stanzi

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00 from Sony

Summary:
When I worked for Sony, I bought 4 ES SS M7's and 2 of the smaller M3's, complete with the stands for each speaker. They have been great, but I purchased too much. 2 of the M7's are still brand new in the box! I've been using 2 of the M7's with 2 M3's. Using 4 M7's was waaaaay overkill.

So what to do? I'm cramped for room, and the Bose Acoustamass 16 really catched my eye. A small package with decent sound. But the wife says "No new toys until you get rid of something!".....

If I were to sell these, does anybody have input on where to sell them and for how much?

Thanks!

Richard

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Price Paid:  $350.00 from e-bay

Summary:
These are great speakers out of the box, but as some other reviewers have noted, I feel they have a lot more potential. I'm about to do a couple of mod's the other reviewers have described. I tried to contact both the reviewers who did these mod's but my e-mails were returned. Cubemaster, if you're out there, send me a note if you have a minute. I'd like to ask a little advice before I dive into this project. I'd also like to ask if anyone knows who the original manufacturer was. Apparently, these speakers where built for Sony by someone else.

Strengths:
Very smooth response, great imaging. Striking appearance.

Weaknesses:
They take a LOT of power to get much volume out of them.

Similar Products Used:
Bose 901 Series II, Klipsch Forte, Klipsch La Scala, Mirage

Price Paid:  $600.00 from E-BAY

Summary:
I would have to say that this is now my all time favorite speaker, bar none. Not only does it make crappy recordings sound great, but they also make great recordings sound very real and very musical. Of course a sub would be nice for the missing bottom octives, but the ss-m7's have so much to offer from 40hz on up that I don't miss it. Right now, I have the ss-m7's sitting on homemade concrete stands(130lbs per side), Thankyou Home Depot. I am using Nordost Flatline Gold MKII Bi-Wire and Nordost Black Night Interconnects. I have a dedicated outlet with an orange hospital grade outlet along with a standard Belkin Isolator powerline filter, and 4 Audioquest powerline filters. I am running my top of the line Sony XA7es cd players variable outputs directly into a B & K Reference ST2200 power amp (220wpc) with 75 amps peak current, for the most pure sound one could ever imagine. Both are sitting on 60lb concrete stands, with 2 ceramic plates top and bottom coupled with aluminum and rubber feet. I was disappointed with the sound at first and noticed that the speakers were vibrating too much with the sound being compressed and not articulated. I read the review below and decided to make some changes. I took the speakers apart and removed everything. I ended up taking out 30% of the fiber filling out of each cavity. I lined every surface within the speaker with a heavy duty rubber foam.(This is very important). I then isolated each compartment with extra rubber foam, making 3 individual chambers(Tweeter/Mid/Bass). I put it all back together and behold !! An incredible transfomation. The sound became pure 3D with all the detail and dynamics I could ask for. I have had problems getting the right bass balance in my small apartment, but I am now around 90% there. Since I am moving into a bigger place, though, I suspect there will be a perfect transition. I now believe these speakers need a medium to large room to perform their best, unless serious damping materials are used. They must also face the long wall. Too much boom facing the short wall. As for positioning, they are 4 feet from the back wall, and 2 feet from the side walls. I have them 7 feet apart as well and I sit around 8 feet from them with excellent results. Please e-mail me for any questions. I would love to help any buyer of these very "Audiophile" speakers.

Strengths:
3D imaging. Top to Bottom Coherence. Detail, Detail, and more Detail. Transparency,Musicality and cool apperance.

Weaknesses:
Sensitivity to placement(RE:even bass response). Needs very high current/power amplifier to sound the very best. Needed a few upgrades(easy).

Similar Products Used:
Magnepan 1.5qr, 1.6qr. Paradigm Studio 100's,20's. JBL L-1, L-5. Klipsch CF-4, KLF-30. NHT 2.9, 1.5. ect.......

Price Paid:  $900.00 from mail order

Summary:
Although purchased several years ago, I am now posting this due to some good listening session w/these speakers only recently. When first set up they sounded nice,imaged out of the cabinet well,but they had constrained dynamics,volume,and lows.Top end was detailed in macro sense. The SSM7 would not deliver convinving vocals or volume levels for many music formats although.Please don''t get me wrong I am not looking to loosen plaster. What a differnce some intensive listening and experimenting makes!Afer many weeks of closer listing to these and several other loudspeakers I had accumilated over time I took the mids out and looked them over.Due to several years doing car systems I had aquired an ear for problems in sound, just a nack from making literally every mistake possible. I was always bothered by way the ssm7 portrayed vocal fem/or male this belied thier high marks on a casual "Stereophile" review of them from a show report.Maybe my pair were different then others? I noticed when removing the mids they had the as spec implied lambswool dampen ing material. A lot of it it was packed in tight,very tight.I removed 1/2 reassembled then listened,wow!Different speaker altogether mids now floated in 3d space between the speaker more convincing then ever before. Vocal had a full fleshing out now hootiness was gone,the mids together w/ the tweeters had an electrostatic like speed and openess.With time and patience I added back carefully matched wads of lambswool back in mid chambers till I noticed the degredation start then backed up one wad.Up and running they were magical in many respect except bass had a restricted fast roll-off in its character.So I removed the woofers and they to where packed way to tight but with dacron fiberfill(I asume lambswool was a costly makers choice so sony used dacron as cost balance due to the sheer amount that would have been needed to fill main chambers). I did about the same as w/mids only I re- moved all the dacron and measured it back in in as careful as I could amounts. These speakers are open fast dynamic,it has a completely convincing soundstage.

