It was what I needed at price I couldn't refuse. Great sound from a small package.

The center channel is a bit powerful, but just turn it down. I would have liked some speaker placement advice from them, but found some good info at www.polkaudio.com.

I was looking for a subwoofer to go with the mixture of speakers I already had when I came across a refurbished Movieworks 5.1 on eBay. Since the price was not that much more than a quality sub, I decided to take a chance on getting the entire set. I also thought that it would be good to have the timber matched by having a coordinated system. I was generally pleased with what I had, but wanted to take advantage of the full effects that DVD offered as well as my new Denon 1802 digital reciever. If the other speakers didn't sound that great, I could still use the sub. Cambridge lists the sub price at $450, so $50 for the rest of the speakers was a small risk. When I got the system just a few days later, I couldn't wait to hook it all up. I just got the reciever the day before, so I had a bit of work to do. At first I was not impressed. Part of the problem was that I had the front speakers too close to the TV for good seperation. I also hadn't yet learned all of the adjustments on the digital reciever. Not to mention the burning in period for the speakers (I think that some people reject speakers too soon -before they have had a chance to breathe like a fine wine and develop their true sound). Well, this took me a while. At first I had the front speakers hanging flat on the wall. They did better when I got some brackets so I could toe them in towards my listening area. The base seemed a bit muddy, so I placed a board with some tile on it between the sub and the floor. The center channel is a Center Stage speaker. This is a large and powerful center. Like some others, I keep the volume down on this. I try to use it more to fill in the sound of the fronts instead of the other way around. The surround speakers are 5.1 Nextel Multis. These have dipole- bipole switching so you can choose between more focused or dispersed surround effects. I use different settings depending on what I am listening to. Overall, the speakers are well balanced. I don't notice dropoff between the lows of the fronts and where the subwoofer kicks in like you often find in satellite systems. I used the manufacturer's recomended setting for the pass filter on the sub. It is connected to the pre- amp out instead of the sub out on the receiver. Now that things are getting broken in and properly adjusted it is sounding great and I am selling my other speakers. It is really amazing how

Similar Products Used:

ADS, Klipsch (center), Infinity

Good sound for movies and price

Good for movie tracks, not recommended for music listening

I got this unit (CSW Movieworks II 5.1 ) after returning my BOSE AM6 the Polk PSW120 powered subwoofer.
The sound is far better than Bose AM6 + powered subwoofer.

The bass with the included Basscube 10 is very good and
there is ample power to shake the a mid sized living room.

The movie tracks sounds awesome.

I wouldn't recommend this for serious music listening;
but for Dolby Digital 5.1 movie soundtracks it is the best
speakers you can buy for the price (It cost me $879
at HIFI.com, which includes the Powered BassCube 10 subwoofer).

Similar Products Used:

Bose AM6

Crisp, definitive sound. Easy setup (speakers, not amp). Pretty good "wow" factor. Center speaker rocks. Authoritative subwoofer. Crisp, accurate fronts and rears. Blends w/decor using optional stands. No regrets for a starter HT system that makes your ears smile.

Included amp (SR-5000) was a bit difficult to integrate, but worked out OK once decoded.

Enamored with HT, but didn't want to take the big plunge without getting my feet wet first. At the same time, I had to live with my purchase for several years. How do you strike the balance? It took some time and some serious listening ...

Being an amateur musician, unfortunately (or fortunately?) my ears are a little more sensitive than my friends and neighbors. I needed to get something good enough to satisfy, and make me smile without getting into high-end HT (maybe later?)

Most "starter systems" sounded like disappointing junk to my ears. Maybe some people can't hear the difference, but ... Went to several audio retailers, and had them "trade up" in price point until the sound was good enough to not make me wince. Go a little farther, and I started to smile. Take the price point for the "ears smiling" package ... and compare.

Ended up with the CSW Soundworks 5.1 package. Had never done business with them before. Best smile factor at the lowest cost.

The great thing(s) about this package are the center speaker (no disappointments here!) and the authoritative sub. The fronts and rears are plenty crisp (no complaints), but the center and sub make the package rock, and separate this one from all the others.

We have a fair-sized living room, but don't need to loosen the plaster when we watch movies. Accuracy at mid-level volumes was important, as well as clarity from the center speaker and (of course) having the sub kick in smoothly and definitively ...

Mission accomplished ... no regrets! Watched ID4, Matrix et. al. today ... great performance from the setup with very little tweaking once I had it basically set up.

BTW, skip the Onkyo included with the package, trade up to the Marantz SR-5000 (no extra charge). If you can put up with a difficult manual and installation (plus no dedicated LFE-sub out), the Marantz sound will be very rewarding.

