clarity, relaxed sound, dispersion characteristics, looks.

bass is a bit weak depending on the recording.

I have been very pleased with these speakers. To be honest, this is my first hifi system, a graduation present from college, so my basis for comparison is small. They have good dispersion characterics, never sound harsh, and have a very detailed midrange and highs. I listened to some speakers that had good detail and soundstage, but they had extremely limited dispersion. I wanted speakers to put in my living room that would sound excellent without having to be seated in a specific position. These B&W's fit the bill, and I am constantly hearing things in my CD's that I have never heard before. The speakers, as has been mentioned, are a bit weak in the low end, but getting transparent speaker cables and interconnects have helped that immensely. I am driving the speakers with a Musical Fidelity integrated amp, w/ a Rotel RCD-1070 HDCD player.

Similar Products Used:

None

I paid $1500 per pair, and although I love them and they are beautiful, I just bought two B&W 303's for my rears, and they sound great as well (for $270 per pair). I just don't know if I paid for looks or sound with my CDM 7's. However, I haven't tried my 303's in the front, so I can't say for sure. I must say these 7's make for beautiful furniture and I love them. You can see my other reviews; I am just not sure that spending a lot gets you much. The 303's are great too. Biwiring made no difference in sound when I biwired an audioquest slate pair that I tried (and returned). I even took out the bottom two inputs and heard no difference. Components make the difference, not wires!

Similar Products Used:

B&W 303's, CDM center channel

beautiful mid and high range

slightly weak bass, but I found that the Proceed took care of this compared to my old Nak

I keep reading posts here... so I thought I''d do a little review of my own... .I have had the B&W CDM7SE for three years. The speakers were perfect for my old system (Nakamichi ia-1z)... then I got robbed and upgraded to a Proceed... now it''s time for new B&Ws, but I''d recommend these hands down for the price

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never owned, but compared many speakers in $1500 price range at purchase time

Crystal Clear Image
Clean Unadulterated Sound
Broad Soundstage and Depth
Beautiful Natural Cherry Finish(high wife acceptance factor)

Requires subwoofer for extreme low end, but more than adequate for most music that I listen to.

Very smooth natural sound. Match up well with my Rotel power amp. Soundstage is broad and deep. They can be played quite loud for long periods without any fatigue. They will reveal bad recordings as well as bring to life well recorded material regardless of type. They required about a two week break in period, then some minor positioning adjustment to develop the stero image and depth they now provide. Good cables made a big improvement as did good interconnects. People are amazed at the sound differences made by changing the cables or interconnects. I wouldn't have believed it myself, but the cables seem to require a two or three week break in period also.

These are especially fine speakers considering the cost ($1650 US). The wood and finish are quite beautiful, several others in the price range were vinyl not veneer. I believe that people that gave these less than good reviews either didn't take the time to audition these properly or they were paired with inadequate equipment. When they came home they required several days to smooth out, they were a bit harsh out of the box. A week or two did wonders for the speakers and the cables, my sixteen year old even noticed the differences as they developed.

System:
Luxman Tuner/Preamp TP-114
Rotel RB-980BX Power Amp
Rotel RCD-955AX CD Player
Onkyo R1 Cassette DEck
MIT-5 Speaker Cables
Musicwire Interconnects

Similar Products Used:

Paradigm Studio 100
Magnepan 1.6 QR
Totem Arro
Avance Epsilon 910

very clear clean highs and good bass response

narrow listening field and position sensitive

i tested all three of these at home, side by side. the Monitors and B&W's were very close. the B&W's however sounded deeper, richer and had better vocals. the Polks are for Rock and Roll mainly. Since I listened to all kinds of music at various levels they were not for me. the B&W's filled the bill. Price was around $1300 US.

Similar Products Used:

PolkRT2000p, Monitoraudio Siver 7.

looks (red ash cabinet), build, superb sound quality, high and mid freq detail/clarity

again, the bass response

It took a few months, but I finally have the system I always wanted. Well, tube gear and electrostat's would be even better, but for the money, I have a great-sounding system.

These speakers are fantastic! They play easier-on-the-ear music styles flawlessly. Acoustic, Swing, Jazz, Country, "Unplugged" material, and soft Pop (God I hate those words!) such as Sarah McLachlan, give me goose bumps when I sit in my listening chair and LISTEN to the music.

Rock and Roll comes out a little too bright, and can be "in your face", at higher volumes. So I have had to adjust my listening style, but now I LISTEN to the music rather than just sing along with it. My room acoustics are a major part of the problem, though. The detail one hears while sitting in a low-lit room and listening to a quality recording is out of this world. While they do require a sub for deep bass, a good sub will compliment these speakers.

My system is now everything I wanted it to be. It will play Rock and Roll loud and clear when I want it to. It plays mellower music with unsurpassed detail and clarity. Midrange clarity is fantastic. Guitars come out of nowhere now. Drums and plucked guitar strings are sharp and pronounced, without overshadowing the rest of the detail in the other instruments or vocals. Vocals are alive. Bells and triangles are crisp and sweet, without being too bright or having a trailing edge (other than their own). (By the way, I think cymbals are overrated and overused by some artists. I like sharper, cleaner sounds. Cymbals are not that type of an instrument.) When they are set-up correctly, and the sweet spot is found, it's as if you are in the studio. I can't say enough about the sound quality of these speakers!!!