Strengths:
Price,build(manufactured in California under audiophile pedigrees)excellent crossover choices w/24db slopes,near flat response,goes reasonably low for small 8 incher,finished cherry all side back and bottom done well,dual binding posts.Quality drivers(peerless of denmark) Cabinets pass the knuklebuster test(solid)

Weaknesses:
Look like little baby coffins.My as shipped pair was way overdamped.Who knows maybe sony corporate had a lot of these come back blown and made a fast fix by stuffing an incredible amount of cabinet fill,I mean PACKED TIGHT FULL!driver couldn''t breath. Just my theory.

Similar Products Used:
Infinity CompIIs,Intinity 2000.3,JBL L-7 Acoustic Research AR1s,Spica Tc50

Price Paid:  $1400.00 from Crutchfield

Summary:
Note: The model number for these speakers are Sony SS-M7A and retail at $1400 a pair and come with a 3year warranty.

http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/home/homeaudioes/esloudspeakers/ss-m7a.shtml

(I purchased these speakers based on reviews from various forums from around the web.)

The SS-M7A's are part of Sony's ES line of high-end speakers. And high-end they are! Each speaker weighs 55lbs and is composed of 1" thick MDF with a cherry finish. The front of the speaker is partly covered with a darkgray detachable grill and is beveled at 3 different angles, which give them a unconventional look that I really like. The sealed 3-way enclosure consist of 3 drivers. You have the option of bi-wiring the woofer separately from the tweeter and mid-range drivers if you like. Frequency response is rated from 50hz to 20khz +- 2db on axis. Hmmm...pretty flat for a Sony speaker. Power is rated at 200W per channel at 6 ohms. Since no one seemed to have the matching speaker stands for sale, I had to build my own based on the height/tweeter recommendations stated in the speaker manual. Go figure....

Breaking the SS-M7A's in over a 3 month period prove a most satisfying experiance while lisenting to various types of music from Blues, R&B, Jazz, Pop and Rock. I use a mid-1994 Sony STR-D915 Stereo Reciever and a classic Sony DVP-S7000 as the CD transport for all of my music listening. I listen to all music without the digita effects engaged (Later this month I'm upgrading to Sony's STR-V555ES reciever.)

Anyway, with that out of the way, I began some seriously listening.'Led Zeppelin, The Police, Pearl Jamm, Natalie Cole, Sting, Sade, Madonna and Bill Whithers just to name a few. Sounds in the mid-high range were reproduced very clean compared to my old Sony speaker's (SS-U5030's) and were very detailed. As a matter of fact, I was hearing detail that I hadn't heard with the old speakers because of distortion. The lower mid range was very smooth and taunt, especially during Jimmy Page's acoustic and electric guitar rifts in songs like ,' Babe I'm Gonna leave You', 'The Song Remains The Same' and 'Stairway to Heaven". Natalie Cole's 'I Wish You Love' and 'This Will Make You Laugh' sounded like she was almost right there in the room. (Remember, this is a straight analog setup). The sound stage projected and created by these speakers has depth and width that you nornmally don't hear in enclosers this small (each speaker is about 30in high, 15in depth, 15in wide) and imaging was also impressive and detail with no noticeable distortion. I do also recommend amp(s)that are rated to output at least 100w per channel to drive these speakers.

I'm so impressed with these Sony SS-M7A's that I'm planning to get a second pair (along with their matching SS-M1CN center channel) and intergrate them all into a home theater setup before Sony discontinues them.


Other additions to my system:

Sony 53XBR300 Rear-Projection TV
Sony DVD Player DVP-S7000
Sony MiniDisc Recorder/Player MDS-JA20ES
Sony SVHS VCR SLV-R1000
Monster Cables

Strengths:
Clear highs and smooth mid-range, good low bass for a speaker this size. Unconventional shape!

Weaknesses:
Each speaker weighs 55lbs! Can't find matching speaker stands anywhere. Sony has them displayed on their website, but customer service says they are discontinued. Go figure....

Similar Products Used:
none really