Hardware Review Pioneer Andrew Jones 5.1 Speaker System Review (1 Viewer)

[gene c]

The discussion really doesn't need to go beyond this:

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm#wiretable

Doesn't need to....

But science, logic and accurate information will never stop man's insatiable need to with each other.



Cheers!





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[Chris Springs]

I've never spent a "ton" of money on speakers.. I've had AR's, Infinities, Mirage, Polks, and brands like that. ALL of which cost much more than the set of FS52s. Of all the speakers I've had, only the bipolar Mirage towers sounded better to me than these Andew Jones towers.

BUT these towers branded PIONEER are AMAZING especially for their RETAIL price! I picked mine up for something like $59/ea! Fry's had a sale and I got lucky and Amazon price matched it and even threw in FREE OVERNIGHT SHIPPING! I KNOW they lost money on that deal! -Back to the speakers. I run them with an old school Yamaha RX-v795a with tone bypass turned on rated at 85w/ch and they power these FS52 amazingly! The soundstage is superb and there is enough bass for normal music one would listen to using only 2 channels.

I'd say these sound better than any pair of towers priced $400 and less. When coupled with a competent sub (5.25s on the towers can only do so much), you'll be in for a pleasant surprise. I had a Velodyne 12" coupled and it was overkill. Now I just use an Onkyo 8" powered sub and it is more than enough.

I use a pair of Infinity Reference 2000.5 as rear surrounds and they are the exact same height as the FS52 so they make great surrounds with no speaker stands needed.

I have a Gateway mini slim tower I use as a HTPC that I added a nice 2GB NVIDIA graphics card to and also an optical ouput sound card that goes straight to my receiver. Anything with DTS or DD5.1 is automatically recognized and decoded by the Yamaha receiver.

I have a 40" 120hz LED Westinghouse screen that has a superb pictrure for the money too and has more than enough inputs.

The only thing about my setup is that my reveiver has no HDMI. I must say that since the TV has 3 HDMI inputs as well as a component, coaxial, AND composite inputs (as well as various other audio inputs) that it doesn't matter if the receiver has HDMI or not since all audio and video goes through my HTPC (Home Theater PC) first. This setup is superb for the $$ I have into it.

40" LED Screen - $299 delivered (New)
Gateway Slim Tower HTPC - $300 (with price of video card and sound card included) (New)
Yamaha RX-V795a - $60 delivered (Used sell it on ebay special, but in original box and looks like it was never used)
Pair of AJ FS52 Front Towers - $118/pr with free overnight delivery (New)
Pair of Infininty Reference 2000.5 Rear Towers - $80/pr (Used but in new conditon from pawn shop)
Pair of Mirage M90i wired in a series for Center Channel - $50/pr delivered (Another Ebay special and in new condition)
Misc wires/cables Unknown price as I gathered them over the years, but they are very high quality

This setup plays DVDs,CD, and rips of BluRays with full DTS or DD5.1 surround. Everything but any mounts/stands/furniture was well under $1000 and sounds better than MANY setups costing MANY times more. The Yamaha reveiver (look up the specs!), the FS52's and the HTPC w/ the cards MAKE THIS SYSTEM. If you like to make your dollar stretch as far as it can go while still getting AMAZING performance, then look into a similar setup as this and aquire your equipment in a similar way.

My late 90's receiver sounds better and performs better than anything current under $900 that I've encountered. It also weighs much more than most new style receivers and is also VERY UNDER RATED at 85w/ch and has a rediculously minute THD. Receivers of today OVER RATE their power at rediculously high THD.

I'm not trying to brag, but I am VERY PROUD of what I have been able to accomplish putting together for so little money in the past year. I, like most people, like nice things and have to stretch every cent I have to make it go as far as I can. I love nice German cars too, so I have to buy and drive older ones at super low cost (due to their super high depreciation) and when I have to fix something or do maintenance, I approach it the same way. Find the best deal on parts possible (ebay).

I wish I was wealthy enough to buy the best stuff via retail, but things have changed for this guy (Thanks Obama!).

I just wanted to say these FS52 are AMAZING for the money and they are an integral part of my home thater system and they are worth much more than I paid for them. I HIGHLY reccomend them!

 

[Sam Posten]

Welcome to HTF Chris, great first post, glad you like em!

 

[Al.Anderson]

I just wanted to say these FS52 are AMAZING for the money and they are an integral part of my home thater system and they are worth much more than I paid for them. I HIGHLY recommend them!

They are amazing for the money; but a little emphasis on "the money". They don't sound accurate to be, a little heavy on the mid-low. Both my 20 year old Advent Minis and my Axiom M22s sound much better (they're the only ones I have to compare them to live).

But as a starter set, or an upgrade from satellites - perfect.