I shopped for several days at all the typical stores and took back the hard/pinched RE-30 Cerwin-Vega which was purchased from Best Buy. Good bass but poor sound-staging. A flawed speaker that causes me a headache. Only for the hearing impaired!
But the DCM KX-Series Two 12 is wonderful. Its sound it cut from the same cloth. Clear, open with a wide deep soundstage. The horn tweeter has only minor disadvantages as compared to past horn tweeters. The speaker fills a large room nicely. Paid $380 total at Circuit City. I have not listened to the electronic deep bass stuff yet but others have already covered this subject.
BTW, I'm 42 and have been an audiophile for many years. You don't need to buy the rip-off expensive stuff in Sterophile if you very carefully make the effort yourself. While most of the mass market stuff is junk the KX12 is a jewel for those who seek live dynamic sounding music. Forget British speakers or mini's.
Skip speakers with integrated 15" woffers as a 12" is typically lot better in the upper bass.
This speaker only has ONE 12" woffer not two! If you visit the DCM web-site you will see that there is not such speaker as the KX-212! Repeat after me "Series two KX-12".

I guess I will be the unpopular and unfavorable person here. Yes, they are very loud and can only be compared to unaccurate professional speakers and other companies whose speakers also follow this suite, the DCMs, and the Infinity SMs. To say the least, what bass are these other people hearing? I hear no real bass in these speakers, but over bloated midbass and high bass which is very boomy and annoying. The real bass that is under 45 Hz is very shy and almost missing. The larger RE-38s also follow this bassless design. This can be heard very easily when comparing to other manufactorer's models that do go down to 40 Hz at - 3 db or even lower. Also, all you need is to take a cheap powered sub that goes to 40 Hz and you will hear how weak these speakers are without that sub and how boomy they are in the upper bass frequencies. The tweeters are very harsh and pronounced in the lower to mid treble frequencies with a loss of the very highest frequencies that some describe as air or detail. The midrange is the worst I've ever heard. This is very muddy and over emphasizes the lower midrange frequencies to add to the annoying upper bass boom. This is how they have the efficency so high. They are good for loud, non-critical, non-theater, party, background music only. If enthusiasts or audiophiles try them for even non-critical, non-party music, they will be greatly disturbed by how artificial and unrealistic they are with every section of the audio spectrum including soundstage and the such. These speakers were out done by others costing less with only 8" woofers. Those other speakers went lower in the bass and had great bass punch. The bass many talk of in these Cerwin speakers has to be the punch which is only in the mid bass and above frequencies. These speakers offer no real punch in the true low bass which is needed for realistic sound reproduction. As I said, if your a college student who likes to party and is always half drunk, you'll love the sound of these speakers.

I don't know why some of you are saying the things you are. For $290 including tax, you can get a pair of these RE-30's at best buy. Now for this money, I believe it's one of the best that incorporates the highs with good bass. It's not going to be a speaker with perfect staging, timbre, etc. If you want all that your going to spend at least $1000 for a pair of decent ones. So for the money these speakers are great. I'm powering it with a Yamaha receiver and a Sony ES cd player and it sounds great. The only thing I'm disappointed in is the bass under 40hz. Overall though, I'd recomment it to anyone with a budget.

God, These speakers are real sad. I heard my friends dad's pair and the sound was too muddy. Their was no highs or mid at all, just pure crappy bass. Even As a 13 year boy I know these speakers suck

I feel that these are pretty good speakers for the amount of money you are paying. I bought mine at Best Buy about 8 months ago for about $350 for the pair. I am disappointed at the muddy bass that these speakers reproduce but again for the amount of money that these things cost, one can't go wrong if they are on a budget.

First of all, lets get one thing straight. I am not one of those "have to have the best most expensive" types of guy, so for all of you who are comparing these speakers to high end Acoustic Research or Paradigm speakers, shut up and let us middle of the road type people have our fun. For the money I spent on these speakers, I feel that I could not have bought a better pair. To comment on the so called "muddy bass", I have a Sony CDP-CD525 Cd player hooked up via fiber optics to a Sony STR-DE925 and I think the bass is great. I listen to all types of music and it does well with them all. And for the nasty comments on the not-so-great mids and highs, these speakers can handle alot and if your reciever has a built in EQ, you can make these bad boys sound just the way you want them. I am currently a music student so I think my ear is very credible, and when I say these speakers are quite the bang for your buck, I mean it. Not the best, but a great all around speaker for home, apartment, or anywhere else.

