These are an excellent choice if you're looking for a highly efficient, very loud speaker to shake the floors and rattle your brains. Great for driving big parties and making the neighbors unwaveringly angry. With a decently powerful amplifier, you won't even need a subwoofer when you have these on the hookup.

But they are rather poor choice if you're looking for musicality. They're about as subtle as a jackhammer and as graceful as a wrecking ball. If it's transparency you are looking for, look elsewhere. These don't even begin to resemble an audiophile level speaker no matter how much you play with the equalizer. The only language they speak is explosive.

Bottom line: buy only if you're main interest in music listening is to shake the floor and rattle the brains. These are one of the best speakers in the world if you're into that sort of thing. But they truly suck if you want to really listen to music.

Im powering my Cerwin Vegas with an Adcom amp-NAD preamp setup. The bass response is sooo deep it can be 'felt'. Mid and highs are tight and crisp. Even with age these vintage speakers kick ASS! Adcom is known for extreme power output and I can attest to this.But the RE-30's handle full volume easily. With a freq. response of 28-20k it sounds like a concert in my den. I highly recommend!

I've owned my cerwin vega re 30 series now for over a decade. I have used a JVC RX 992-V amp since I've owned these speakers. Recently I bought a new pioneer elite vsx-52 and let me say these speakers still just plain sound awesome. I don't know why they make it so hard to find good speakers like this anymore that are affordable. I will continue to use these babies until they deteriate. Over a decade old and still pumping hard. You know they're a good speaker when the manufacturer warranty is 10yrs.

I bought the RE30s back around 1995 or 96. I've had them since. They have traveled all over included a year in a frat house. These things are unbelievable. I've always had a Sony receiver hooked to them (STR-DE825). They sounded great with that and got too loud to bear. Now I have a Marantz 2238B hooked up. Now I realize that the Sony receiver was holding these things back. I have no doubt that my setup will hold its ground against those that cost 10x more. I play every kind of music- rock, classical, rap... and it sounds great with all of them. It can hit low frequencies that shake my brain.

Freq
28 Hz - 20 kHz

Power
5 watts minimum
250 watts maximum

Sens
97 dB [ 1w / 1m ]

Normal Impedance
4 ohms

LF Driver
2"

Sub
12" cast aluminum frame

Mid
4" cone

Tweet
1" metallized mylar dome

Crossover
500 Hz, 6 kHz

Heavy duty 5-way binding posts

Protection
Self-resetting PTC (tweeter) and overall fuse protection

Bass reflex

3/4" composite board

Scuff-resistant black ash

32" H x 16 1/2" W x 14 1/2" D

Weight
57 lbs.

Ok, here is my 1 in millon life time score.............and I'm not a very lucky person
One saturday afternoon I stopped by my buddies Ralph's house, we chat for awhile and just before I was about to leave, he asked me if I wanted a set of speakers. I thought great thats all I need more stuff to cart home, I could already hear the wife "$@&*%"
Ralph said if not, that he was going to sell them at his daughters school flea market. The reason why he did not want them was due to the fact he had no amp to drive them.Ralph said the speakers where given to him by his oldest daughters boyfriend who used them for his computer gaming and just wanted a new set of speakers.
I finally said ok and we carried them out to the truck. I get home and as I am hook'em up, my neighbor Craig comes over, sees the speakers and his jaw drops..... He says "Dude! are those Cerwin Vega's? man how much do you want for the smaller pair?" I knew then that I had something good.
Oh yes I forgot to mention not only did Ralph give me a pair of Series 30 but also a pair of Series 20's......FREE, FREE I tell you.Yea me!!!!!!
Well I'm sure the neighbors hate me but NOFX has never sounded sooooo good on our stereo. Its nice to have set of speakers that are clear, crisp, clean,and punchy with no distortion. I have only gone a little less than 1/2 volume and its rudely,I mean rudely deafening.Plus I do not want to fry my Yamaha R-V1105 amp.
Anyway thanks for your time, and yes, the wife loves them too! YEA US!!!!!

I have 2 sets of these RE-30's hooked up to a 5 channel power amp model # N9000ES made from SONY. The amp puts out 115 watts per channel and these speakers rock. My ceiling on my house rattles and everything else with it. So would try out this amp it's a beast. I still could put one more re-30 on it if i had it. People what do you think about the Cerwin Vege 18" 188EB. I also have 4 of those. Talking about big boom.

