Introducing the NEW Creative Sound Solutions

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #40 on:** 14 Feb 2018, 01:25 pm »

Quote from: planet10 on 14 Feb 2018, 12:34 am

Any plans to provide them in quality plywood -- particularily for subwoofers it is so much better.

dave

We're looking into possibly providing Baltic birch options.

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #41 on:** 14 Feb 2018, 01:26 pm »

Quote from: planet10 on 14 Feb 2018, 12:50 am

Are SDX10 shipping? I have a client in Ontario i am encouraging to buy 4.

dave

They'll be in Detroit today so we should have a final delivery date either later today or tomorrow. I believe we'll be able to start shipping next week.

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #42 on:** 19 Feb 2018, 05:21 pm »

Two big updates today. First, all the subwoofers and passive radiators will be here on Thursday (Feb 22) and we'll try and get all the pre-orders out the same day. This also means pre-order pricing will end on Feb 22.

Second, we have our first published review by Noaudiophile. Check it out here: http://noaudiophile.com/CSS_Audio_1TD_v2/

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #43 on:** 22 Mar 2018, 05:21 pm »

Working on getting a few things ready for AXPONA. First up is a pair of our SDX12 subs in our 1 cubic foot sealed flat pack cabinet. I'm not what I would consider a skilled woodworker, especially when it comes to the finish, but I'm doing these myself in rosewood veneer using the iron on method to show how easy it is to put together one of our cabinets and get a very high quality look for not a lot of cost and minimal effort. Finish is 3 coats of wiped on Watco Teak Oil Finish with 400 grit between coats followed by General Finishes Arm-R-Seal Satin wiped on after the teak oil has dried. I'll add more pictures once I get all the finish coats on.

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #44 on:** 22 Mar 2018, 05:32 pm »

SuhWEEEEEEEEET!

Best,
Anand.

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #45 on:** 22 Mar 2018, 09:33 pm »

Very nice woodwork

rollo · « **Reply #46 on:** 26 Mar 2018, 07:55 pm »

Welcome best of luck. Your products look very interesting. Nice.

charles

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #47 on:** 29 Mar 2018, 05:47 pm »

Upgraded crossovers for our P215. Too big to fit in the cabinets but who would want to hide them when they look this good!

poseidonsvoice · « **Reply #48 on:** 29 Mar 2018, 05:56 pm »

Very nice CSS!

Smart to cover up the values while making it look aesthetic as well.

Best,
Anand.

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #49 on:** 29 Mar 2018, 06:07 pm »

Quote from: poseidonsvoice on 29 Mar 2018, 05:56 pm

Very nice CSS!

Smart to cover up the values while making it look aesthetic as well.

Best,
Anand.

We freely share all the crossover information on our website. You can build them yourself if you have the parts, but the tweeter in the P215 and both the tweeter and woofer in the Criton line are in house parts so you can only get them through us.

FullRangeMan · « **Reply #50 on:** 29 Mar 2018, 10:57 pm »

First class work, this xover looks a piece or art
never have seen this beautiful

mresseguie · « **Reply #51 on:** 29 Mar 2018, 11:37 pm »

Quote from: Creative Sound Solutions on 29 Mar 2018, 05:47 pm

Upgraded crossovers for our P215. Too big to fit in the cabinets but who would want to hide them when they look this good!

Geez. Shouldn't you add an option to bolt those XOs down. They look as though they might fly away. In other words....Damn, but those are beautiful looking XOs!

Michael

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #52 on:** 20 Apr 2018, 01:19 pm »

We were just rated top 5 under $20K at AXPONA by The Absolute Sound

http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/2018-axpona-show-report-loudspeakers-under-20k/

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #53 on:** 1 May 2018, 01:06 pm »

Our customer demo list is filling up quick and we are basically booked out to August now. If you’d like to get on the list, email us at info@css-audio.com

4/28 – 5/13 - Murray S. – 92020
5/17 – 6/1 – Keith V. – 98033
6/4 – 6/19 – Brad V. - 60031
6/21 – 7/6 – Brian T. – 60506
7/9 – 7/24 – Tawaun W. - 30905

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #54 on:** 30 Aug 2018, 06:25 pm »

It's been a while since we have posted but we have a few updates. We did a little bit of redesign on our site to reorganize things. Our Criton 2TD kit is now available, as well as passive radiator flat pack kits for both our SDX10 and SDX12. They can all be found here: https://www.css-audio.com/online-store/Kits-c29751664

In addition, we are running a Labor Day weekend sale for free shipping in the lower 48 states on all orders from Friday until Monday. Use code LABOR18 to receive the discount.

HT cOz · « **Reply #55 on:** 30 Aug 2018, 11:59 pm »

Very nice!

