• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Any CBT owners here?

Eurasian

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
253
Likes
214
Hello all,

A friend asked me for some suggestions to replace his 25 year old set of Polk speakers, and one option that came to mind was the Don Keele designed CBTs I had read a little bit about many years ago. They are just within his budget and should meet his listening requirements. Long story short, I wound up ordering a set of the PE CBT24 speakers for myself, even though I have enough speakers in my house to open a museum.

So, anybody here have any experience with them? Any owners out there?

Thanks for
David
 

amirm

Founder/Admin
Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
Feb 13, 2016
Messages
44,368
Likes
234,386
Location
Seattle Area
Not an owner but I have heard them at shows. Like all CBTs, they have are really good from the point of sound not dropping off as you walk away from them. This makes them great for live music outdoor. My company has installed some for example at the Seattle Great Wheel. See my write-up here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ransducer-speakers-in-commercial-project.310/

They don't have a lot of bass though. And the soundstage is rather diffused. In home theater applications we use them for side and rear channels since they don't fall off in level quickly and cause too much localization.
 
OP
E

Eurasian

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
253
Likes
214
Thanks for the Great Wheel link -- I hope to get out to your part of the world one day.

I am looking forward to trying out the CBTs in my main system. Unfortunately, PE put them on backorder just as I ordered mine, so I will have to wait a month or so to get the kits. As I use a dbx venu360 and have a pair of NHT powered subs laying around, bass shouldn't be an issue. I do enjoy a slightly diffuse presentation depending on my mood, so these may end up spending significant time in the rig. I can see why they would make excellent surround speakers.

I will report back to the forum after I can spend some time with the assembled and dialed in system.

Best wishes,
David
 

617

Major Contributor
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 18, 2019
Messages
2,403
Likes
5,296
Location
Somerville, MA
Not sure if this is off topic, but I really, really dislike the sound I hear from curved and presumably shaded line array sound reinforcement systems. All the frequencies are there but it's just so fuzzy and lame.
 
OP
E

Eurasian

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
253
Likes
214
Interesting observation. Keele shows very nice square waves being reproduced with his curved CBTs. I guess this would be the opposite of "fuzzy."
 

youngho

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
486
Likes
799
Hello all,

A friend asked me for some suggestions to replace his 25 year old set of Polk speakers, and one option that came to mind was the Don Keele designed CBTs I had read a little bit about many years ago. They are just within his budget and should meet his listening requirements. Long story short, I wound up ordering a set of the PE CBT24 speakers for myself, even though I have enough speakers in my house to open a museum.

So, anybody here have any experience with them? Any owners out there?

Thanks for
David

Hi, I have a pair of CBT24s in our family room. I wrote a bit about them here: https://www.audioasylum.com/cgi/vt.mpl?f=speakers&m=363550. Is there anything I can tell you?
 
OP
E

Eurasian

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
253
Likes
214
Thanks for the link! A strong centered image heard from several listening positions is what I am looking for, and it sounds like the CBT24 can deliver this. What kind of "work" were you referring to in your AA review to get them to sound good in your room?
 

youngho

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
486
Likes
799
Hmm, I think the work was mentioned by the other person in the thread. Because of the layout of the family room, we had some restrictions on placement. I also tried positioned them further apart, basically to the sides of the windows you see below, but this detrimentally affected stereo imaging at 10-12 feet distance. It was hard to tell if the toe-in made much difference, but it reduced the effective depth required, as well as probability of children knocking a back corner into the wall. I had a central subwoofer positioned between the speakers, but unfortunately, it developed an amplifier problem, so I'm going to replace with two subwoofers flanking the fireplace where the acoustic treatments are now. This will also let me push the speakers closer to the wall.

I'm not familiar with the Venu360, but let me know if you would like to discuss the settings that Don Keele recommended for equalization. The main work that I did so far was copying over those settings from the MiniDSP 2x4HD plug-in to the SHD plug-in. I will also have to do some REW measurements to integrate the new subwoofers, and I think that a little Dirac may be beneficial to tilt the response down a bit.

Young-Ho

thumbnail_IMG_2580.jpg
 
OP
E

Eurasian

Active Member
Forum Donor
Joined
Nov 2, 2018
Messages
253
Likes
214
That room looks great for the whole family! I won't be able to get the symmetry you enjoy, unfortunately, but close.

Thanks for offering to share the EQ info. The Venu360 is a modern LMS that incorporates an "EQ Wizard" that basically automates crossover, delay and room correction. It also has a super-easy and intuitive tablet app that lets you make adjustments in real time from the listening position. I will be borrowing a pair of subs from my NHT XD system to tuck in behind the CBTs.
 

garbulky

Major Contributor
Joined
Feb 14, 2018
Messages
1,510
Likes
827
Hmm, I think the work was mentioned by the other person in the thread. Because of the layout of the family room, we had some restrictions on placement. I also tried positioned them further apart, basically to the sides of the windows you see below, but this detrimentally affected stereo imaging at 10-12 feet distance. It was hard to tell if the toe-in made much difference, but it reduced the effective depth required, as well as probability of children knocking a back corner into the wall. I had a central subwoofer positioned between the speakers, but unfortunately, it developed an amplifier problem, so I'm going to replace with two subwoofers flanking the fireplace where the acoustic treatments are now. This will also let me push the speakers closer to the wall.

I'm not familiar with the Venu360, but let me know if you would like to discuss the settings that Don Keele recommended for equalization. The main work that I did so far was copying over those settings from the MiniDSP 2x4HD plug-in to the SHD plug-in. I will also have to do some REW measurements to integrate the new subwoofers, and I think that a little Dirac may be beneficial to tilt the response down a bit.

Young-Ho

View attachment 25159
Wow! Neat speakers! Do they sound any good? Why are they so toed in? Do you listen to it at extremely closer range?
 

youngho

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2019
Messages
486
Likes
799
Wow! Neat speakers! Do they sound any good? Why are they so toed in? Do you listen to it at extremely closer range?

They're great! The room isn't really set up for critical listening, but the unique dispersion makes for enjoyable listening over a very wide area. Because it's our family room adjoining the kitchen, we spend much of our time at home here. The speakers are toed in to widen the sweet spot but also to accommodate the rug in front of and the acoustic treatments behind them. They have very even off-axis dispersion.
 

bigrolc

New Member
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
1
Likes
0
They're great! The room isn't really set up for critical listening, but the unique dispersion makes for enjoyable listening over a very wide area. Because it's our family room adjoining the kitchen, we spend much of our time at home here. The speakers are toed in to widen the sweet spot but also to accommodate the rug in front of and the acoustic treatments behind them. They have very even off-axis dispersion.
Are the room treatments absorption or dispersion? It's hard for me to tell. Thanks.
 

mcdn

Addicted to Fun and Learning
Forum Donor
Joined
Mar 7, 2020
Messages
559
Likes
780
I also have a pair of the CBT24s, mainly because I like collecting interesting speakers, so I use them in the garage having run out of other rooms to put them in...

They work well on a hard floor, and by design don't suffer from any floor or ceiling bounce. No real bass to speak of so a pair of subs and/or EQ is required, but due to the lack of room interaction they are otherwise very easy to set up. The evenness of the sound throughout the room is quite uncanny, and they go loud with ease.
 
Top Bottom