CLSIIz New Addition

[Craig]

I stayed home all day on a Friday waiting for the delivery truck to arrive and looking out the front door every 30 minutes. At 4:00 PM still no sight of a truck so I called to shipping company to find out they only deliver by appointment and for sometime next week! Fortunately, they let me come down to the receiving station and pick them up. Not wanting to wait through the weekend or risk another shipper handling them, I wasted no time driving there to pick them up. So far they seemed to be unscathed after enduring freight 5 days of shipping across the U.S.. They look fine and the seller did a pretty good job on the packing.

I have them assembled and hooked up to a Wadia 581i CDP directly feeding a powerful pair of SS Nemo monoblocks and a Descent i to handle the bass duties. It's way too early for any sort of review or to form much of an opinion yet but it is quite a change in looks from the Summits. I can tell already it definitely has some different sounding characteristics than the Summits. I had the Summits dialed in very well and it wasn't so easy to relegate them to HT duties but so far I'm not complaining.

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I'm sure I'll have CLS questions to post so I'm hoping you'll share you're tips and lessons learned.

 

[zaphod]

congratulations and welcome to the CLS club!

your secret decoder ring is in the mail

 

[User211]

Now let's face it - they just look awesome. What a piece of design! And you have a Descent i to round them off. Summit? New kid on the block. Say hello to daddy!!!:rocker:

 

[JonFo]

Congrats Craig!

Looking forward to your assessment and comparison to the Summits.

 

[C.A.P]

Get them on stands ! Big Difference! Get them out from the wall ! Give them some side room and you will be amazed at what they can do. Play with the sub at different locations. Welcome to the CLS club !

Only Walnut pair I know of besides mine ! :music:

 

[sleepysurf]

Congrats! Lookin' good! :bowdown:
Let us know when you're ready for their TBLS debut. Hard to believe your Summits are now playing second fiddle in your HT room!

 

[C.A.P]

Congrats! Lookin' good! :bowdown:
Let us know when you're ready for their TBLS debut. Hard to believe your Summits are now playing second fiddle in your HT room!

Hard to believe a 20 year old design can do that !

 

[TomDac]

Wow. really nice.. would love to see more photos of your setup and hear some comparisons between them and your Summits.

Congrats!

 

[Brad225]

They look great in your room. I think the walnut color fits well with the rest of the decor in the room.

I was actually looking for the thread you started about shipping to see if you had made any progress and found they were up and running.

We are all here for any question you may have.

Keep us posted on your progress.

Sounds like its time for the Tampa gang to make a trip to your house again.

 

[Craig]

Since the seller did an excellent job on his part to include sending photos of the packaging, I composed a "How to Ship CLS Speakers" DIY post with photos based on this experience. I figured it might come in handy for someone needing to ship a pair. http://www.martinloganowners.com/~tdacquis/forum/showthread.php?t=6927

 

[Craig]

Congrats! Lookin' good! :bowdown:
Let us know when you're ready for their TBLS debut. Hard to believe your Summits are now playing second fiddle in your HT room!

I wouldn't consider the Summits as being second fiddle to CLS. They have an important job to do in the HT system and they allow me to get my without a sub for a while. I have plenty of tuning/tweaking to do with each of these systems to get them to sound their best.

 

[tonyc]

Congratulations Craig! You are fortunate to have found such a gorgeous pair of CLS's. There is something about a full range stat that just makes them sound so real. Enjoy!.

 

[amey01]

Wow - congrats!

 

[Brad225]

So it's been a couple of weeks of listening. Either you aren't happy with them yet and still adjusting or can't tear yourself away to post how you feel about you new IIz's.

How about an update?

 

[C.A.P]

He hasn't slept in weeks and he is sitting there with his jaw drooping and the remote in hand with his finger locked on the repeat shuffle. Mumbling something hearing angles in his living room !

 

[Craig]

He hasn't slept in weeks and he is sitting there with his jaw drooping and the remote in hand with his finger locked on the repeat shuffle. Mumbling something hearing angles in his living room !

Sorry about the absence for the last couple of weeks. I've been on work travel and haven't had much leisure time on the net lately. However, there have been some moments of awe and a digging up some older CDs/SACDs from my collection.

The CLSIIz's are remarkable. They've also required a complete redo of my audio component setup and rack configuration. Since the CLSIIz's are wide and I'm using large mono amps so I had to move my audio rack to the side of the room instead of having it between the speakers. I'm trying to avoid having anything between the speakers that might interfere with imaging and soundstage.

I also have the Descent i that I need to effectively relocate in the room. It's in the corner for now. When you add up the footprint space of the CLS, Descent i, audio rack and 2 mono amps I've probably spent as much time moving equipment around as I have listening but I'm having fun trying to work this all out. I'm getting closer to a final configuration and will work on it some more tonight.

I've heard what the CLS's are capable of in regards to detail, imaging and soundstaging while listening to Brad's CLSIIz system. I haven't quite achieved that standard in my system yet but that is my goal. So far, these speakers sound wonderful and work well with the Descent i to the point that I don't miss having the Summits in the 2 channel system.

 

[raygunn]

Craig, congratulations! The CLS's in Florida keep multiplying!

I just heard from an old friend in Coral Gables and he too just got a pair of CLS's!!

It sure would be cool to do a Florida CLS tour. I'm sure we would all benefit from hearing the CLS's powered by different amps, mated with a variety of subs, and under different room environments.

Sorry about the absence for the last couple of weeks. I've been on work travel and haven't had much leisure time on the net lately. However, there have been some moments of awe and a digging up some older CDs/SACDs from my collection.

The CLSIIz's are remarkable. They've also required a complete redo of my audio component setup and rack configuration. Since the CLSIIz's are wide and I'm using large mono amps so I had to move my audio rack to the side of the room instead of having it between the speakers. I'm trying to avoid having anything between the speakers that might interfere with imaging and soundstage.

I also have the Descent i that I need to effectively relocate in the room. It's in the corner for now. When you add up the footprint space of the CLS, Descent i, audio rack and 2 mono amps I've probably spent as much time moving equipment around as I have listening but I'm having fun trying to work this all out. I'm getting closer to a final configuration and will work on it some more tonight.

I've heard what the CLS's are capable of in regards to detail, imaging and soundstaging while listening to Brad's CLSIIz system. I haven't quite achieved that standard in my system yet but that is my goal. So far, these speakers sound wonderful and work well with the Descent i to the point that I don't miss having the Summits in the 2 channel system.