I dig into the entire VS series from Cerwin Vega. From the VS-80 to the VS-150 I pull each speaker apart to compare individual drivers and go through all the details you need to know. I also added a sound demo of all four speakers.
In 1986 i purchased a pair of D5 and a sansui amp A1200R and still uses them to this day. I had to refoam them 8 years ago it was pretty simple. Still love the setup and shaking the pictures off the walls. Love them Serwin Vega the best.
I got a great deal on two VS-100s and my daughter recently told me she wants a house stereo. She likes the look of my Vega speakers so naturally i thought she should have her own set. What a great 1st set of speakers. They need a refoam so we will do it together as a fun project.
Used to have this whole series as a complete surround sound setup. Due to unfortunate circumstances, I had to sell the setup at a reduced price then what it was worth. Anyway that aside, I i loved the setup! Simply Speakers did a wonderful job with a perfectly suitable replacement kit for the old rotting foam with simple instructions. Also great job with your tear/breakdown of the entire VS series! Happy listening everyone.
Had a set of VS-80's. Have a set of VS-100's currently. Both sets were especially tight and punchy with a good nuanced sound overall. Love this series and thank you for covering them.
Back in the late 1970's - early 80's, I bought a new pair of Cerwin Vega 316R's. They were large 3-way speakers with 15-inch woofers and an extra rear facing tweeter. About 10 years ago I picked up a pair of VS-150's in mint (new) condition and use them daily in my man cave. My other daily drivers in my family room are a pair of Klipsch Cornwalls that I purchased new in 1986. The Cerwin Vegas and the Klipsch speakers have very similar sensitivity ratings (102 to 104db), which means you only need a few watts to get really good volume.
I think the VS series is the top of CerwinVegas game. They are my personal favourite, both for sound and looks. To me they have a timeless design and still look kinda modern. I think the VS120 are the sweet spot. The VS150 are wicked but can easily out power a room. Man. I would love to see CerwinVega! Model a new retro line off of the VS Series 👍🏻🔈
@@SavingVegas yep! I have the SL12 as well as the VS120. My SL12 are modified and do sound better than the VS120 now. But the build quality on the SL series out of the box is not that great at all. Very cheap looking.
To be honest if we are just talking about being impressed I'd have to say the VS-80's. They sound way bigger than they look. Yes the 120s and 150s are obviously a better speaker but they are supposed to be.
I just installed my two SL-15s, an SL-25C, I already owned the SVS PB-1000 subs. My prior system was the result of a loyalty to a company with an incredible Heritage line and some awesome KPT line. Full stop. The SL-15 is really a newly made "old school" speaker. It has a great bass line and really spacious mid - and high-frequency distribution, something absent from many modern speakers . I really like them, like my La Scalas, they have a nice "big box" . The real difference is that the La Scala was really a PA speaker at its birth.
Interesting fact about the manufacturing date. I bought my VS-120s new at Circuit City and just recently refoamed the woofers on both. The dates on them were different.
It's common with some speakers. They were often sold as single units, but obviously people bought 2. If one was replaced under warranty for whatever reason a store could have had one sitting until they got more ordered in.
I ALSO purchased my 120's @ Circuit City sometime in the mid 90's! I unfortunately have not been able to find replacement woofers 😢 I noticed that for some odd reason or other it just seems to be the 120's that are hard to find parts for. Is there a reason for that? Thanks russ
@@russellheath1137 I've seen some on ebay. I don't know what the issue is with yours, but I replaced the foam in mine recently and they sound great. A bit tedious, but easy to do.
I have a set of vs 100s that I purchased around 91 or 92. I've redid the foam surrounds about 10 years ago and had to replace a tweeter or 2 and a midrange. They are currently hooked up to a Yamaha rx-v671 With room correction and to me they sound amazing with almost any music. I do have multiple subwoofers. 2 10s at 100 each and 2 10s at somewhere between 330 and 600 each.
I own the VS-150’s I bought at Circuit City in the late 90’s. Power them with an Onkyo Integra TX-DS838 which is rated for 6 or 8 ohms. But it’s robust enough to run these 4 ohm speakers. Sounds great but unfortunately I moved into an apartment since then and can no longer open them up 😞
I do have a pair of VS-100's that need some new parts. Tweeters, midranges and a new port. I've always liked the VS series, they sound really crisp and punchy, and compared to the larger "party" series, they have much better sound quality.
