B&W CM-7 Towers: $2000pr

Wenge, Rosewood or Maple: 35 3/4h, 7 7/8w, 11 3/4d

     For many years one of our best selling speakers was the B&W CM-4. The CM-4 was a gorgeous, modestly sized tower finished in real wood. It didn’t have the tweeter on top design as the 700 & 800 Series do. It had higher wife acceptance factor!

     After making CM-4 for about six years, B&W could no longer make it for the same price. The American dollar has been shrinking compared to the British pound and B&W began making the CM Series in its own Danish furniture factory. Something had to give. Unfortunately (for us) it “gave” about a year ago and the CM-4 ran out of stock long before CM-7 could pick up the slack.

     B&W is pretty smart. They know it’s not good business just to raise the price of something. You had better improve it. With CM-7, they’ve done precisely that!

     CM-7 is finished even more beautifully than CM-4 was. The wood finish is exquisite. The surprise of the line (to me) is that people are falling in love with the Wenge finish. Wenge looks like walnut with a dark grain worked in. It’s a beautiful finish to be sure. But just when it looked like everyone wanted lighter and blonder, Wenge is the hot seller!

     CM-7 is a legit three-way speaker system. It uses a new 6 1/2” Kevlar/Pulp Fibre woofer, a new 5” Kevlar FST Midrange, and a 1” Aluminum Nautilus tweeter.

     This is the least expensive B&W speaker to ever feature its FST Surroundless midrange driver. B&W introduced this technology in the 800 Series in 1997. It’s great to see it trickle down to this more affordable price range!

     How does it sound? Well, as you would expect, it sounds terrific. But, it also sounds DIFFERENT from its 700 & 800 Series brethren.

     CM-7 is more British sounding. It is more polite. It sounds smooth and images wonderfully. It isn’t bright. For those of you who specifically look for a speaker with less bite on top than most, consider CM-7.

B&W’s CM Center: $650ea

6 5/8h, 18 7/8w, 10 7/8d

     Since the CM-7 makes a terrific choice as a tower speaker system, B&W wanted to have a center channel to go with it. The CM Center is that companion. It uses the same tweeter as the CM-7 and two 5” Kevlar mids. As you would infer, it’s the perfect mate for the CM-7.

     Of course, you can also run the CM Center as left, right, center. You can use it horizontally or vertically. It is very heavy and a distinct cut above anything you’ll see for $400 ish. It is finished beautifully in the same options as the CM-7.

     CM Center has another outstanding purpose as well. If you have a rock ‘em sock ‘em system with some big guys like the B&W 800 Series speakers and want a smaller center- cuz that’s what fits- go with the CM Center. It doesn’t have all the Matrix treatment and open air tweet of the big boys, but not everyone has room for such things!