I used them for about two months, one month in a music only setup connected to my Sony STR-V55, and one month as fronts in a surround sound setup connected to my Pioneer VSX-921.
In an audio setup, I found a lot to like. Most notably, cymbals sounded like I remember cymbals sounding like when I used to play music. Highs in general were nicely detailed, without turning annoying with long listening sessions.
Mids were similarly pleasant. This was especially noticeable with piano-centric music, where there was no noticeable difference in tone between the middle and higher octaves, a weakness I've noticed in other 'some drivers good, more drivers better' speakers.
Lows are also well defined, but lacking somewhat in impact. While they certainly produce plenty of bass volume, for some reason they are almost incapable of producing any kind of bass you feel. This is trait I've noticed in other vintage setups I've listened to, and is a weakness I've come to commonly associate with vintage speaker designs. No matter how you cut it, I'd expect a 12" woofer (or really, any speaker with a cabinet of this size) to produce bass I can feel in my chest when turned up, and these simply don't have it.
As with all speakers, some music sounds exceptional (anything with lots of piano, or fuzz rock like 'Lonely Boy' and 'Gold on the Ceiling' by the Black Keys) with thick bass and wonderful detail in the mids and highs, letting you pick out every nuance. Other music is left lacking ('southern rap' in particular), where the lack of bass impact becomes apparent due to any sub-bass simply disappearing. I also noticed choral music seems to take on a kind of 'ephemeral' (for lack of a better term) feel. It's hard to describe, and it may have all been in my head, but I didn't like it.
In a home theater type setup where they were used as fronts in system with a subwoofer and some smaller surrounds, my feelings above were reinforced. While the subwoofer helps make up for the lack of bass impact, it was hard to balance the woofer and the pair of Pioneers. With the subwoofer turned up to get the impact back, the lows tended to turn into a pile of undetailed mud. Setting the receiver to limit the amount of lows going to the Pioneers just left a noticeable notch in the response of the system as a whole.
I found it most pleasant to just not try to claw back any bass feel with the subwoofer. This meant the subwoofer did help add back some of the sub-bass that was missing when using the speakers alone in a music listening type setting, but that bass impact was still lacking.
Other than that, they held their own fine in a home theater setting. Voices didn't cut through as cleanly as I might have liked, but I make the same complaint about all surround systems that don't have a dedicated center channel (mine included), so it's probably unfair to blame the speakers.
To sum it up, they are a very competent pair of speakers, with the only major weakness being an inability to produce bass you can feel. Otherwise, I rate them highly as vintage speakers go. If you have the space for them, they'd be right at home in a music listening setup without a subwoofer. For home theater use, you can certainly do better as they are hard to balance with a subwoofer, but I can't imagine many people look at the CS-88a for a home theater speaker anyway.
Pros:
- Detailed highs and mids, without becoming grating
- Bass can be EQd fairly high without the sound turning to mud
- Perfectly happy getting louder than you can reasonably listen to them
- Attractive speaker grill
Cons:
- Tweeter surrounds made out of world's worst foam
- Lack of bass impact, especially when speaker size is taken into account
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