Oh my god, what can one say that hasn't already been said about Cerwin Vega? They suck nearly as bad as Bose. Good god. Listening to these and a pair of 150 dollars technics is no different. They sound the same, Loud distorted Bass and no highs. The mid on these is almost completely drowned out by the damn bass. Also, to The guy from Wisconsin who put CV, Bose and DCM in the same category, it really should be: (from best to worse in the crap category)
DCM
CV
Bose

Bose shouldn't really be in the speaker category, maybe in the novelty crap categorey.

I got a sweet deal on these speakers from BestBuy about a month ago. While I do love the speakers, I do have to complain about their 4 ohm rating. I blew my Sony DE525 amp trying to power them. I have sense upgraded to a marantz 68. It pushes them beautifully. As for the sound: They are perhaps a little lacking in the midrange (compared to my old four way speakers), but their high end and base is superb. I can hear the littlest tinkle from chimes and scratch of guitar strings. I have a 10 band EQ so I can compensate rather well for the midrange deficit. To anyone thinkin of getting these: be prepared to change your amp if you want to push four of them at once. Most amps simply can't power 4 ohm speakers (at least not very long - the Sony lasted 2 days). They are fine, fine speakers for the price, however. Not Thiels, Paradigm or even JBL's - but then again I got four of them for the price of a single JBL floor model...

i just wanted to say, anyone who says these speakers sound bad, you cant say you know anything about audio eqiptment. I am a teenager, but i know what i like. If you are listening to the re-30's at 4 ohms, its probably your amp thats getting the crappy sound that some of you complain about like "muddy bass" If you get bad sound out of the speakers concider the following:1: you are listening to classical music! (these are not the right speakers!)
2: Your amp is wrong for these speakers!!!!! you can....

1>Buy a new amp, with more power or an amp that handles 4 ohm speakers!!
2>Look at differant speakers for your amp, (i recomend the re-20's or re-25's, these are 6 ohms and wont screw up your amp!
here is some info bout these other speakers

RE-20
2 way
100 w max
6 ohms
8" woofer
(a little small for my taste)

RE-25
3 way
150 w max
6 ohms
10' woofer

If you want to know about ohms here is some stuff i found out---->
A amp must be rated as close as possible with ohms, if your amp is 8 and speakers are 4 the amp will heat up and give you the muddy bass, and distortion. Amps have to stay fairly cool. Also underpowering these speakers will screw up the sound quality too. you dont need a high quality setup, just match the specs as close as possible.

I live in thunder Bay ontario, and C.V. speakers dont come cheap here, that doesnt stop me!!
RE-20's 400.00 + 15% tax
RE-25's 700.00 + 15% tax
RE-30's 900.00 + 15% tax
im not sure the price on the re-38's

Now my setup,
(im not complete building it, but very soon)
Technics Reciver 8 ohms, 120 watts per channel
Cerwin Vega RE-25's 6 ohms 150 max
i have not yet purchased a cd player

i reccomend e-mailing your reciver/amp company and ask them if a 4/6 ohm speaker will work properly with you amp.

OTHERWISE
Cerwin Vega is a perfect rocker speaker and dont badmouth C.V.

(my review is on all RE C.V. speakers)
WARNING stay away from the series speaker, they are not worthy
WWW.CERWINVEGA.COM
if u have any questions e-mail me
firestarter_sv@hotmail.com

I Purchased a pair of re 30's last fall and i love them, they sound good for high efficiency speakers. and to all the people who find that cerwin vega speakers sound bad you should check your equipment because it ain't your speakers. these speakers are the biggest bang for your buck. I have my speakers hooked up to a audio lab amplifier and preamp. I also have a equilizer hooked up but I only got a sony playstation for a cd player and I got MIT terminator 6 speaker wire hooked up too which makes it sound alot better. I give these speakers 5 stars.