Thorpe Audio Group cones for Cerwin-Vega CLS-215

To Vade Forrester,

I, too, saw these [Cerwin-Vega CLS-215] and thought some cones would be necessary for optimal sound. I also contacted someone from C-V and suggested an SE version with oak or walnut finish! How did you use the cones? Did you glue them on? I guess I just can't visualize how you would get them under the speakers unless you attached them somehow? Also, would custom Sound Anchors be a good idea?

Lot of speaker for the dough. Did you really like them? Please advise, and thanks Vade.

Terry Hetzel

Thanks for checking out our reviews. The cones I used were so massive (each one weighed five pounds) that I could just rest the speaker on top of them and the weight held them in place. It was a two-person operation to get them under the speakers. Had they been my speakers, I would definitely have screwed the cones into the wood, but neither the speakers nor the cones were mine. Weirdly enough, the cones, made from a super-hard stainless-steel alloy on a CNC lathe, cost as much as the speakers!

I like your idea of an SE version with real-wood veneer. That would make the CLS-215s more acceptable in one’s living room. It wouldn’t hurt if the speaker's walls were thicker too; I think they used 0.5" wood. Not sure what you mean by a custom Sound Anchor. I would be reluctant to raise the speakers higher, due to the height of the tweeter axis, unless they were tilted forward a bit. 

Yes, I really liked the CLS-215s, but keep that in perspective; my reference $6k speakers sounded quite a bit better, as they doggone well should. As you said, they were a lot of speaker for the dough. I would probably have looked at the model with a single 15" woofer if I were interested in buying; the tweeter axis on the two-woofer model was just too high. The single-woofer model went almost as deep and was almost as efficient. . . . Vade Forrester