I bought these speakers in 1994 or thereabouts,
They have been outstanding. I put 100 watts though them for many years and they have been indestructable and have always provided great sound. Great sound.

I just reconditioned them by replacing the foam surrounds and I couldn't be happier.

One of the best products I have ever purchased: Great performance. Great longevity. Great durability.

Buy them and don't look back

Those AT 12 are one of the best speakers I have ever had! They can handle so much power without any problems! The bass is amazing and they look great! Cerwin Vega always make good stuff!

Definitivamente, CV es un parlante para alta potencia, tiene buena respuesta general para espacios acústicos grandes donde se requiere presencia y presión sonora, especialmente en las bajas frecuencias.
A nivel hogareño se hace casi indispensable el uso de ecualizador, puesto que por la dureza de su woofer, la sensación acústica se inclina a los tonos medios y agudos cuando se le utiliza a niveles de audio moderados.
Efectivamente no es un parlante para Hi-Fi . Su diseño más bien se puede entender y aplicar como del tipo "Heavy Duty". Su construcción robusta y de muy buena calidad entrega un producto de muy larga vida.
Muy recomendable para música del tipo "bailable", de tendencia rock, pop, electrónica, "drum&bass", hip-hop, etc. Difícil lograr una buena imágen y dispersión acústicas en música clásica, jazz o vocal (soft).
Indispesable se hace el uso de un amplificador estable con buena entrega efectiva en RMS de al menos 100W/canal, incluso se ha probado con un sistema de 500w RMS/canal, obteniendo un sonido muy rico en su gama completa.
Conclusión: Muy buen parlante para uso del tipo "musicalización" para música del tipo descrita más arriba.
A nivel hogareño se puede lograr una excelente presión acústica de frecuencia bajas, que sin duda hará que ningún vecino a la redonda pueda quedar indiferente.
Los medios y agudos logran mejor imagen a medida que el volumen aumenta, al punto que los controles frontales con los que se dispone, se justifican plenamente, siendo de real utilidad.
Cerwin Vega, bajo estas consideraciones, es un parlante de muy altas prestaciones.

I bought these speakers in 97 to go along with the two RE 30's that I bought back in 95. These are good sounding speakers. They're not as good as the re 30's but i've never heard a set of 12's nowhere near this price range that has. As far as the critics go for saying that these speakers have too much squeel on the high end my adviced is to get an equalizer. 15 dollars or less on ebay for a used technics or pioneer Eq and you're good to go.

Lots of bass for 8", extremely loud, efficient (I have a pathetic Yamaha 75wpc receiver). Mine were manufactured within 3 days of my birthday (1991)!!!

Lows a little boomy on some demanding rap tracks, weak mids, highs a bit harsh at high volume. Trust me, though, these are NOT bad speakers, just don't get them as reference speakers or audiophile-grade listening (obviously).

This is a review of the AT-8, the 8-inch, 2-way 'little brother' of the AT-12. They aren't on this site, so I figured I'd put it here. I got these for pretty cheap, and didn't have high expectations. I was lucky enough to find some with intact, non 'rotted', surrounds, which is definitely a problem with cerwins this old. Pretty simple repair if you are very careful, otherwise it's about $20-30 per speaker to get it fixed. Anyway, these speakers are pretty good. I have never gotten them loud enough to distort, and the bass is definitely the most I've ever heard out of an 8 inch bookshelf speaker. It's just not enough to shake the walls or feel, like everyone says is possible with 12" or (yikes)15" Cerwins. Maybe I'm asking too much from these woofers- I'm looking to pick up some AT-12s or VS 120s. I use them to listen to rock, electronic, and rap, and they are great for that. Watching "Die Hard" was a treat with these as well. I'm very happy with these- after getting a taste of the Cerwin sound, I'm hooked on getting (bigger) CVs for my upcoming home theater project.

Similar Products Used:

Boston Acoustics CR9

bass
highs
power!!!!!!!!!!!!!

none!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love these damn speakers!!!!!! My best friend gave them to me, he got them from his uncle, when he brought them over the foam surround was rotting away i turned them up on my Pioneer Vsx-d409, 100w/channel and it blew the damn surround off at half the volume!!!!!!! These things can handle insane amounts of power, i had put competition car subs in them rated at 360 watts my receiver blew them at 30% of the volume!!!!!!!!!! Now i have Lightning audio subs in them with a pioneer Vsx-3900s that pushes 150w/channel with a seven band graphic equalizer and i play rap and hard rock through them and the bass from the rap is so powerful i can feel it 50 feet away at 40% of the volume, and for rock i set the Equalizer to flat and it's so loud that it sounds like u are at a concert!!!!!!!!! I recommend these speakers to anybody who wants loud for rock and bass for rap. To whoever thinks these sound horrible needs to get a better receiver/amp or run them through a graphic equalizer.

if u want a real good setup using these i suggest putting lightning audio or Rockford fosgate punch for bass and run at least 12 gauge wire and get a pioneer Vsx-3800 or 3900s to drive them. U WILL BE AMAZED!!!! by the way u if u play disturbed u might want to turn the tweeters down on the control on the front.

