CM9 or CM5 with sub?

[fozzer424]

Hi fellow club members,

How does the CM5 stack up against its larger siblings? I've been focused on the CM9 towers for a while, but if the CM5 and a sub can get me "almost there" I'd be happy. It will be in a system entirely for music with Rotel amplification. My room is on the narrow side, and my listening tastes vary from alternative rock to jazz and small orchestral works. If you've done any comparisons between these two speakers, please share.

[dan87951]

In my opinion the CM9 offers the most bang for the buck in the B&W lineup. They are the speakers that do everything good. They are a good 2 channel (music) and hometheater speaker! I had a set of these for a good year and regret selling them. The CM9 has enough bass for music that a sub is not needed as long as you are not filling a huge room. But for hometheater you will need a dedicated sub no matter which speaker you go with. As for the CM5 its a great speaker but seriously lacks in the bass department for music but than again its a bookshelf so what can you expect. If plan on doing more hometheater watching than music go with the CM5 but if you like to pop in your favorite music and relax, nothing beats a good 2 channel setup. Good Luck!

[Nuz1]

Let your ears be the judge and audition both.

I have 703 floor standers which I bought new several years back. Personally, as much as I like them, I've always thought they were a little lean on bass for my tastes. I now run a sub with them for both 2 channel and home theater--problem solved for me.

I should mention that I have CM5s for surround duty as part of the same setup. But I broke in the cm5s by using them as as the mains for a while. In hindsight, if I would have originally auditioned with and without a subwoofer, I would have bought the monitors and sub instead of floor standers because the sub just reaches so much deeper.

Happy shopping!!

[Stilgar]

What is better new CM9 or used 804S? )

[jsgharrison]

Have you considered the CM8s instead of 9s? Since most would recommend a sub for HT no matter what mains you pick up, save yourself the $800, get a good sub and should still be ahead with great ht and great 2 channel.

[Blindamood]

What is better new CM9 or used 804S? )

If they're roughly the same price, I'd take the 804S any day!

[RebelMan]

Hi fellow club members,

How does the CM5 stack up against its larger siblings? I've been focused on the CM9 towers for a while, but if the CM5 and a sub can get me "almost there" I'd be happy. It will be in a system entirely for music with Rotel amplification. My room is on the narrow side, and my listening tastes vary from alternative rock to jazz and small orchestral works. If you've done any comparisons between these two speakers, please share.

Hands down the CM5 plus a subwoofer BUT you have to put forth a little effort to make it so. With that you'll get more than just "almost there" results. You can get better imaging and better time coherence with the CM5 than you can with the CM9 if you couple the speaker to a mass loaded stand that is inturn coupled to the floor. The CM9 does best the CM5 for the lowest two octaves but the subwoofer will compensate for this - just don't over compensate which is very easy to do. A stereo pair of subs will go a lot further in reaching your goals and gives you a pathway to home theater should you decided to. For the price difference you can pick up a very decent pair. The CM9 is a very good speaker but the design is too heavily compromised to justify the price. The CM5's on the other hand are priced right and are amazing performers, more than capable of running with the 800 Series (805S) of yore.

[RebelMan]

If they're roughly the same price, I'd take the 804S any day!

Ditto! The 804S originally debuted at $4000, the CM9 $3000. The 804S has so much more going for its modest uptick in price. It is selling so strongly on the second hand market because the new model (804D2) created a very large price gap thus keeping the resale value high on the 804S.

[stuofsci02]

Ditto! The 804S originally debuted at $4000, the CM9 $3000. The 804S has so much more going for its modest uptick in price. It is selling so strongly on the second hand market because the new model (804D2) created a very large price gap thus keeping the resale value high on the 804S.

This is true... I sold my mint 804s used for $3200 (full asking price).. They sold in 6 hours after posting online.

Cheers!

[dan87951]

What is better new CM9 or used 804S? )

804S for sure. Although the CM9 rivals the 804S in sound the 804S has a nicer top end and more accurate bass. But I would take a set of CM9's over a set of Nautilus 804's any day of the week!!

[fozzer424]

Hands down the CM5 plus a subwoofer BUT you have to put forth a little effort to make it so. With that you'll get more than just "almost there" results. You can get better imaging and better time coherence with the CM5 than you can with the CM9 if you couple the speaker to a mass loaded stand that is inturn coupled to the floor. The CM9 does best the CM5 for the lowest two octaves but the subwoofer will compensate for this - just don't over compensate which is very easy to do. A stereo pair of subs will go a lot further in reaching your goals and gives you a pathway to home theater should you decided to. For the price difference you can pick up a very decent pair. The CM9 is a very good speaker but the design is too heavily compromised to justify the price. The CM5's on the other hand are priced right and are amazing performers, more than capable of running with the 800 Series (805S) of yore.

Hi RebelMan,

What are your thoughts regarding the PM1 vs CM9? I know you've stated that the CM5 is superior to the floorstanding model, but I have yet to hear the PM1 so I don't know how much better they over the CM range. I've read that they share a lot of similarities to the 800 series. Thanks again everyone.

[RebelMan]

Hi RebelMan,

What are your thoughts regarding the PM1 vs CM9? I know you've stated that the CM5 is superior to the floorstanding model, but I have yet to hear the PM1 so I don't know how much better they over the CM range. I've read that they share a lot of similarities to the 800 series. Thanks again everyone.

Sorry to say I haven't any personal experience with the PM1 but I know they have inherited some technologies common to the 800 Series Diamond whereas the CM Series follows the previous 800 Series design.

[Madfonzy]

I have the CM9 and CM5 in my home theatre setup. If you at just listening to music only I suggest you for the CM9 and it has the FST midrange. You will get much clearer midrange, especially for your jazz and orchestral music. I did try the CM5 up front for music and the FST makes a big difference.

Note I am running stereo subs in my setup. The CM9 does do bass better then the CM5 but I felt it wasn't enough so I added two DIY 12" subs😁

[stevek]

I also own both the cm 9 and the cm5.i use them in separate set ups as the front channels.while the 5 is a fine speaker it really cant compete with the 9.offcourse the 9 is better in the low end but the real difference is the fst driver as mentioned by madfonzy.my 9's are feed by much better equiptment but I have ran the 5's in the better set up they just aren't on the same level.i use dual subs in both set ups but the 9's do a fine job in the lower frequencies.the cm8's will out perform the 5's also but I feel it's a small difference in price to the 9's,wich really are on a different level than the 8's.at least to my ears.

[Dmantis]

I suggest getting the CM9's and adding a sub. This will be the best of all worlds here. If your building a 2 channel system , this is the way to go.I like the CM5's a lot but feel the Cm9's have a better mid range tone. Whats nice about the Cm9's is you can run them for awhile until you can afford to buy a sub. Make sure you get a musical sub like a Rel or even a B&W model like the ASW10 or 12. These are a perfect match and would make for a totally awesome 2 channel experience.

[wcjulyan]

I have the CM9s (and a CMC2 center). I was using just the CM9s alone when listening to music in stereo, but decided to try using them with subwoofers even for music (had been using the subs just for home theater LFE). I changed the speaker settings in my MX121 processor so that the CM9s would be "small" (instead of "large" and full-range) with a crossover at 60hz. I have two Boston Acoustics VPS-210 subs. The lower bass is much fuller using the subs with the CM9s than just the CM9s alone. Don't get me wrong, the CM9s are fine alone, but I think I'll continue to use the subs to fill in the lower bass. You could do the same thing with CM5s, of course, possibly setting the crossover a bit higher.