Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiance Speaker System Review

The Ambiance is the second speaker designed by Henry Kloss for his Cambridge SoundWorks. Like the first, the four piece Ensemble, it is sold directly by the manufacturer instead of through dealers. The Ambiance, however, is simply a small two-way system with a 6-1/2-inch long-throw, acoustic-suspension woofer and a 1-inch dome tweeter. Each sealed wooden cabinet measures only 10-7/8 x 7-1/16 x 5-1/2 inches and weighs 8-3/4 pounds.

The removable black-metal grille fits snugly into a slot around the edge of the front panel. The cabinet walls are 3/4 inch thick, and the heavy-duty multiway binding posts, which also accept single or dual banana plugs, are recessed into the back panel, which also has a keyhole slot for wall-mounting the speaker.

Cambridge SoundWorks says that the Ambiance outperforms many other speakers of its size and is at least the equal of any of them, regardless of price. Unlike most other small speakers, the Ambiance does not exaggerate its output in the upper bass, around 100 Hz, at the expense of the lower bass. The company claims that the Ambiance rolls off smoothly in the bass yet has more output around 40 Hz than any other speaker its size.

This performance is said to result from the use of high-quality materials and components, backed by extensive listening tests. To obtain the required bass extension, some efficiency had to be sacrificed (a fundamental tradeoff), but the speaker can be used with almost any amplifier capable of at least 15 watts output. It is ideal for tight quarters, such as a den or a college dorm room, as an extension speaker, or in a surround-sound system.

The Ambiance is available primed so that it can be painted as desired, finished in gunmetal-gray Nextel or housed in a solid oak cabinet. Prices: $109 each for the primed and Nextel-finished versions, $ 129 each for the oak version; optional metal stands, $99 a pair.

Comments

The Cambridge SoundWorks Ambiance speakers fully lived up to the manufacturer’s claims. Not only did they not sound at all like small speakers, but they easily held their own in comparison with some substantially larger and more expensive speakers. Not too long ago, any speaker of this size could be expected to produce a thin, often shrill sound. Its listenability would depend on the user’s ability to roll off the excessive highs and to obtain usable bass output without obvious distortion or tubbiness—usually by placing the speaker against a wall or even in a corner.

In sharp contrast, we never felt the need to move the Ambiance speakers any closer to the back wall than about 2 feet, and at no time did we resort to tone controls or equalizers. The speakers sounded beautifully balanced, delivering a full-size sound image with not a hint of its origin in two small boxes. Comparisons with other, larger speakers whose bass extended down to 50 Hz or lower showed, however, that while the Ambiance was distinguished by its overall spectral balance and demonstrated excellent bass for its size, Henry Kloss has not worked a miracle.

Even without miracles, we can say that very few small speakers we have heard can match the overall sound of the Ambiance, and, like its manufacturer, we know of none that surpass it. It provides a lot of good sound from a small, attractive box at a hard-to-beat price.

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