Similar Products Used:

mcs!!! Jensen

Deep furniture moving bass / Gave me chills

High ends relative to the listener

I purchased the CV AT-12's last weekend. I replaced my Energy Pro 22's with them. I was going to use them for parts before I purchased a subwoofer but once I heard them I was blown away. I watched the movie Transformers and I can tell you that I am no longer in any hurry to purchase a subwoofer. I have an open 800 square foot basement rec room which these speakers filled effortlesssly. They exhibited deep bass and I could feel the furniture vibrating during the many action scenes. The high end is satisfactoy. The CV's compliment my Athena 150 watt center speaker and provide that extra whumph up front to give you that "In your face" reality. I run evertying from a 75 watt Denon receiver. For my purposes they excelled. The Energy 22's are now in storage.

Similar Products Used:

Energy Pro 22's

Bose 301

Power handling, bass response, classic look.

Did not come bi-wired from the factory.

These are some great classic stereo speakers. I found a pair in perfect condition, not one flaw. Forget about all of the home theatre surround sound stuff for a minute, and flash back to the good old analog stereo days. The only thing I did not like about them was the adjustable crossover. Here is what I did to make them sound way better:
Bought a pair of bi-wireable crossovers from electro marvin on e-bay. ($30.00).
Installed these bi-wire crossovers (you have to modify the cut out in the back of the speaker). Also note the adjustable crossover is no longer used. Just leave it there for looks. You no loner have that stupid fuse on the back either.
Wow!!! They sound so much better, much less bright, and the 12" sub can now get more power that it desperately needs. I could not believe how much better these speakers sound when bi-wired.
I have a Onkyo M-282 power amp running the 12" subs, and my Onkyo TX-DS676 running the mids and tweeters. I also bought some of that Monster Cable Z2 speaker wire (my wife thought it was a black snake that stuff is so big:) and used spades and banana plugs. Great stereo speakers now.

Similar Products Used:

Denon, Onkyo, Monster Power, Monster Cable, Infinity.

Loud.

Everything else.

I purchased these speakers because of their size and price, and for the fact that I knew Cerwins could handle anything that you throw at them. This is true with this speaker, but what most other reviewers are saying about them is right. They are indeed loud and efficient, but they do not sound good at all. I have read here that an argument could be made for these speakers when connected to good amp, and I can say with confidence that that statement is not true, unless you consider Carver amps with Marantz pre amps not to be decent. The carver I matched them to was rated at 250 watts per channel. I have also run these speakers through a 95 watt per channel onkyo, and a 100 watt per channel pioneer. It is true that the better the amp, the better these sound, but find me a speaker where this is not the case. The treble on these speakers is annoyingly scratchy, to the point where at any good volume it almost hurts to listen to, and the bass is indeed boomy and not at all defined. Compare this to any Kef, Paradigm, etc and you will see what I mean. If you have a good amp, you should compliment it with good speakers. I would not recommend these for any use considering that they do not sound good when matched to amps of similar quality.

Similar Products Used:

Kef, other Cerwin Vegas, Jbl, Paradigm

Very strong highs, you will have to adjust your tone controls to find a good setting. The lows are very tight, not flabby like cheap 2 way systems. I prefer to have stronger lows in a speaker system. I think that a subwoofer is needed with this system.

This is a review of the AT-8, which is not listed as a product in the list of Cerwin-Vega! models on this site; an unfortunate problem with this site is that a different model can't be added. Anyhow, this model is of the AT family, it is a 2 way speaker with an 8" woofer and the same tweeter as the other AT speaker, I believe. It's a tight speaker with strong highs, but the lows are weaker than similar 2 way 8" woofer speakers that I've used before.

Customer Service

unknown

Similar Products Used:

Genesis 1, Polk Audio Monitor 7, Bose 501. I thought that these speakers would sound as good or better than the Genesis system, but the Genesis achieves stronger yet controlled bass in a sealed cabinet.