Price, aestetics, construction

Weak bass, Weak Mids, to much treble.

I needed a cheap pair of speakers for exercise room so I bought these because they were on sale and were substantial. Despite what I hear about these speakers, I find the sound disapointing. The bass is OK but not on par with speakers of this size and with 8 inch drivers. I thought the midrange, especially in the midbass area extremly thin and weak especially that I like to listen to some metal. I thought the high frequencies were over pronounced and some some times made a screaching sound. Nevertheless there was no coloration in the sound or resonance due to poor construction. I think sony built these speakers for people who do not understand good audio and just want speakers with bass and treble with no mids. In my opinion my old mini system sounded better. They also are not ugly to look at at and seem to be well built for the price. These speakers are decent for fifty dollars and work just fine for casual listening, but are in no way very good.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha reciever, Toshiba DVD player, Panasonic TV

Excellent balanced sound quality. Great low price. Quality drivers deliver good sound across a large frequency level 50-50K HZ. Sturdy well made speakers.

Not as efficient as some of the more efficient expensive speakers (takes more power from amp to play speaker at the same volume level as more efficient speaker. Larger cabinent than most surrounds, I use them as my main front channels so this is not an issue for me.

These speakers are EXCELLENT especially for the price. I am using them for my front mains with a subwoofer, center channel and 3 surrounds. Very smooth balanced sounds handles everything except deep bass very well (not an issue if you have a subwoofer. I have played these speakers on challenging movies with tremendous action sequences, jazz, classical & popular music. They do not disappoint. The sound rivals speakers 3 times more expensive. Sony has not been known in the past for their speakers but they have definitely stepped up their game and kept costs in check without compromising quality. I have owned much higher level speakers in the past and spent alot more money than this. I have owned B&W's, Polk's, Bose & Yamaha in the past these are as good as the best of them for a fraction of the cost. Stop reading this now and go buy a set. Make sure that you have a strong clean amplifier to power them as they are not as efficient as some of the more expensive speakers. This is not an issue if you have an amplifier at least 90- 100 watts a channel, clean. I give them a 5 on value and a 4 on the quality of the speaker, only because you can spend lots more money and eventually obtain a better speaker. If you are considerate of value and don't want to spend 350 - 500.00 for speakers that sound like these for $100.00 this is your speaker. If money is no option go drop 700.00 & up for a better sounding speaker. That's the price range you will be in before a noticable difference!

Similar Products Used:

KLH surrounds, B&W front mains, polk front mains, yamaha front mains.

Cheap

Cheap sound.

I read the reviews here and thought i'd try these.I played them all day while i was at work for a good 3 week break in. Too bad they never seemed to get better, don't waste your time they stink. The 8" speaker has no base, The 3.25" mid doesnt seem to do anything and the tweeter is grating. No soundstage and the tiniest sweet spot ever, when i leaned over to answer the phone i would lose it. (LOL) I took these back after 3 weeks (thank God for BB 30 day guarantee). Replaced them with the Sony SSK 30ED from CC. These sound great,with one 6.5" woofer, are made of heavy WOOD and have the best tweeter i ever heard for 150. There is nowhere here to review the Sony SSK line but they are ALL terrific.

Similar Products Used:

Polk. Sony SSK line, JBL.

amazing sound clarity, crisp, good highs, mids, and lows.

none for a speaker that is only 100

While Looking for some speakers for my basement stereo I wanted something that was affordable, but would produce a quality sound. I looked at several infinity and polk solutions as well as some lower cost paradigms. I was in best buy looking at speakers and a couple of kids were playing these sonys and I was drawn to them. They had a pretty amazing sound reproduction and clarity to them. When I saw the price tag I was shocked. I came home and did some research only to find these speakers to be highly rated. I went back and picked them up the next weekend and havent been sorry I did. They have great bass but more importantly these speakers are amazing for classical and jazz as well as classic rock.

Similar Products Used:

lots

Great sound and range, Low cost, Clean soundstage at all volumes.

none for my use, those of you who like a ton of bass would want a sub.

After my vintage pioneer floor speakers wore out I was looking for a speaker that offered a clean, clear sound for under $300. This left me with a fair amount of options. After listening to titans, some polks, some infinities, and bose, I happened upon these at best buy and was completely impressed. I

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pioneer, sony, yamaha, hk-3370,etc

accurate,open,clear sounding speaker, amazing

none

I decided to buy a pair of ss-mb350h home speakers after reading consumer reports about how well the speakers had performed. I had a very difficult time believing that a pair of good sounding speakers could cost less then a hundred dollars. After listening to these speakers for a week. I've concluded to my amazement that these speakers were well worth the price that I paid for them. The sound of these speakers astounished me. What amazed me about these speakers was there ability to produce extemely lifelike sounds,everything in balance, preciseness. Over the years ,I've heard a lot of very expensive speakers and I could tell you that these speakers are one of the most lifelike sounding speakers that I,ve ever heard in my lifetime. I know there are some very terriffic sounding speakers which may sound better. The only problem is that they will probably run you a least a thousand bucks. Conclusion, If you are looking for an extremely precise , balanced , open sounding speaker and you love to listen to jazz type music , then purchase a pair. Sincerly, Brian O'Boyle

Similar Products Used:

infinity reference 6 speakers

good sound reproduction, crisp and clean,

none...