I compared 3 sets of speakers for fun. Cerwin Vega RE 30, Paradigm Monitor 3 v.2, and Infinity Studio Monitor SM 150 's. Each speaker is different for sure. These Cerwin Vega speakers are very impressive for $100 used! I bought them off Craigslist for a Mr. Ben Franklin, and they really do rock a bunch for the price! I did a sound test for all the speakers from a bunch of refernce frequencies that I found online.
www.bitcore.org/stuff/Bass_Tones/
I ran these test frequencies from my laptop and into my receiver and then to the speakers. What's pretty impressive is how low the Cerwin Vega and Paradigms speakers go. Both the Cerwin Vegas and the Paradigms actually vibrate down to 2 Hz, My Paradigms that only have 8 inch woofers. I couldn't get my Infinity SM 150 's (15 inch woofer, dual mids, 1 tweeter) to respond as well to the frequency tests when the Hz dropped below 30Hz. So anytime when I mention frequencies below 30Hz, just know its not the Infinity speakers that are putting out any noticeable db volume at frequencies below 30 HZ. The Infinities didn't put out much in db volume below 30 Hz, but the Infinities sounded deeper and more accurate with the bass then the Cerwin Vegas RE 30's. I picked up my Infinitiy SM 150 's (15 inch woofers) from Craigslist for $70! The Infinitiies have huge massive speaker cabinets, but they really do have an amazing sound to them! I don't really think I can hear 20 Hz and below but I hear the things shaking in my house from both the Cerwin Vega RE 30's and the Paradigm Monitor 3 v.2 's. I would say the paradigms with their 8 inch woofer throw out a whole lot more bass then you would expect to hear when compared to the 12 inch Cerwin Vegas. But the Cerwin Vegas are better for really bleeping loud volume. At 10 Hz and 5 Hz, the closest way I can describe the sound is something like the lowest frequency of a helicopter. I really don't think I can hear 5 Hz, 10 Hz or 15 Hz, but things are shaking and/or rattling around in my house for sure. I did an audio test for my hearing online using these Cerwin Vega RE30 speakers. Here is the website to test your hearing:
http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/hearing.html
I thought I had pretty good hearing, but I think that audio test reveals how these Cerwin Vega speakers drop off in db output below 60Hz fairly rapidly. The Cerwin Vegas seem relatively flat between 125 Hz and 12 Hz compared to frequencies below 125 Hz and frequencies above 12 KHz, but maybe that's just my hearing issues? I had to boost up the 45 HZ output a bit and I had to boost the 30 Hz frequency even more to get what seemed like a similar volume db output level across the frequency chart. I had to boost the 16KHz one up the most just to hear it on the Cerwin Vegas. I couldn't get the 16 KHz one to sound without really cranking that frequency up a lot compared to all the other frequencies. One thing I would say is that these speakers sound pretty good with a bass musical test such as from the following web address:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WcpfeYerps
The only thing I can mention is that I think these Cerwin Vegas, my Paradigms and my Infinity SM 150 's have sort of unusable bass somewhere below 30 to 35 Hz. I know the Cerwin Vegas and the Paradigms speakers vibrate way lower then 30Hz, but either the db output tapers off too much or the speaker cones can't generate the correct wave lengths below 30 Hz for some reason. The Infinity SM 150 's put out almost no frequency output below 30 Hz. It like there's a significant major drop off below 35 Hz for the infinities. The Infinities don't even vibrate below 30 Hz at all with any significant volume output. However, with that said, the Infinities seem to have the deepest bass boom of the 3 different speakers mentioned above. My recommendation: look for used speakers on Craigslist.

Cerwin Vega is best home audio ever, loudest ever, I have owned jamo's, boston acoustics, definitive, fisher ha ha , i also have owned this line as a complete set as far as home theater "awesome". sound does not lack in any area. on my 3 set but NOT cause i had problems but because i needed the money kids, economie. life has fun little tricks to throw at you. so do your ears a favor don't listen to crap listen to the best buy the Cerwin Vega's

PS. not for apartment unless you are moving out or plan on getting evicted super loud

I bought these speakers back in 2004 for a $100 from a friends dad that he bought brand new in 1996 for $800. And they still are working great!! they have the factory speakers and still booming and vibrating every inch of our 2000sf house!! the subwoofer sound is what got me! I heard he was selling them so I rushed over and bought them, my mom hated when I bought them cuz all she heard was boom boom boom lol. these subs have pretty thick frames. sure there big but the sound is worth every inch of it. I would never buy another brand, i dont even think id go with bose, maybe. I use to live in an apartment with my dad and I couldnt even turn it up 1/4 of the way with out getting in trouble!! my dad has a 1000 watt system in his truck and these speakers sound just as great of better for 300 watts each. but to hear the true base in these speakers u have to kinda crank it up ha. even living in a house we've got cops called and theres a good 50 ft in between the houses. so with these there is no need to buy a subwoofer.