Home > Consumer Reviews > Cerwin Vega! VE-5C Center Channel Speaker

You have the big front/lefts, you have the big 15" subwoofer that rattles the street, you have the 25 different surrounds all mounted on your wall, you have the 1000watt+ HT receiver tuned just perfectly. You think you got it all figured out... until you skimp on the center channel. Now your left scratching your head wondering why the voices are low, action scenes are insanely blaring, and theres just an overall unevenness in all your movies.

If you find yourself turning up the movie/show during dialog and then turning it down during action, It's time to get a real center, dump the satellite speakers that pretends it can accurately reproduce movie soundtrack and voice dialog, most of them fail.

Insert 70 dollar Cerwin Vega ve-5c. This speaker brought out the sounds in movies I knew were getting drowned out by the incompetence of a satellite speaker. Although the center doesn't handle bass, for giggles I set it to large and watched some intense action scenes from star trek/transformers/saving private ryan, and the amount of clean, snappy bass that this 1 speaker produced was quite impressive. It has great excursion and can seriously move some air when cranked up.

Oh yeah, thats another thing - this baby is loud, but thats a Cerwin Vega trademark. While some audiophiles always ding Cerwin Vega for being "too loud/bassy" I find this to be perfect because it allows more flexibility in tuning. This speaker eats up anything you throw at it at beyond deafening sound levels, and it does it with authority. I would really recommend this center for the price... 70 dollars is nothing, and you get outstanding value.

If you are looking for a best bang for your buck deal this will be a great find for you. Has good weight to it nice and is very sturdy. The highs are not very very crisp but do sound pretty good. Since a center channel is mostly for dialog this will not hurt your sound quality anyway. You need a center that can play the right bass tones in voices that is loud enough to keep up with your other surround sound speakers. I have 2 three way Sony floor standing speakers piggy backed meaning running with two satellite speakers for my front channels. This is a total of 12 speakers for my fronts. I have two three ways for my rear and a 12" Sub that holds the low end very well. I bought this to replace my center channel that just could not keep up during my movies. I did not want to spend a ton since I have spent quite a bit already. This was a great buy and I would recommend it to anyone. This center truly made the difference in my movies making my system sound pretty close to theater loud. I only have to turn my unit up to about 1/3 of the way up to get you jumping out of your seat and if it's music you will have ringing in your ears about 1 hour in. This speaker is exactly what I thought it would be a little workhorse that brought good power back to the dialogue of my system. If you bought a satellite system this is a great upgrade to round out the system. A satellite center channel is not going to give you what you need they are too small to reproduce room filling voices for music or movies. Two things are always needed first when buying a home theater system. 1st a good or decent center 2nd good or decent sub without those your system will always sound weak. If you do have a satellite center you can try conecting both I did now I have the very crisp highes and rich mid to lows. This Vega would do fine on it's own though but if you have the set up for it why not use both right. BE WARNED THIS IS BIGGER THAN IT LOOKS!!! check the measurements given they are correct.
You can check out the pics I posted to better understand my setup.

My system....
Samsung 52" 120hz LCD
Technics 500w Receiver (old school but still bumps all night)
Harmon Kardon 3 way Satellites (front,center,and rear)
Cerwin Vega 3 way center (being reviewed here)
Sony 3 way 8" floor standing speakers also in front
Harmon Kardon 12" down fire subwoofer (room shaker for real)
PS3

If you search for center channel reviews chances are that you will come up with Bose, Polk, Sony before you find any mention of Cerwin Verga and yet this is what I consider the hidden gem of the home theater. From craftsmanship to it's sound reproduction this speaker is second to none in my opinion. I have owned Bose, Polk and Sony and none of them come close to this Vega in accurate sound reproduction when it comes to movie dialogue. It is inexpensive when ordered directly from amazon. The size is right too making it possible to fit in tight spaces without sacrificing sound quality.

After much searching and researching online while trying to decide what type and brand of speakers to use for home theater use, I finally decided I didn't want to cut holes in the walls and or ceiling and selected this center channel speaker along with two pair of the Cerwin-Vega Ve-5 series bookshelf speakers for surrounds (side and rear) based on the specifications and the fact that I already had a pair of Cerwin-Vega D-9 floor speakers I wanted to use for front left and right. I used hooks and eyes to hang the speakers in the appropriate places as recommended by the manual that came with my new Denon AVR-790 receiver. I'm convinced it would be hard to buy a better speaker without paying much more money for it and most of us would mot be able to hear the difference between the two. I spend more time listening to music than watching movies and the overall sound quality of my Cerwin-Vega system is incredible for both. For me, this is the perfect center channel speaker. Your results will vary depending on the qualities of the rest of your system. Personally, I love it.

This is a excellent entry level center speaker for the price. I compared with lots of other similar but all with much highe price. I am very happy with the purchase.