSW credit card bill until June. Sweet sound. Sweet deal.
Build quality is very good. The speakers improved vastly after a few days of break-in and continue to improve for a couple weeks. With the separate bass cabinets and cabling, I found they require more juice than my previous speakers. My HK receiver (60 high current watts/ch in stereo, I believe) volume is in the 10 - 11 o'clock range at my maximum listening volume (smallish room, but with two open doorways).

I was very pleased with the detail in the treble and happy with the soundstage and imaging. Even on movie soundtracks, I feel plenty of rumble through the floor. (Both bass units are in the corners behind the satellites -- all speakers strung directly from the receiver with 12 guage, low-oxygen Liberty cable.) If you insist on heavy-duty throbbing, though, you will be better served by a powered subwoofer. (Perhaps the Ensemble II mated with a powered sub). There was some initial thinness in the lower mid-range, but some improvements in my system helped enormously (more on that later). I also found the system a bit bright at higher volumes, which was initially solved by slightly "toeing out" the speakers. After a week or so, the sound improved and I returned the speakers to parallel. Now (after some upgrades) they are pointed at the listener, which vastly improved the soundstage, base and imaging.

A few things have made all the difference in the world for making this system sing sweetly. First, a Panamax 1000 line conditioner smoothed out the music a bit (it's scary how much power fluctuates -- just watch those LEDs flicker!). Second, a solid Salamander rack actually helped the sound a lot (stops evil vibrations). Third, a set of Kimber Hero cables improved the sound 100%. The brightness is gone. The mid-range is full. The soundstage and imaging are better. And I had to turn the bass down on my receiver. (If you've got $100 to spend on an upgrade, this is the one...) When I added a set of vibration dampeners below the CD player, the bass started to vibrate my hand while reading the paper. Intense.

These are not the best speakers around. But all-in-all, you need to spend AT LEAST TWICE what I spent to get speakers of this quality. I would step up from the Center Channel Plus for the crucial dialog channel, but I heartily recommend the New Ensemble. I threw a little gathering to demo the system, and even the audiophile in the crowd was impressed. You will be, too. Given the value - 5 stars.

Please, don't read the bad reviews for this product. I have no idea what world these people are living in, but the Ensemble system is absolutely wonderful. And, at it's discounted price ($450) you can not possibly go wrong. These things are just great. I can't explain to you how good they are. I have them plugged into my Kenwood VAR 2090 and am thus far extremely impressed. These things do a GREAT job of reproducing effects in DD and DTS. The soundstage is noticably large, and open, and the speakers are easy to conseal in your room. Great speakers, great value. Just go get them. You'll thank me later.

The Ensembles, along with a CSW Center Channel Plus, CSW Surrounds and a CSW powered sub were my first stab at a decent collection of speakers. They served me well for hometheater for a of couple years. I found them fatiguing for music but made do. I've since replaced the CSW speakers with product from Legacy Audio and Paradigm. The change has been dramatic. Of course, the Legacy and Paradigm combination is about 6X the cost of the CSW combination. Compared to the competition from NHT and Paradigm for example, I think the Ensembles are going to place second. Compared to anything comparable in design from Bose, the CSW combination sound an order of magnitude better for a lot less money. I now use the Ensembles as near field/computer speakers. They aren't shielded but with careful placement your monitor shouldn't be affected. As computer speakers they are superior (why haven't more people seemed to catch on to the fact that just about any stereo speaker sounds better than top of the line computer speakers?) I run the audio signal from my computer to an old Yamaha R-100 stereo receiver, which power the Ensembles. If and when I upgrade my sound card to one that will output a 5.1 channel signal, I'll be ready with the Center Channel Plus and CSW dipole surrounds. I rate the Ensembles 5 stars as a computer speaker, 4 stars as a hometheater speaker, 2 stars as a stereo-only speaker, overall rating of 3 stars.

Crap-No efficiency rating given because it is minimal. No watt because It has to be small. The woofer's boxes are only 4.5 inches wide externally. That means it has a tiny magnet and the woofers are worth less than the ugly little boxes they are in($25 bucks or so like 8" those found in pioneer, sony, etc.)To think thisthing is $500. The satalites suck and are worth about $10.

All,
I have upgraded from the Ensembles to a pair of Infinity Composition Overtur 3s. Since I was one of the first to post a review on these speakers, I feel it is appropriate to follow-up with a comparative review.

I feel a little nostalgic putting these away as they were part of my first step into the audio world. Like many people, I sometimes think back over my previous purchases and think: Could I have done better for the money? Invariably, after taking into account my living space and my budget, I always came to the same conclusion in regards to the Ensembles: That they were worth it.

They actually took a long time to break in (about a year). The satellites sounded a little plain when I first got them. After putting them on stands and re-positioning them, they sounded a lot better and they got better along as time went by. Having the Overtures now made me realize that the Ensembles have a more laid back sound. Of course the Overtures are known for their imaging and forwardness. But I think these will take time to break in also (or maybe for my ears to adjust to them = same thing?).

