Sony SS series speakers - anybody heard them? (2 Viewers)

Here's the situation:


Used to be my "Home Theater" was my primary music listening system. This is no longer the case. I have a stereo in my office where I do most of my music listening.


My wife and I moved to a house some years ago and set up a nice home theater in the basement. I still have an old projector which I still love. Also in the basement is a treadmill. My wife likes to jam the tunes when she works out. This makes me happy because it means that I'm not the only one getting a lot of good use out of the system down there.


The problem is, the B&W DM602 bookshelves just can't handle being pounded with brickwalled Itunes playlists for hours at a time. So far, we've blown two tweeter elements and two woofers in my 602s. Parts are expensive, and blaring loud music like this is not what these speakers were designed for. She just blew a woofer again tonight. The woofers are $120 from B&W as a replacement part.


So, I've decided to downgrade my speakers in the home theater. I'm looking for a pair of towers that can handle lots of power and a matching center. Suggestions are welcome - I'd like to keep the price at under $250. Receiver is an old Onkyo Integra DTR-7, it's got plenty of clean juice.


I have been toying with the idea of the new Pioneer speakers at Best Buy, when I decided to see what Sony has to offer. I have a pair of inexpensive Sony towers in my bedroom 5.1 system and they sound pleasant enough, and they can jam (I like to crank up the tunes on cleaning days). I came across the Sony SS series. Specifically, the SS-F6000 tower fronts and SS-CN5000 center. Does anyone have experience with these? They appear from the specs as if they can handle a lot more power than the Pioneers.


I'm leaning heavily towards these.

IMO those Pioneer's and Sony's are completely different speakers.


The Pioneer's, with the curved cabinets 5-way binding posts and engineering that went in them are a much better speaker than the Sony's. They should sell for 2-3 times what BB is asking. But they also have a lower power handling, lower sensetivity, are 6 ohm and only come with a 1 year warranty.


The Sony's are more like KLH or Cerwin-Vega. They're better at volume than accuracy. But in your situation the Sony's are probably what I would get.

Well, I got them at the local hh gregg brick and mortar and so far I'm very impressed! They not only jam loud (which was my number 1 priority), but they really sound excellent. Fantastic sound quality for the money. I continue to be impressed with Sony brand speakers despite their bad "reputation". They are very aesthetically pleasing as well. Somebody's doing something right. Honestly they're not much of a step down from my previous B&Ws. The biggest thing I noticed was that the imaging isn't as good as with the B&Ws.

Philip,


Go to audioasylum.com and do a search on "Sony" in the speaker forum. Filter by most recent dates. You will see long threads on the SS-F series, particularly the 7000, as "giant killers".


My first speakers were Sony floorstanding models (I don't remember their model numbers) purchased in April 1987. I still have them (well, I recently gave them to my sister) and I still enjoy them. Not some audiophile speakers but they let me enjoyed the music for years (heck, decades!).

Wow - just read some of the threads there. AA is the last place on the internet where I would ever expect to read anything positive about Sony speakers.


The center just arrived in the mail, I'm going downstairs with a handful of DVD-Audios and SACDs - we'll see....

Originally Posted by Philip Hamm

The center just arrived in the mail, I'm going downstairs with a handful of DVD-Audios and SACDs - we'll see....

Click to expand...

Please keep us updated. I am itching to buy a pair of these Sony's.

They are definitely very good speakers for the money. The center is articulate and does not sound as "boxy" as many center channel speakers do. The timbre across the front is even, though not in the same league as when I had three identical B&W 602s - that was almost perfect. They jam loud as hell and sound quite good. Do they sound as good as the speakers they replaced? No, definitely not. They still sound fabulous though, and if you're looking for budget speakers I recommend giving these a listen.


The high end from the tweeters sounds very natural and not over-emphasized. Midrange is more colored than my old speakers, but still very smooth and much less colored than I would expect in the price range - particularly the center. Lyle Lovett's voice sounded amazing on the DTS CD of "Joshua Judges Ruth", one of my multichannel reference discs. Bass is great. My receiver has a fixed 80Hz crossover, so the speakers have to reproduce plenty of bass. Man, those cones get MOVING, particularly the bottom one.

I have the SS-F7000's as the front L/R on my system and love them. I replaced some klipsch Synergy SLX's, which I thought were great until I hooked up the Sony's. By the way - I got the sony's free using my sony credit card points They rock - I have never looked back. They put out huge sound and maintain nice clarity and sound all the way through the volume spectrum. Nice speakers!