John Atkinson
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Gene Czerwinski, founder of Cerwin-Vega, dead at 83
mark evans
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My first pair of speakers that I bought in 1984 were a pair of Cerwin Vega D-3's. 10" woofer, 5" mid, 1" bullet tweeter. I remember thinking at the time that the orange foam around the woofer looked kinda cheap. But it was the only speaker that was being sold at Service Merchandise along with the Onkyo TX-55 receiver that I purchased as well.

The funny thing is.. every speaker I heard after the fact sounded ten times better than the Vega's. Even the Panasonic brand would out perform them. I wound up selling them to a kid that wanted to take the Bass drivers out to put them in his car. I sold them for $30.00.

Then came the Altec Lansings... thats another story.

Mark Evans

Buddha
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Quote:
http://www.dailynews.com/business/ci_15747512

Cerwin-Vega has the dubious honor of having their loudspeakers causing an audio journalist literally to throw up. It was at a UK Show dem in 1977. The company played the music so loud, and with such stomach-churning low frequencies, that one writer in the room reacted in the manner described.

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

I did that the first time I attended a Wavac demo.

"Three hundred fifty thousand WHAT!?!?"

As an old time TAS reader, I also seem to recall an amplifier that made a reviewer poop his pants.

Gene Czerwinski could have left a far inferior legacy than the XLS 215, a product I can say with complete honesty sounds better than 60% (maybe 75%) of the above-50,000 dollar speakers I've encountered!

Freako
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Yep, the joys of listening to music can really get to you!

dbowker
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Ahh...one of my first speakers. That line was tailor made for teenage boys who are looking to play Floyd, Zeppelin and (and later for me) The Clash at concert levels in the "comfort" of their own room. Those things were indeed near indestructible- my sister, the partier of the family got even bigger ones when she went off to college and I jknow for a fact they often handled her receiver being set to 9 or 10 for hours at a time!

For me, after about two years I went into my first high-end shop and immediately realized there was a lot more to sound than just MORE sound! I sold them off and got some Spica TC-50s, practically the opposite design approach. The Spicas were my mainstay for almost 15 years after.

Like a first car though, you usually have a warm spot for your first speakers.

Freako
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my sister, the partier of the family got even bigger ones when she went off to college and I jknow for a fact they often handled her ...

Those girls... tsk tsk tsk

Buddha
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Quote:
my sister, the partier of the family got even bigger ones when she went off to college and I jknow for a fact they often handled her ...

Those girls... tsk tsk tsk

A friend of mine told me about a night club where all the drinks are free and afterward you can go upstairs and have sex with as many people as you want.

I tried it, but got tossed out when I didn't want to pay for my first drink.

I went and told my friend what happened and he said, "That's odd, it worked for my sister."

Freako
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Go figure!

Allen Fant
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RIP. My first system had the AT-12 model. It all started there for me...

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