I finally slaved my sub off the center channel (the sub's installation manual tells you how to do this) and told the DVD player I didn't have sub ... the results are (nearly) perfect. If it's all about the sound, the SR-5000 does the job perfectly, suffering only in a few ergonomic areas. Just remember to crank it to 70 or more when you're installing it, or you'll think that something is broken because there's no sound (!)

Strangely enough, the DVD player (Sony DVP-570D, $400) saved my butt in configuring the system, due to the weak setup options on the amp. Enough granularity in the setup menu to take the tweaking the final few yards ... with great results.

Could I have spent more? Yes, and I will some day. Did I end up with a system that satisfies my ears without immediatly wishing I had spent more, or chosen something different? Yep! I figure this will last me for a few years (or more!) without that constant gnawing to buy something better. And the smile factor is pretty darn good.

Everything I heard below this price point (CSW, Kenwood, Blows, et. al.) just had that "el-cheapo" sound, and I couldn't bring myself to spend money on something that audibly sucks. Accuracy is big with me. With the pkg price, it works out to something like $1000 for the speakers and $500 for the amp. I feel I did great with the amp, and fantastic with the speakers.

If you're like me (first time HT user, but can't stand cheap-sounding A/V equipment), you'll probably find this an attractive compromise. BTW, using the CSW stands allowed me to precisely position the speakers for optimum effect.

Happy Listening!

Similar Products Used:

(audio) Klipsch speakers, Yamaha power amps.

The Sub Rocks; The Center is average

the Main Speakers and the Surround speakers aren't that impressive

The best part of this system is definitely the sub; it's wonderful and not over-powering. If you're looking for a good sub, I would pair this w/ any system I could afford.

Reading the reviews, I expected more from the Center Channel, but wasn't completely disappointed. It just didn't have the separation and clarity I expected

The front and rear speakers are acceptable for HT, but not that great for Music CDs. When playing music or TV, they have a "tinny" sound resonating from them.

Overall, for the price paid, I think it's a pretty good deal; however, if I payed actual retail, I would've sent them back.

As it is, I'm keeping the sub, but replacing the mains w/ Klipsch sb-3s, the center w/ the Klipsch sc-1, and the surrounds w/ Klipsch ss-1s.

Similar Products Used:

none

Wow! These speakers rock! They can play as loud as any sane person might want. I haven't seen anything in this price range that comes even close to the performance of these speakers, which also sound pretty good with music. My only complaint would be the over-sized center channel, which sometimes can "point" toward the center in pans from left to right; but the awesome subwoofer and ten-year warranty more than make up for this.

Excellent, loud, deep, and musical soubwoofer, good surrounds. Center speaker is too powerful for seamless blend. Great warranty (ten years on all non-amplified speakers), good price.

The massive subwoofer is much too powerful for normal home theaters unless you have an extremely large room. The small mains are not suitable for music by themselves and must be assisted by the sub, which gives an unnatural deep, booming bass to most recordings, at the expense of the low-to-mid range crossover frequencies. However, the large center channel works well, especially in DD.
OK to good for effects-laden movies, but below average for music.

I find the Microworks system to be quite impressive. The subwoofer is tight, accurate, and can play quite loudly. Imaging and detail are very good, and the surround speakers sound better than I had expected from such small enclosures. The center channel seems to have stronger midrange than the main speakers, resulting in less-than-perfect pans from left to right. I also think the subwoofer (referring to the Powered Sub, not BassCube 12) is a bit overpowering at higher volumes. Overall, this is a very good system.

I recently purchaded the CambridgeSoundWorks MovieWorks 5.1 SurroundSound System with a Marantz receiver (They had a special for 1599 I think).

I had mixed reviews about this system.

The good.
This center channel and subwoofer were very good. The sub (Base Cube 12)
really very powerful.

The bad.
The front speakers were only so-so. They worked well in a HT setup (except
the center was much louder than the fronts. I had to drop the centers
level by 3dB, and things sounded much better.). But, the front speakers
really sucked for stereo. I had a old pair of KOSS M-80-Plus that sounded
about as good or better. (the KOSS were only about $70 or $80 a pair).

After about 3 weeks I sent these back to Cambridge Soundworks for a refund.

If this system would of had better front speakers, it would have been a great
system.

I am giving this a 3 stars. (4 stars for HT, 2 stars for stereo.).

These speakers are absolutely fantastic! I don't ever use them for music (I have a dedicated system), but they rock for home theatre. Five stars all the way.