Balanced sounding sturdy little speakers, a little hard to find.
Written: Dec 04 '01
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Pros: Balanced sound at close distance; magnetically shielded.
Cons: Slightly shallow dynamics
The Bottom Line: Great sounding little speakers that are great for near-field listening and monitoring, especially in a computer/multi-media environment.
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| mediageek's Full Review: JBL CM42 Speaker |
I picked up a pair of CM42s (also called Control 1) at Ubid for $9.00 each and they turned out to be one of the best speaker values I've ever seen or heard, easily worth 10x what I paid.
Primarily the CM42 is your basic bookshelf speaker with a 4" poly woofer and 1" tweeter. It's well constructed and heavy. The cabinet is made out of a thick plastic outside and it feels like there's thicker material underneath. It's also magnetically sheilded so you can place it close to a TV or computer monitor without causing any picture distortions.
I use a stereo pair as my second stereo system in my office with a simple but nice sounding Harman/Kardon AVR25II receiver which is connected to my computer, a minidisc deck and a cassette deck. Even with this modest arrangement I have to say that they perform amazingly. Given that the audio from my above-average sound card is still not as good as your average CD player I hooked up my Harman/Kardon CD changer to the receiver to check out the sound from a variety of music.
Overall I find the sound well balanced within the limits of the speakers. The high end is clear without being shrill or tinny, while the midrange has a good presence, with a hint of emphasis, that performs well with acoustic jazz and most rock music. Like most bookshelf speakers there's not much low end. I use the CM42 with a powered subwoofer, though if you're not a bass fanatic you could get away without one.
My speaker on my main music listening system are NHT SuperZeros, which I think are great. The CM42s compare well to the SuperZeros, but aren't quite as good all-around. The SuperZeros have much more tranparent highs and less mid-range emphasis--more flat response overall. But the SuperZeros really have no usable bass to speak of -- they absolutely must be used with a subwoofer. The CM42s have more bass by comparison.
I also find the CM42s to be a little compressed sounding, which is not bad for amplified music, like rock or electronica--in fact it can be a pleasant plus.
The CM42s also sound nice and provide a good soundfield even with near-field listening. I believed that they were designed with so-called "studio monitoring" as an application, and so are intended to be listened to at closer range than traditional stereo speakers. In fact, sitting only about a meter or so away from them they sound very nice and natural, perhaps even a little more so than my SuperZeros.
These make great computer speakers that when paired with a decent inexpensive receiver will actually blow away almost any set of dedicated computer speaker systems I've ever heard. Their only downfall is that they'll reveal the sonic degradation so inherent in much of computer sound.
Because of their sound and solid construction I ended up buying two pairs for use in small computer labs at the university where I work where they provide excellent sound for small classes that use multimedia.
I wouldn't pay more than $100 each for them, but at that price level they are much better than most of the bookshelf speakers you can buy. Worth looking for.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 9
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Epinions.com ID:
mediageek
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Member: Paul Riismandel
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 25
Trusted by: 4 members
About Me:
I'm a true mediageek--into all sorts of electronics and gadgets for making media.
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