Attractive and sound great!
Attractive and sound Great

None

These speakers sound really good. I find it so amusing
all the catchy terms used to describe sound that we've
read in the magazine reviews over the years, and how these words are used to describe these speakers by people who often have NO clue to what they're talking about. I'm
sure some of these words apply to the Cambridge Tower 2's
BUT! These speakers sound good. Simple as that, and are certainly worth the price. I had to experiment with
placement, but no more than with similar speakers.
I have to laugh at these "kids" with their "1" ratings Nothing can be gained by those type of reviews, as I could read NO credibility in any of them. Are these the best speakers for a thousand bucks? maybe, maybe not. Do their sound justify a thousand bucks? Absolutly.

Similar Products Used:

Kef 104

Wow, after reading some of these reviews I can't believe we listened to the same speakers. "the worst systems ever"? "worse than bose" (that has to be the lowest insult ;-). When I went shopping for my speakers I went to a bunch of different stores and listened to a bunch of different speakers/amps. I went to a B&W store, and an audio store that sold paradigm and many other brands. After a good two months worth of trips I came back to the tower twos. Bloated bass? hardly. Worse than a fisher rack system? no. In fact I found they compared favorably to most of the 1500-2000 dollar speakers i heard. Im not sure what was wrong with the pair that some of these people heard, or what was wrong with the setup the speakers were in, but the Tower twos are a rare value in the over-hyped audio world. i wouldnt trade them for any other pair of speakers under 2 grand (maybe the tower ones, but im not a huge dipole fan). and certainly not for the 1500 dollar pair of NHTs that my buddy got (they sound worse than the tower IIIs). I'm amazed that the people on this board could have missed these gems. Bloated bass? lol. Four stars for quality, five for value.

After looking at this page before purchasing the Tower II's, I felt I owed a review of these fine speakers now that I own them.
I am not an audiophile with expensive scientific monitering equipment, nor am I the kind who cares about the inner construction of my speakers, I am a normal person who loves great sounding music.

I am powering the Tower II's with the Harman/Kardon AVR 45, and suplimenting them with a CSW 10" bass cube powered sub.

I can't say enough about the clean smooth rich sound. I listen to a wide variety of music including my own ADAT recordings and I cant find a flaw.....these speakers sound incredible....even at low volume levels.

I am not a big home theatre buff, however, I was amazed at the clarity produced while viewing and listening to a good movie.

For $1000.00 you too can own these wonderful speakers. I am sure you can do better if you want to shell out $1500.00 to 2000.00, after all, you usually get what you pay for in this hi-fi world....

I am very happy to highly recomend these speakers to anyone who enjoys great sounding music!

Please, what is all this crap about "ok for music,but great for home theater"!? A speaker that is making really good music will do so because of several qualities: Good timbre reproduction, accuracy, tight bass, focused soundstage and dynamic capability. All qualities needed by a Home Theater speaker also.
These cambridges are not bad speakers. But there are much better speakers in this price range. Try the PSB Stratus Bronze, you can add surrounds and a center from PSB and be in Home Theater heaven. No PSB dealer near you? You may be able to talk a Paradigm dealer into selling Stusio 60's near $1000. If you can't afford a whole Studio based surrond system, then get a pair of Monitor 9's or 7's and go with the Monitor series HT system.

Really Poor? The Energy Take 5.0 system w/ sub is $800.

You should really audition several speaker before you buy.

Lines I heard before buying my speakers (I am definately not an impulse shopper)

Acoustic Research, Advent, B&W, BIC, Bose, Cambridge Soundworks, Cerwin Vega, DCM, Definitive Technologies, Dynaudio, Energy, Eosone, Gekko, Genesis, Hales, Infinity, JBL, Jmlabs, Kef, KLH, Klipsch, Legacy Audio, Linn, Martin Logan, Monitor Audio, NHT, Paradigm, Phase Tech, Polk, Proac, PSB, Revel, Snell, Tannoy, Vandersteen, VMPS, Wilson Audio.

No I haven't heard it all, Speakers I still want to hear before I "upgrade":

Aerial Acoustics, Audio Artistry, Audio Physic, Celestion, Dunlavy, Eggleston Works, Epos, ESP, Gallo Audio, Joseph Audio, Magnepan, Meridian, Mirage, Near, PBM Montana, Quad, Sonus Faber, Sound Labs, Thiel, Totem, Von Schweikert, Waveform.

