B&W CDM 1NT Book Shelf Speakers

The B&W CDM NT1’s are really a great bookshelf speaker. In addition to stereo music, I use them for main speaker in my home theater setup.

They excel at bringing the “real” music out of any source. When I first heard them at the store, some of the music sampled sounded very harsh. I noticed that some of the CD material that they let me sample was copied on CD and probably low quality MP3’s. I brought in my copy of Liquid Tension Experiment and let the place listen to “Osmosis”.

There were about 10 people in the store that stopped what they were doing and came over to listen. It sounded that good. From that point, I was sold.

The same harsh sound that I experienced at the store was brought home when listening to average recorded material. Above average recorded material cannot sound better. I do have a Sub so that really does make a huge different on the lower end, as the NT’s do miss the really low freq. Sorry, I did not take a measurement, but I’ve seen some written up by HT Mag and you can also find them on the B&W Web site.

My amp does not do these speakers any justice. The Onkyo TX-DS797 is a really good, low priced HT pre/post, but you will definately benifit from upgrading or getting an amp to post process any stereo material. Surround material still sounds great with the CDM’s if you enjoy listening to Orchestra, etc.

These speakers have been in my posesion for 1 year.
Listen to mostly Rock/Soft Rock, but classical and jazz are simply unbelievable on these babies.

For home theater, these speakers sound sweet for mains. You will definately need a sub to hit the real lows for Movies.

Pros: If you only have space for bookshelves, these speakers cannot be beat musically or otherwise. The tweeter is exceptional.