Thanks for the great VS videos. Last year I found a beautiful unscratched set of VS-120's in a thrift store, wood finish. I decided to replace the 3 electrolytic caps with the audio-quality Daytons. (One of the original large electrolytics was bulging.) The Dayton's were so big I didn't feel comfortable extending the crossover frame a lot deeper with longer screws (and didn't want to redesign/replace the circuit board) so I made a daughterboard that screws into the inside back just below the crossover and put the 3 new caps on that board. They sounded better to me when playing jazz (particularly jazz with vocals) and classical music. Cant really tell a difference with hard rock. I wish someone made a better quality (perhaps metal) crossover back-panel that screws into the cabinet. I find that super deep bass causes the plastic insert to buzz at high volume levels. In particular I have a recording of "2001 A Space Odyssey" that starts with a 20-30hz rumble that can bring a weak cabinet design to it's knees. The screws are apparently not enough to hold them rock solid in that case. It's too risky to tighten them further since that old 1990's plastic breaks easily in the corners where the screws are.
There will be more videos of these speakers to come. I want to do a video for each speaker separately where I will go into more detail like the crossovers and whatever else I can think of.
With the new technology toys. You could find somebody that has a 3-D printer. And have them print out all new plastics. For the crossovers/terminals and even the tweeters flanges for like the AT and so on. Somme of Those 3D printers are getting to be pretty precise. And make a decently nice finish
Just bought a pair of vs 120 s but needs the surround rings for woofers replaced grid them up after sitting in a storage building for yrs an the rubber foam just fell slam off the cabnets are perfect condition mid an highs perfect , guy I bought from said he may have played them 30 times , he moved an stored them an bought Bose an forgot about them he said for a bit so they sat for over 10yrs in a shop , I’ll order the rings once I find the correct rubber rings a fix them
@@SavingVegas Leftover tweeters inventory maybe?... Almost all of the "home theater" loudspeakers in those years, the ones that were supposed to be close to a tv screens, had bucking magnets. CRT TV screens were affected by magnetic fields. Those years are gone! :)
Yeah but most of the speakers I have seen that are magnetically shielded have an entire cover over the magnet of both tweeter and woofer. The 120 does not have this for the woofer. Every VS-120 I have opened up has this same style tweeter.
I understand what you are saying and I am not implying you are wrong but I think there may be more to it. When you search for VS-120 tweeters every single one of them has this as well as every set I have worked on. Plus I have also seen CV subwoofers with the same thing.
Oh man I miss them so much, can't wait to see the rest of the content and then finally get them back.. real question is what's the first movie that should be watched with them?? ahah I had no idea the vs80s were that much older than the rest of them
i have a set of vs-150's that i bought in like 1997-98 at Montgomery Wards that i only played music through 3 times. they have no dents or scratches and have been in an air condition climate since i bought them.
Regarding the extra magnets on the tweeters, most people in the comments are saying that it's for magnetic shielding and one person said something about the manufacturer getting rid of extra material's, but no one mentioned that by adding extra mass also aid's in better cooling! While there could be better performance due to a larger magnetic field, you also inherit more surface area for more heat dissipation, I have seen tweeters with plastic baskets where the magnet motor assembly got so hot that the basket deformed causing the magnet to move up against the voice coil and short it out once the voice coil lacquer wore out and then it's capacitor exploded and launched the super hot magnet onto the back seat of my car burning the material! Not much air volume in their little enclosures didn't help either.... They do get pretty hot under high powered conditions! The tweeters are also usually located towards the top end of an enclosure which is where any and just about all the heat from the midrange and woofer is going to end up that didn't make it out of the port which is mostly towards the bottom or sometimes at midpoint if it's vented to the front of the enclosure.... Realistically, you want to be able to get rid of heat as fast as possible! Some horn tweeters have aluminium heatsinks with fins to increase the surface area, those plastic horns simply melt under challenging power levels over extended listening periods.... The best way to magnetically shield driver's is to cover the magnet assembly with a metal cup creating a somewhat Fariday cage... Even the you use another magnet in reverse polarity, you still get a magnetic field from the second magnet while the magnetic field of the first magnet changes to become more bloated and wider reaching.... Possibly making it more concentrated on the voice coil aiding in better performance as I mentioned earlier....
