TitaniumTroy
Well-Known Member
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
Completely understandable! No problem.
Razz
Well-Known Member
I need to start this review by making it clear that the room had a big impact on the sound.
Jeff's main HT sounds completely different than the speakers did here in his living room. Of course Jeff's HT is smaller, very well treated, and the speakers are stacked. Stacking the speakers inversely on one another made a huge difference.
I used a number of CDs but stuck to some of my favorites that I was familiar with for most of my listening.
Depeche Mode ... Violator
Norah Jones... Fly away
50 cent... Get Rich or Die Tryin
Keb Mo... Keb Mo
Jeff's Control switch made this the best was to compare speakers. The only downfall with the comparison falls on the room as the speakers are large and soundstage is effected as the 1010s are in the middle of the room, then 1020, then 1030. The 1030s are set wide out compared to the 1010. Another thing to consider was the efficiency. The volume out put obviously varied from speaker to speaker. So I used my iPhone's "SPL Meter" and found they vary in out put around this much...
1010 (baseline)
1020 (+1-2db)
1030 (+3-4db)
I played with the volume nob and was able to quickly shift it those amounts when switching between speakers. This took some practice but after a few mins I was able to switch speakers and volume in all of 2 seconds.
1010
Straight up.... these were my least favorite of the three. I found the mid-range to be restricted. Vocals felt "compressed". I also found the low end was not tight, and not really there. They are not "bad" speakers but comparatively they did not live up the 1020/1030s. Highs are not as clear and almost seamed to be a different speaker brand all around. I would not put these in the same class as the 1020/1030.
1020
These were my overall favorite of the 3. I found most detail here and best "natural" sounding mid range. The sound stage on these became very focused and I was listening to where the band was. I closed my eyes often when listening to all three and with these I could easily see where instruments and vocals were coming from. The low end was just a bit shallow but not bad and the bass tightened up dramatically compared to the 1010. There was a cleaner high end to these as well but had just a bit of sibilance that became a little distracting. High end also felt a bit over pronounced. Separation was also a bit challenging with these but not bad. Overall a very nice speaker indeed! I would add a sub to these and call it a day!
1030
Not to far behind the 1020 in my book. The main distraction for me with these is the "diffuse" sound they give. They reminded me of a bi-polar speaker. Sound stage was a little lost for me as they were so diffuse. On the good side of that, they made the sound LARGE!!!! These speakers can fill any room! This larger sound is usually appreciated by me but I found it to take away a bit of clarity compared to the 1020. Sound stage was also impacted by the room as these were more focused in the main HT. Vocals were not as detailed and didn't "touch me" as they did with the 1020. There was more low end impact in the 1030 than the others. It was solid and gave these a "fuller" sound. Adding a sub is not really needed here. The mild sibilance heard in the 1020 was here as well. But overall another very good speaker.
I would give the 1030s and 1020s excellent marks but have to say the 1010s are lacking a bit when comparing the 3.
Thank you Jeff for the opportunity to compare these speakers!
Hats off for such a lovely collection!
:music-rockout:
Jeff's main HT sounds completely different than the speakers did here in his living room. Of course Jeff's HT is smaller, very well treated, and the speakers are stacked. Stacking the speakers inversely on one another made a huge difference.
I used a number of CDs but stuck to some of my favorites that I was familiar with for most of my listening.
Depeche Mode ... Violator
Norah Jones... Fly away
50 cent... Get Rich or Die Tryin
Keb Mo... Keb Mo
Jeff's Control switch made this the best was to compare speakers. The only downfall with the comparison falls on the room as the speakers are large and soundstage is effected as the 1010s are in the middle of the room, then 1020, then 1030. The 1030s are set wide out compared to the 1010. Another thing to consider was the efficiency. The volume out put obviously varied from speaker to speaker. So I used my iPhone's "SPL Meter" and found they vary in out put around this much...
1010 (baseline)
1020 (+1-2db)
1030 (+3-4db)
I played with the volume nob and was able to quickly shift it those amounts when switching between speakers. This took some practice but after a few mins I was able to switch speakers and volume in all of 2 seconds.
1010
Straight up.... these were my least favorite of the three. I found the mid-range to be restricted. Vocals felt "compressed". I also found the low end was not tight, and not really there. They are not "bad" speakers but comparatively they did not live up the 1020/1030s. Highs are not as clear and almost seamed to be a different speaker brand all around. I would not put these in the same class as the 1020/1030.
1020
These were my overall favorite of the 3. I found most detail here and best "natural" sounding mid range. The sound stage on these became very focused and I was listening to where the band was. I closed my eyes often when listening to all three and with these I could easily see where instruments and vocals were coming from. The low end was just a bit shallow but not bad and the bass tightened up dramatically compared to the 1010. There was a cleaner high end to these as well but had just a bit of sibilance that became a little distracting. High end also felt a bit over pronounced. Separation was also a bit challenging with these but not bad. Overall a very nice speaker indeed! I would add a sub to these and call it a day!
1030
Not to far behind the 1020 in my book. The main distraction for me with these is the "diffuse" sound they give. They reminded me of a bi-polar speaker. Sound stage was a little lost for me as they were so diffuse. On the good side of that, they made the sound LARGE!!!! These speakers can fill any room! This larger sound is usually appreciated by me but I found it to take away a bit of clarity compared to the 1020. Sound stage was also impacted by the room as these were more focused in the main HT. Vocals were not as detailed and didn't "touch me" as they did with the 1020. There was more low end impact in the 1030 than the others. It was solid and gave these a "fuller" sound. Adding a sub is not really needed here. The mild sibilance heard in the 1020 was here as well. But overall another very good speaker.
I would give the 1030s and 1020s excellent marks but have to say the 1010s are lacking a bit when comparing the 3.
Thank you Jeff for the opportunity to compare these speakers!
Hats off for such a lovely collection!
:music-rockout:
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
Excellent job Razz! Thanks for taking the time to listen and write these up - and thereby contributing immensely to a very limited body of information available for these speakers.
Jeff
ps. In a few days I'll be re-arranging the living room back to a more traditional space (ie. just the 1030's in the room) in accordance with the deal I had made with Gen. The 1020's will be move to the basement HT, taking the spaces where the 1010's used to sit in a stereo (with SVS sub) set-up. Given both yours and PaulyT's reviews, I'm itching to hear how that'll work out.
ps. to Dude (Hoops): 2 down, 1 to go!
Jeff
ps. In a few days I'll be re-arranging the living room back to a more traditional space (ie. just the 1030's in the room) in accordance with the deal I had made with Gen. The 1020's will be move to the basement HT, taking the spaces where the 1010's used to sit in a stereo (with SVS sub) set-up. Given both yours and PaulyT's reviews, I'm itching to hear how that'll work out.
ps. to Dude (Hoops): 2 down, 1 to go!
D
Deleted member 133
Guest
Let me know if I can be of any help.
Send me the link to the sale if you'd like. It's getting rare for there to be a pair of CM Series speakers out there that I have not yet been contacted about.
Jeff
Send me the link to the sale if you'd like. It's getting rare for there to be a pair of CM Series speakers out there that I have not yet been contacted about.
Jeff
That's OK. None of us wanted to know anything further about this. #EyeRoll