Cerwin-Vega S-2
At 24 pounds and $80 each, this compact 2-way proved that Cerwin-Vega could do finesse when it wanted to.
Overview
The Cerwin-Vega S-2 is a 2-way bookshelf speaker system that appeared in a Stereo Review test in October 1976 — and for anyone who only knows Cerwin-Vega from their floor-standing 15-inch monsters, this little box comes as something of a surprise. Measuring just 10 × 18 × 8.5 inches and weighing in at 24 lbs., the S-2 was a sealed acoustic-suspension design, a departure from the ported, high-efficiency approach the company is best known for. It sold for $80 each in a walnut vinyl cabinet, or $85 each in walnut veneer.
What's striking about the S-2, reading the period test, is how the reviewer framed it: "a smooth, well-balanced-sounding speaker that handles as much power as most home amplifiers can deliver." That's not the language usually applied to Cerwin-Vega products of this era. The S-2 was rated for a minimum of 30 watts, with a recommended amplifier range of 15–70 watts per channel — modest numbers that put it squarely in budget-audiophile territory rather than the high-SPL party circuit.
The measured performance tells a similar story. Frequency response ran from 45 Hz to 20 kHz when measured at the listener position, and the S-2 held ±3 dB from 50 Hz to 15 kHz at 1 watt — respectable for a compact sealed box of this era. Open-field response at 50 Hz was down 6 dB relative to 1 kHz, which is exactly what you'd expect from an acoustic-suspension design this size. The deep bass simply wasn't there; the review noted the S-2 "lacked the very deepest bass extension" while having "a slight emphasis in the upper-midrange (2kHz to 5kHz)." At moderate levels, though, the S-2 "sounded natural and uncolored on most program material."
Maximum SPL was rated at 103 dB at 1 meter when driven at rated power — not a stadium-filling number, but more than enough for a living room, and distortion stayed impressively low getting there.
Key Features
8-Inch Long-Throw Woofer with High-Temperature Voice Coil
The heart of the S-2 is an 8-inch long-throw woofer fitted with a 1-inch high-temperature voice coil, gap wound to a tight 0.025-inch. That gap-winding detail is worth pausing on — it's the kind of precision you don't expect at this price point, and it speaks to Cerwin-Vega's driver engineering being applied seriously even to their budget offerings. The high-temperature voice coil meant the S-2 could absorb sustained power without thermal compression or voice-coil damage, which helps explain Stereo Review's confidence in its power handling.
1-Inch Aluminum-Dome Tweeter with Ferrofluid Damping
Ferrofluid damping in a 1976 budget bookshelf speaker was genuinely forward-thinking. The 1-inch aluminum-dome tweeter had Ferrofluid in its voice-coil gap, which served dual duty: it helped conduct heat away from the voice coil and provided mechanical damping to smooth out resonance behavior. This was the kind of technology that was just beginning to trickle down from high-end designs, and its presence here at $80 each tells you Cerwin-Vega was paying attention to the state of the art, not just chasing sensitivity figures. The tweeter crossed over at 3000 Hz with an 18 dB/octave high-pass slope — a steeper rolloff than the woofer's 12 dB/octave low-pass, which helped keep the aluminum dome from being overdriven at its resonance frequency.
Sealed Acoustic-Suspension Cabinet
Unlike the ported enclosures Cerwin-Vega would become synonymous with, the S-2 used a sealed acoustic-suspension design. The air spring inside the cabinet provided the restoring force for the woofer, which in turn allowed for the long-throw excursion and the relatively extended bass response for a box this size. The tradeoff was efficiency — the S-2 measured 88–89 dB SPL at 1 meter with 1 watt input, depending on which part of the Stereo Review test you're reading — which is lower than the 94+ dB figures Cerwin-Vega would later chase. But the sealed design also meant the S-2 was more forgiving of amplifier behavior at resonance, and the impedance curve was friendly: nominally 8 ohms, with a minimum of 6 ohms at 300 Hz and a maximum of 11 ohms at 2 kHz. Any decent amplifier from the period would have driven these without complaint.
Distortion measurements from the period test confirm the engineering was sound. At 90 dB SPL, total harmonic distortion measured just 0.3% from 100 Hz to 10 kHz, rising to about 1% at 50 Hz. Even above 100 dB SPL at low frequencies, distortion only increased slightly — a testament to the voice coil's thermal headroom and the woofer's excursion capability.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.