I have to say this makes the most sense to me. Regarding magnetic shielding, the speakers I've seen that are shielded have the cup around the magnet that you spoke of. Also if it were for shielding why would only the VS-120 model have it? And why only the tweeter? I personally agree and think it's because the same tweeter is used in the VS-80 and VS-100 which have lower power ratings than the VS-120. So if it helps dissipate heat it should aid in that tweeters ability to handle more power.
There's a pair of the 120s at the local Habitat For Humanity for $85. They definitely need re-foamed at least. If they were $50 I think I'd already have them. They definitely need some love to work.
The VS series, as well as a few other models, have a 2 layer surround. The red foam will start to discolor as they slowly rot over time. There's a black cloth like layer that will hold up even after the foam part of the surround completely rots to nothing. Without the stiffness of the foam layer, the parameters of the woofer will actually change due to less force needed to move the cone structure in and out. I would recommend getting the foam replaced. It will not only look better, but it will help the woofers sound as they were intended.
I ran a set of VS-120's in my 36'x36' shop for a long time. I had them mounted in the front corners on big shelves and they impressed a lot of people. Probably not the most accurate speaker but they sure do put out some SPL!
@@SavingVegas They were the best thing ever to a 13 year old me. I worked all summer in the Georgia heat in order to buy them. I was replacing a set of Pioneers I also got from Circuit City. They had a 16 in woofer and I thought they were great until I went in the sound room and heard the 120's for the first time. I fell in love. The CV were leagues better. I used them as the left and right of my first home theater, also. It was Dolby Pro Logic. Lol I even had a laserdisc player. It was a pretty sweet set up for a kid. Those were the days. It sounds like you have just as much love for the VS series as I do. I'm glad I found your channel. 😊
Great comparison! Having owned the 150's for over 10 yrs I can safely say I made the right choice. Any recommendations on a decent modern day receiver/amp for them?
Lots of people like to use pro audio amps like Crown and QSC but I think a good quality home audio hifi power amp is the way to go. I personally like Adcom amps but any hifi power amp with at least 200 watts per channel @ 8 ohms or more.
I have a set of vs-150 in my living room passed down to me from my parents. They bang rattling windows and walls in house. 15" subwoofers foam is flaking. No idea how to fix that.
The foam surrounds rot over time, they need to be refoamed. You either need to take them somewhere that works on speakers or there are kits you can order online and do it yourself.
For those that grew up in the 80”s and 90”s and where into audio know why there is a double stacked magnet on speakers 🔊! It’s for the Tv 📺 interference!
11:00 The second magnet is a "bucking" magnet on the tweeter to cancel stray magnetic fields when using speakers near computer monitors or CRT TV sets of that era. They must have used this tweeter in computer or home theatre systems, and this is cheaper to use one tweeter for everything. Wouldn't make sense to only have a bucking magnet on a tweeter and not the mid and woofer. Strange🤔
I have a chance to buy a set of VS-120s or a set of AT-10s. I would be running them with a 150W Emotiva amp. Which speakers do you think would be a better match for the amp I would be driving them with?
Either of those two speakers will work well with that amplifier. I would personally go with the VS-120s because they are a little more bass heavy than the AT-10s. It comes down to personal preference.
@@SavingVegas Thank you. I was worried the 150 watts would not be enough to REALLY drive them. Old 80s rocker here and like it loud! I appreciate your feedback.
@bkoestring The sensitivity rating of the VS-120 is 97dB, and the AT-10 is 95dB, so the 120s will not only handle more wattage, but they will also play louder than the AT-10 per given watt.
Yea i was thinking older vegas used a more orange woofer surround than the newer red, is the extra magnet for shielding, i know in mid late 90s throughout 2000s magnetic shielding was big?? I think so not sure either
Hmm.. Never actually liked the VS series much. We had this series side by side with the DC series. And the VS series was always the cheaper / lesser option compared to DC. The difference between the series was quite substantial. DC is better in every comparable way.
