What can I tell you, I use them for Surround speakers, and they are fine. I have Sonus Faber Concertinos for my mains. They are great sounding, but are fragile. When I have had parties and played loud, “bassy” music, I have augmented the Sonus Faber’s with the CSW Ensemble II’s. They do the job well. They are very durable. For surrounds, they are great. For mains, probably not, except for a small room.

Easy to adjust positions to match room acoustics.

Positioning can be time consuming depending on the type and size of the room. The subwoofer is a picky little sucker.

Yes, these little suckers are (or were) over-priced. Kinda loss a little respect for the people at Henry Kloss. Quess they just got caught-up with the fad.

From practical aspects,if you can get a new set for under 175.00 and intend to use them in a bedroom or say,a college dorm,you can be satisfied with'em. Especially a college dorm. I was driving mine with a Yamaha M-4, so they will take a whoop'n! If anything at all, you can use'em to learn a little about acoustics.

I have to admit I was impressed playing a copy of Steely Dan's "Hey Nineteen" with them.

Similar Products Used:

Nothing for a fair comparison.

I must tell you this is NOT ABOUT THE ENSAMBLE II'S, BUT THE IV HT'S !! I was planning to buy the III's, but my entry to Best Buy showed that only some IV's remained; I gave a chance to these little things. I took them home with a Sony amp (460 z, i think), and they blew each other out.....I was mad !! I took them back (Best Buy has a nice return attitude), and saw a box that someone brought back, the Sony 560 z !! I decided to try a Technics amp and these IV's again....and WOW !! These $200 speakers are great, especially if you like orchestral music like I do! I played them at home, with the wofer out of sight behind the TV, and seems like if you image them right for where you sit (the sweet spot), you feel like you are in a concert hall on a regular recording.....on a record, even. I love them, and at $200 for the HT.....you can hook the left and right up, and save the other 3 in case they blow.....after that 7 YEAR warranty that they give you with these. No contest.....these speakers get a A+.............just make sure you have about 50 feet of at least 18 guage wire.....no wires in side...........only dissapointment I saw in them. I also saw that (in a review at thier website that was in Stereo Review) they took 1200 watts even for a few seconds, no clipping or shut-off !! Way to go Mr. Chrome Cassette, Mr. Koss Headphones, Mr. CSW.....another victory for the bargin sound enthusiast........

I want to thank Doug for his informative review. Now, these speakers are what they are. They are cost effective speakers. These speakers sell for $400. I pay more for interconnect cables. The sound you get for $400 is impressive. They have excellent mids, the high is bright but expected from an inexpensive speaker. Place the bass module in a corner and you will fill a small room with enough bass. If home theatre is your bag, these are it. If you listen to alot of music, you need to step up to Cambridge's Tower II.

First off, here's where I came from audio wise. JBL LX-500's and a Kenwood 100 w/per receiver. I loved my JBL's but had to part with them because of my desire to build a home theater system. Unsheilded speakers of the JBL range tend to play havoc with a big screen TV, and in the small room I was setting it up in there was no place far enough away not to cause distortion. I was not expecting much from the Ensemble II's music wise, they were simply for 5.1 surround from my DVD, but low and behold, I found them to be very pleasing with the type of music I like, which is jazz/new age. And even with much of the rock music I like it performed well. Better than the JBL's? In some areas yes, in others no. For crystal clear highs you can't beat the Ensemble. For down and dirty bass the JBL's had no comparison. But down and dirty bass is not the majority of what I listen to. So in the overall I must say the Ensemble II's are the better listening experience for me. I had considered going with the Tower system from Cambridge, but in a side by side comparison with the Ensemble II's I found I liked the sound coming from the II's better. I'm not saying that the II's are the be all and end all of good sound, but for the price it's the best I could find that filled both niches...surround and stereo. Because it fills it's niche in the market at the best cost to quality ratio I found I give it 5 stars.

Picked up a set of Ensemble II's 2 weeks ago at Best Buy for $169, brand new. I'd been listening to these for years, basically waiting for an excuse to replace my 12 year old 12" 3-way Optimus 400's. After a recent move I discovered speaker rot! Whoo hoo!! My hot button is value for the money, and these deliver all that they promise. I've got the bass module behind my rack against a wall, but not corner loaded. In this mode they needed just a little bass boost. I tried a little "gentle" EQ'ing, but I get excellent performance using the Extended Bass on my reciever and bumping the treble to 2 o'clock. Sounds way better than any EQ curve I could generate. Very natural and "airy". I was just lucky to find them on a close-out, I would have gladly paid $499 for them.

I just purchased a set of Ensemble II's....they're going back to CSW. Now that I've got you thinking I don't like them , let me tell you I do! They are clean, clear, built well, nice looking, but.....for $420.00 I expect more bass. I placed them in a livingroom (about 22' X 12'), on a Toshiba 55" television, driven by an HK AVR40. In all fairness to the Ensemble II's, the room is probably too large for them. If I were using them in a smaller room, they would be mine to keep and enjoy!! I'm purchasing instead, a set of Polk Audio RM3300's. I like their clean, natural sound (I compared them with the Bose Acoustimass 5's...the Bose system SUCKS compared to the Polk's!!!!) and the sub is powered. This should take care of the "lack of bass" situation I'm having in this fairly large room. Why isn't there any reviews on the Polk RM3300's??? If anyone has them, please post a review. I will post mine as soon as I get them up and running for a few days.

I've been very satisfied with the Ensemble II. For the price I got them for ($370) I can't think of better speakers for the same money. Coupled with the Center Channel Plus (which I got for $134) and dipole surrounds ($180), the bill for a very good surround sound system was just under $700. When I think of my previous Bose system I owned (before I saw the light and decided to return them), it's hard to imagine I have the same amount of drivers in my center speaker alone as I did in all of the Bose satellites combined. Sound is excellent and power handling is more than I'll ever need. If anyone knows of a better system for under $700, let him speak.

Not very good.Overated.

I've had the Ensemble II's for over a year now, and I love them.For it's price, it just can't be beat. You get alot more than what
you paid for.