For a $1000.00/pr these definitely provide five star sound. Instead of unpacking them, taking them apart to see if there was insulation in the box (???) giving them a listen with my golden ear and packing them up again ALL WITHIN THE SPACE OF ONE HOUR, I fussed with speaker placement a day or two before really listening to them critically, which is the same I would do with any other speaker. I even employed some research on room resonance interaction done by William Rasnake, a fellow with some credentials, to help find placement solutions that would allow the bass to blossom while also being soundstage friendly. These speakers do everything well. They are smooth, articulate and can really kick if you want to turn the volume up. My listening room has a carpeted conrete floor and if you are hearing something rattle with loud bass passages it has GOT to be your room. If you have heard the Tower II sounding bad you were either listening to some B-stock or didn't have them set up to best advantage. Incidentally, I suggest you add an extra category to the three choices above - music lover. As a music lover, more concerned with the goosebumps than the equipment, I will be very happy with the Tower IIs. Thanks, Henry.

While I have heard better speakers, I haven't heard better speakers in this price range. These have good bass, are very accurate and hangle high volume levels well. At extremely loud levels in my living room, the cabinet slightly rattled, but other than that, they've done real well. I especially like the upper midrange and highs. I suppose my biggest complaint would be the somewhat over-emphasized lower midrange. I definately feel they are worth the $1000/pr. The warranty isn't anything to complain about, either.

Sound Quality/Price Ratio and Sound quality is good by ANY standard

Bit tippy, bit dull looking

This is a follow-up to a previous post. I bought a brand new Marantz SR-19EX receiver last week which Pumps 130 watts into all channels and GOD DAMN my little Tower II's came ALIVE! I was impressed with them before, but Now i'm stunned. As others have mentioned you can now get a new pair for around $600 which seems absurd. When my wife and kids weren't home I cranked the new receiver up to +20 dB (maybe higher) which is extremely loud, and despite a substantial likelihood of permanent hearing loss, these Tower IIs sounded clear, accurate, non-distorted, incredible! I half expected the speakers to blow (figuring this would give me the excuse i needed to buy some new Newton Series T500s or maybe some Paradigm Reference Series speaks)but NOPE. They handle the power with ease and clarity.

I've tried a range of music and they all sound fantastic. Tops was Black Sabbath's title album (cranked). I also blasted some of Itzhak Pearlman's silky violin work and that sounded like heaven. Also worthy of note was the Tower II's tremendous Bass handling of an assortment of Reggae greats like Marley, Alpha Blondy, Toots and the Maytals, Tosh, etc.

I'm no techie audiophile, but I have a good ear and can tell you that these inexpensive speakers could easily be mistaken for something with much greater "status" in a blind test.

I will be buying new speakers at some point (i'm a gizmo junkie), but damned if i'll get rid of these. I'll just move them to a secondary listening area.

Buy these speakers with CONFIDENCE! They defy the principle that "you get what you pay for." With the TowerII's you get more than twice what you paid for under current pricing!

Smooth sound, good bass, great value

cheap vinyl cabinets

I bought a CSW MoviewWorks-II surround system, and was *very* dissapointed with the small satellites, especially for music listening vs. movies. They were good in the high end, the 12" sub filled out the bottom, but the mid was completely missing. I returned them to the CSW store, and they tried to sell me some B-stock Tower-II's for $550. I liked the sound, but I wanted the black finish, so they gave me a new pair for the same $550, with very little negotiation.

These speakers are a great bargin - they have a rich, full sound - anything at Tweeter is at least twice the price to be even close to competitive. My OHM bookshelf speakers (~ 10 yrs old, paid ~ $300 10yrs ago) sounded a world better then the movieworks sattelites, and these sound a world better than the OHM's. I highly reccommend them - and try to bargin the price down - you can probably do much better than the $699 advertised price!

On the downside, the vinyl cabinets are kind of cheesy, and they are a bit tippy - if you have carpeting, make sure you use the included carpet spikes.