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #56 on:** 13 Nov 2018, 09:14 pm »

We just had our P215 speaker reviewed at Audio Bacon and were named best in class. You can read the full review here:

https://audiobacon.net/2018/11/08/css-model-p215-bookshelf-speaker-kit-high-end-sound-for-under-1000/

mresseguie · « **Reply #57 on:** 14 Nov 2018, 08:39 am »

A good friend of mine (Hans) finally caught the audio bug after watching me buy equipment (and listening to my system) for the last 4 years. He wanted to save money and wanted as easy a kit as possible. I showed him a good 6 or 7 different kits from different websites, and he chose the CSS Criton 1TD kit because of the recent great reviews and the easy to assemble flat pack. [It turns out he's all thumbs and wanted my help (7 or so thumbs) to put them together for him. He agreed to ply me with fresh roasted coffee beans (YES!), his wife's delicious cooking, and multiple servings of apple cake. How could I say no?]

Well, it was my first time assembling kit speakers for someone other than myself, so I took it slow and easy lest I screw it up. However, the flat packs were very easy to glue together, the upgraded - already assembled - XOs were a snap, and everything fit as designed. Let's just say this is one easy pair of speakers to put together. I burned the speakers in for a solid 250 hours before I was satisfied that the caps were in that happy place. There were several times during burn in where they sounded pretty goofy and I didn't want to turn the speakers over to my friend only for him to think there was something wrong with what I had done.

Anyway, once they had burned in, they sounded excellent. I used four different amps on them to test how they sounded (D Sachs Kootenay 120, IceEdge 1200as2 amp, Folsom's little chip amp, and Nuprime IDA-8). They sounded great with all four. Yes. There were differences, but I could happily listen each time. My friend had bought a Nuprime IDA-8 because he really liked the one I own, so it was important that his new speakers sound good on that amp - and they do.

His speakers are not yet finished as they haven't been veneered or painted. Hans and I will tackle this some time next year.

It's not all wonderful as I do have a criticism or two. The included instructions were pretty limited. If I hadn't already assembled two speaker kits, I would have been in trouble on a couple points. [If Hans had tried to build the kit, he would have been lost.] The braces are triangular rather than the more common rectangular shapes (not sure I like the triangles). The included foam sheets must be cut up and glued to the MDF. I would have preferred to use NoRes or similar product.

The price with upgraded XOs and flat packs was just under $1000. There is no way you can walk into a store with a thousand dollars and buy a pair of two-way monitors that sound this good. My friend and his wife are delighted with how great these speakers sound.

All in all, you've created a great pair of speakers, Kerry. I'm impressed, and my friends are very happy with their new system.

Michael

Creative Sound Solutions · « **Reply #58 on:** 14 Nov 2018, 02:56 pm »

Hi mresseguie,

I know you mentioned the instructions to us in an email and we are working on putting together more detailed instructions. It's often easy for us (my partner and I) to overlook how unclear something might seem since we have built so many speakers over our life.

Would you mind giving us a little more feedback on what specific parts you found confusing or lacking so as we write the more detailed version we can be sure to include that?

mresseguie · « **Reply #59 on:** 15 Nov 2018, 07:55 am »

Kerry,

Imagine yourself as a first-time speaker assembler. You've got a whole bunch of egg-crate foam pads that came with your kit - mostly they appear to be padding for kit components against shipping damage. Do you throw them away? [I'm not being facetious. Someone with zero experience won't know that the foam is supposed to be glued to the internal walls of the cabinets.] Hans has zero experience with kit speakers. He doesn't spend hours every week pouring over audiophile forums nor does he seek out 'how to' videos on YouTube. He had no idea why there were so many foam pads included in the kit - and there was no explanation. A few sentences explaining the importance of the foam sheets, and correct dimensions of the cut sheets would have saved me time and effort.

I personally don't care for the triangular braces. I wasted time tapping them into correct place because I was worried they'd throw off the fit if one extended even a millimeter out of its correct placement. Do all four (per cabinet) braces face the same way? I knew the bottom braces faced the back (as in the photo) and guessed that the top braces faced the front. However, there was no explanation; no direction. Two sentences could have explained their correct orientation.

Many kit speakers come with polyfil. This one did not, so I assumed that it's not needed(?).

The different sized screws are intended for different drivers and the crossovers. What do you think of the idea of placing the smaller screws in one ziplock bag labeled "tweeter" and the longer screws in a second ziplock labeled "woofer"? [I've already forgotten which screws were used to secure the XO.]

There were no instructions telling the novice how to assemble the input terminals. It's not immediately obvious to the novice.

Could you include a couple sentences about how the speaker will sound better after 200+ hours of playing because the capacitors need time to burn in?

This is all I can remember.

The speakers sound very nice. They kick out more bass than I had anticipated. I enjoyed listening to them once they had burned in properly. I couldn't help but wonder what a 3-way speaker from you might sound like...

Michael