Vegas were junk i got tired of sending in subs due to they couldnt handle the power of a Pioneer Elite receivers or Denon Receivers . Ended up replacing the subs in the boxes with JL Audio car audio 4 ohm subs. Then they were great . I used to run VS series back in early 2000s w/ Pioneer Elite and Denon components . The fuses in the back of Vegas were a joke and served no purpose at all . Atleast if they did they didnt ever pop before taking a sh!7
You were probably pushing your receivers too hard causing them to clip and damaging the drivers. The fuse is to protect them from overpowering not underpowering which causes just as much damage. I have 2 amps bridged to run my D-9s. Each amp is capable of producing 900 watts of clean power (before clipping) to each speaker. I even replaced the 2.5 amp slow blow fuse with a 3 amp slow blow and have never damaged any of the drivers and yes I have popped the fuse when pushing them but never a WOOFER. You replaced the WOOFERS with subwoofers and subwoofers handle clipping much better than woofers do which is why they would have outlasted the originals because your giving them dirty power. If you want to listen to your CVs at high SPL levels you need more than a wimpy AVR receiver. You need a proper power amp.
god that red is so hideous tho. Looks cheap like car speakers? Or not sure why but just not appealing. They do seem pretty strong tho but hmm not sure if that is good necessarily bc could slow down the movement a bit ?
The red foam surrounds are their signature, mind you all of the speakers in this video are in need of new surrounds so they have faded over time, mostly the VS-80's.
Hey, great video. I have a pretty cheap budget amp named T.Amp E-800, and my VS-12's mid screams extremely much on rock for example. Do you think a better amp would make it sound way less harsh? And also is the VS-15 better?
Amplifiers can sound different from one to another but that's not where I would start. The pre amp would have more effect on sound. The 120 mids can be a bit harsh, could be due to crossovers, CV did use some pretty cheap parts and there is electrolytic caps in the signal path for the mid. As for the 150s yes they are a big step above the 120, far better tweeter and midrange but again same cheap crossover parts.
@@SavingVegas Ahhh okay, I use a mixer. But my dad just bought a MAD C356BEE I could use as a preamp, but in the future im going to buy the t.amp Proline 3000 which should be really good in quality :D
I had the VE8 for testing at some point, that model has a 8inch as well and the magnet is considerably smaller than the magnet on the VS80. Vintage for the win!
@@robertholsopple9451 Cerwin Vega made models cheaper and cheaper. VE is no exception. Cheap crossovers, lots of plastic. Thin cabinets, poorly pressed particle boards used. That means take out a driver and the screw holes just crumble apart. Haven’t examined the SL series yet, but they are even cheaper they say. The xls is better though. Better drivers and build quality
Subbed to your channel. I'll have to come back when I'm more "in tune" to watching in full. My late brother left behind vs150's and I've sat on them for 7yrs now. The rest of his system was stolen out of the apartment before I could clean it out. Nonetheless, I'm finally attempting to hook up the speakers but really don't know if I've done it wrong, or if the fuse in the back needs replacing. I'm hooking up to an older pioneer system that so far is kicking ass on the speakers that came with the receiver/equalizer. Not sure if the power is ample enough to support the Vegas but itching to rattle my windows and dance thru the house..lol.. With that said, do you have a video explaining how to hook these bad boys up? I still have the heavy wires that were attached at one point. Any help would be greatly appreciated. My old butt is itching to jam to some 70's full throttle.
Not much to hooking them up to an amp. The fuse in the back is for overall speaker protection and could possibly be blown. A 2.5A slow blow fuse would be the proper fuse to replace it with or a 3A fast blow works good as well. They are rated for 5/400 watts and can definitely rock the house with average 100 watt amplifier. Just keep in mind that those are a 4 ohm speaker and can be quite demanding on an amplifier causing it to run hotter. With that said most amps won't have a problem running them as long as only one set of speakers are being run at once. The fuse will pop if over powered or if a lower power amplifier is driven too hard (clipping).
@@SavingVegas thanks for the reply. I'm thinking the fuse is blown in one. Got the other working. They definitely need refoamed, hope that's the right terminology. The orange foam is very brittle from sitting for years. So I've got something new to learn about. My brother was the music man, I was the little sister who just jammed along with him. Will be watching more of your videos soon.