Similar Products Used:

OHM CAM bookshelf, CSW MovieWorks

Deep, Natural Responsiveness, price

need powered sub and 80 watts+ to fully appreciate

Everyone's got an opinion, mine is as follows:
These speakers are well worth their price. They can be beat, but only by spending at LEAST $500 more. I used to drive them with 60 watt/ch HK a/v receiver and they were good, but with a 100w/ch Marantz receiver, they're noticeably more impressive. (Advice: When you listen to them in the store, take notice of the receiver the shop chooses to display them with. This will give you an indication of what you'll need to reproduce that sound).

They're not the "status symbol" of the audiophile world, but hey, Much like wine-snobs, self-proclaimed audiophiles are typically more into "image" than "imaging." With a good receiver the TowerII's generate clean, deep high-definition sound that will impress your friends when you host a bash. I've been running these speakers for at least 4 years and they get sweeter with age. They can be driven HARD and LONG and will thank you with a smile(just like my wife). Five stars all around!

Similar Products Used:

PolkAudio, Infinity, Cerwin-Vega

QUICK SUMMARY Very good speakers for the price of good speakers. To sound their best,they require a rectangular room at least 24 feet long and 100watts(20db watts) per channel. DESIGN,CROSSOVERS,LINIARITY,AND ARTICULATION While each cabinet contains 4 drivers,this is an expanded 2 way. The two lower drivers serve a woofer function;the two higher drivers serve a tweeter function. The lower functional crossover is two D'sabove middle C.You can hear the crossover point if you listen carefully but it's not intrusive at all. The other crossover is beyond the range of any fundamental pitches;the tweeter vibrates overtones. I can't locate that crossover. Vibrations leave their drivers at the right times.The beginnings and endings of notes and the rests between them are in focus;they are in phase. In keyboard passages wher one hand is playing legato and the other stacatto,the mixed articulation is delivered cleanly(bi wire these speakers). TIMBRE AND BALANCE Tone colors of voices and instruments alone,in unison,and in orchestrated combinations are very good--bordering on excellent. With the rear of the 13 inch deep cabinet 13 inches from the wall,bass,tenor,alto,and soprano are in proper proportion.The lowest fundamentals the speakers play have a vibrating length of about 22 feet. If the front of the cabinets is less than 22 feet from the wall,the bass might boom on you. Place these speakers widthwise in a rectangular room,they will boom on you. These speakers need 24 feet of room length to vibrate freely;otherwise,the sound is cramped. IMAGE These speakers image beautifully;it's what they do best. The tweeters will ask you to place the cabinets in a narrow end of a rectangular room. So placed, the tweeters are closer to their side walls than to the ceiling. Reflected sounds from the side walls reach your ears before those from the ceiling do. That duplicates the sound reflection patterns heard in a good concert hall. Adjust the Hass Effect. Turn the electonics to mono with the balance straight up. Adjust the distance between the cabinets until the sound seems to be coming from a phantom channel halfway betwwen the cabinets and not the cabinets themselves. Take this reading from the third leg of an equalateral triange formed with the cabinets. Turn the electronics back to stereo. In obligatto passages,the ear can redily discern the melody,the countermelody,and the third line defining the harmony without the speakers getting in the way. Properly placed in a large enough room,these speakers image their grills off. FREQUENCY EXTREMES If the wide dispersion dome tweeters were human,I'd get them an apartment in the city and visit them weekends. Violin half stops are clean and on pitch. Musical vibration is heard and felt. These speakers get about right the sensual proportion of hearing to touch at reasonable volumne levels without resorting to subwoofers. It's what these speakers do second best. DYNAMIC RANGE hifi.com's sales rhetoric says these speakers are compatible with feeds between 30 and 200 watts. The sticker on to backs of the cabinets say they are 8 ohm speakers that can "benefit" from 100 watt amplifiers. I suspect the dynamic range of these speakers is as good as what you feed them. I infer(perhaps correctly) that between 30 and 200 watts neither the speakers nor the electronics will be harmed. I infer further that the designer's sweet spot for beneficial performance is 100 watts into 8 ohms per channel. That said, feeding them the recommended 100 watts,listening to classical music(including jazz) at live performance volumne, the distances between very softs and very ounds are about right. CONCLUSION If the excellent 2k-3k$ a pair speakers from B+W and Celestion are five stars,these are four stars. Wait,did I mention they are $764 a pair,delivered,with a ten year warrenty? Make that four and a half stars.