By saying they have a more laid back sound, I don't mean to imply that they weren't dynamic. I really like the dual subs (or whatever you want to call them). They made my room jump. I had upgraded to a dolby digital amp and when I played a movie scene such as the Lost in Space intro, I can honestly say the sound was better than 95% of the theaters I had been to.

To sum it up, these are very good consumer speakers. They don't excel in any particular category, but neither are they extremely lacking. They're enjoyable speakers with most types of music except for classical. All in all, a good purchase for anyone with a small budget, placement difficulties and a varied music collection.

These are great speakers for the money. Sound is natural. No fatigue and ringing in the ears. The more you use them, the better they get.

The original Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble has played music and served as home theater sound for us since 1991. We use a Pioneer VSX 9900S pro-logic receiver, augmented with a Superphon DM 200 (200 watts per channel) power amplifier. The receiver amp drives the two Ensemble woofers, and the Superphon drives the satellites. The Ensemble bass (placed in the front and right corners of the room) is satisfactory, playing down to approximately 50 Hz, but lacking the ability for reproducing the most profound low-frequency notes. We installed a stereo pair of CSW Powered Subwoofers using the same line connections to the receiver as the Ensemble woofers. The Power Subs produced a powerful, full, and robust bass and made it possible to hear a frequency range from somewhat below 30 Hz to the upper frequency limit of human hearing. We took care not to advance the volume of the Powered Subs too far—I set their volume controls between two and three (out of ten), with the crossover set at 55 Hz. This setting would differ somewhat, depending on one's room size and shape. Additionally the Powered Subs are located a short distance behind the seating area in the rear right and left of a 12' wide by 15' long by 8' tall room. We use the original CSW Surrounds as well.
Associatedl equipment:
53" Sony Rear Projector TV
Mitsubishi S-VHS VCR
Aiwa cassette deck
Sony DVP-S300 DVD
Sony MDS-JB920 MiniDisc
Adcom AC Enhancer ACE 515
Monster Cable connectors

As a fifty-eight year-old male, the combined CSW speaker system assuredly surpasses my ability to hear the highest frequencies. Inexorably with advancing age beyond puberty (or in males up to my age and beyond who suffer hearing loss from extended listening to sound at excessive levels), men lose the ability to hear the highest frequencies—a loss that is less pronounced among women. My wife and my daughter can hear 20 kHz test tones and of course the highest overtones of music. I hear little above 15 or 16kHz. That being said, of the high frequencies I can hear, they are clear and well defined, from left to right, in the Ensemble, a point-source type speaker. There is more: we use a single CSW Ambiance as a center channel speaker. It needs more power to drive it, however. The thinking of some audio engineers back in '91 gave short shrift to the center channel speaker. We'll either add a center amp or, more likely, buy a Denon five-channel Dolby digital receiver or the Sony TA-E9000ES preamp with the Sony TA-N9000ES.

No speaker, regardless of cost or design, can approach the experience of personally attending a concert and listening to music performed live (assuming a venue with good acoustical properties and good seats for good listening). To wit: we attended a concert at Cleveland's Severance Hall where Vladimir Ashkenazy conducted the Prokofiev Fifth Symphony. We sat in the least expensive seats in the house up until intermission when we sat in the seats of no-shows. The Cleveland Symphony sounded glorious from our cheap seats; their music was indescribably rich after the intermission. We have attended live concerts featuring B.B. King and Bobby Bland, Ray Charles, the Motown Review, Leontine Price, Victoria de los Angeles, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Kalamazoo Philharmonic, the Detroit Symphony; performances of operas—Puccini's Madama Butterfly, La Boheme, Tosca, Gershwin's Porgy and Bess; and numerous other concerts and performances. No speaker could possibly match the live musical experience. The most we can expect of any speaker is a reasonable facsimile of the live event, or with home theater, a sufficiently vivid soundscape to enhance what we view. Reasonable people will of course disagree about which speakers will best serve these ends, there being so many choices in the market. Nevertheless, people who have heard our speaker system marvel at its sound. We agree obviously. This morning we listened to Harold Silver's Song for My Father and Rachmaninoff's Third Symphony. Wonderfully detailed. Doubtless there are many fine speakers available, some surpassing the performance of our CSWs, but for us the Cambridge SoundWorks Ensemble with CSW Powered Subs, the Ambiance, and Surrounds (along with our associated equipment) have proven to be elegant, sonically satisfying, and worthwhile speakers.

I 've had the Ensembles for two years now and I still like them.Mostly I use them for a home theater but I also listen to music
with them. I also have the CSW powered subwoofer. You definately
need a powered sunwoofer for movies. I would describe the sound
as very natural. The highs are there but they don't jump out at
you.