My system:
Denon AVR-85 receiver (currently bidding on tube preamps on Ebay!)
Marantz CC4000 CD player
Marantz MA-700 monoblock amps (200W)
B&W CDM-7SE's
Energy e:Xl S-10 subwoofer
Monster Cable 400 series interconnects
d-i-y, single-strand copper, braided speaker cables

Reference materials: Rush, Cars, Sarah M., Roy Orbison, Everything But the Girl, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Nat King Cole, Govi, Kombo, D.C. Skanson, Dead Can Dance, Buffett, Marley, too many others to list...

Yes, there is room for improvement in the system, but for ~$3500, I am one HAPPY camper. Even the wife is impressed...

Similar Products Used:

B&W DM602S2, 605S2

Highs, Mids, Bass

Placement dependent!! Amplifier dependent!!

Here we are 6 months after my initial review and I've learned some interesting things about this speaker. It is still exceptional in terms of refined, accurate sound reproduction and soundstage. This speaker is placement critical!! It needs to be placed AT LEAST 20 inches away from the wall and slightly toe'd in to get the "tight" bass and soundstage many people seem to be searching for. This speaker has NO PROBLEM reproducing deep bass. This is a function of placement and amplification. For example...the bass produced by the CDM 7SE's driven by an Arcam Alpha 10P Power Amp (100 Watts/Ch) & 9C Pre-Amp (my previous system) was satisfactory but clearly not exceptional. As they say, "you never know what's missing until you find it."

I now drive the CDM 7SE's with an Aronov LS 960 (60/Watts/Ch all-tube Class A-A/B) and a VTL 2.5 All-Tube Pre-Amp and the bass in the CDM 7 SE's will shake fillings from your teeth if the volume is loud enough. The bass is extremely deep, detailed, and "tight." The thing I enjoy about these speakers is their transparency and fullness at low volumes. (See Amplification below). Whatever's on the recording is what you get. Bela Fleck & Victor Wooten's recordings are simply incredible in terms of bass lines....that's the way they recorded it.

If you see the term "bass response" listed under the "weaknesses" line in regards to the CDM 7SE's...it is an amplification issue. These speakers need to be paired with a "muscular" amp capable of truly driving them in the lower octaves. I prefer the depth and presence of good tube gear. The only piece of solid state gear I have personally heard that would probably drive them to their potential is the Plinius 8150i...of course, I really haven't been looking. I'm sure that other capable solid state gear exists...I just haven't heard it yet.

The CDM 7SE's are solid 4+ stars in terms of sound & value, maybe 5's but I'm going to give them 5 stars in rsponse to some of the previous undeserved 1-3 star ratings. These lower ratings are more reflective of poor amplification and sub-optimal placement than the B&W CDM 7SE's. The speakers accurately reproduce the signal given them.

Similar Products Used:

B&W CDM 1SE, Monitor Audio, Aerial, Linn, Aliante

colourful mids, finish

flat imaging, unprecise bassrange

Surely one of the most overestimated loudspeakers. Sound rather tired and boring. How could these become bestsellers?

God sound (for the price I paid)
looks

List price to high

Hi!

Has anyone tuned the Crossover of the CDM 7SE successfully? Please write me the components you used and describe the changes.

I'm using Primare A20 Mk2, D20 Mk2 and T20. These speakers were great performers at my old flat, but they sound worse in my new one. So I recommend to listen to them at home before you by them. They seam to spread high frequencies quite omnidirectional. Therefore the wall behind them should be quite "dead" (as it was in my old flat and isn't in the new one).

I wouldn't have payed the list price for them (which is nearly 50% more than I paied).

Cheers,

Markus

Similar Products Used:

Primare L20

vocals

deep deep bass

These are wonderful speakers for the money; they sound and look great. The CDM 7se or 1se speakers are amazing on vocals, acoustic, jazz, rock and orchestral music. What they do not have is earth shaking bass, but this can be accomplished easily with a quality sub. B&W speakers are not very forgiving of poorly recorded material, but this is true of all high quality audio equipment. It seems to me that unless money is no object, that one has to make compromises. There is no perfect speaker in this price range and there are no $ 2,000 speakers that blow away every speaker under $ 5,ooo. A lot has to do with sources, amps, cables, room acoustics and individual ears.

My point is that I listened to Paradigm Studio, Dynaudio, Totems, psb, NHT, and PMC. I did not buy them this time because I liked the B&Ws more not because the others are bad. Now why would I want to go to all those speakers review sights and trash them with one or two star reviews they certainly deserve more than that? Why do people fill so insecure with their audio choices that they feel this need to slam whatever brand they did not buy? One thing is subjective reviews another is this constant bashing of some product they auditioned one day in the store.