After doing my research online and reading a lot of reviews I found these sony's were very well thought of. This lead me to adding them to my list of speakers to go and audition. I listened to bose 301's, JBL n28's, some infinity's, polk's and I was just impressed with the sony quality. These were the cheapest speakers I looked at and probably the best sound quality of the ones I auditioned. The bass could be stronger for those of you whole like a lot of bass. They stay crisp with all the volume my onkyo reciever can put on them. They are large for bookshelf speakers, but dont sound good if you put them on the floor, They need to be elevated. For the price/performance you cant beat these speakers.

Similar Products Used:

polk,infinity, bose, JBL, KLH, yamaha

Excellent sound at a very low price.

None.

It was time for some new speakers so I went to listen to Polk, Klipsch, Energy, B&W and some others. They all sounded very good of course, but I kept thinking of a featured article in Crutchfield magazine and favorable online recommendations for these Sonys. Sony? Good speakers? Nah. Couldn't be. Anyway, finally found them at a department store. Salesman switched them on. Hmm. Not bad amid all the noise and confusion. But for only $82 a pair I just couldn't resist. Brought them home and wasn't expecting much. Quite frankly I am stunned. Clear, open, very smooth and spacious. IMO the tweeters are excellent. Vocals are clear and open. Although some might want more bass, for me it's fine. The sound is balanced IMO. They're quite large(tall) for bookshelf's, more like mini towers. Cool. But they do sound better higher off the floor than near the floor. I don't keep up with the technical side, so don't know much about Sony's "Nano-fine", "HOP" and other technical terms. All I know is that I'm extremely satisfied and for a price at about a third of the budget I set, very happy. My advice for anyone looking for speakers is to check these out before buying any higher priced speakers. I think you'll be very surprised.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, Energy, Klipsch, B&W.

Great sound, great price (under $100/pair), and they sound great with the SS-CR350s.

None to me...

Having to budget shop for Home Theater equipment is not really want I wanted to do. Having not bought any speakers in over 10 years made my decision pretty difficult too. I finally decided on these mainly becuase of the price and I heard them at Fry's and they sounded pretty good. I think these speakers are great and highly recommend them.

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio, Infinity

See review summary.

skimpy manual, could be more effiecient, grills tight out of box (see review)

I saw in "Consumer Reports" that these speakers were rated excellent. That review was sure on target. First, after reading the review, I tried auditioning them at Best Buy, which is virtually impossible due to the noise from other departments and the other speakers going off on timers. But from what I did hear, they were worth trying out at home. Though they are called bookshelf speakers, I would classify them more somewhere between bookshelf and floor standing speakers in size. The speaker cabinet is sturdy enough, but the grill could offer more protection. Though, there are more expensive brands that have the same type of grill (e.g. some Polk models). One thing about the grills, the pegs are tight right out of the box which makes them tend to pop off the cabinet. To remedy this, just put them on and face the speakers against a flat surface for a day or so -- totally fixes the problem. The speakers come with wire, about 20 or 22 gauge. Needless to say, I used 16 gauge instead. On power requirements: the max is 120W. The manual is rather skimpy and just says to avoid a low powered amp or receiver. I called Sony. You need a minimum of 55W to avoid clipping. On the sound, I tested them with a Technics 70W receiver, Technics carousel CD player, Denon HiFi Check CD, and a Radio Shack analog sound level meter. I played a series of test tones from below 20Hz to 20,000Hz. Now, the sound level meter response drops rapidly on the extreme ends. So, I ended up using a combination of the meter (compensating for the drop) and my ears. The speakers had a very smooth response. The specs say that the bass goes down to 55Hz but, not only was there a good response at 63Hz, but a response at 32Hz. I estimate that there is drop in 8 decibels at the most. Though my receiver's tone controls have no markings for the calibration (go figure), setting the bass to around 4 o'clock (with 12 being neutral) gave an excellent response at 32Hz (ears say may have overcompensated, will try less). The highs were excellent, left the treble in the neutral position. The warranty is listed as 1 year by "Consumer Reports". The manual says 2 years. To sum it up, excellent speakers more than worth the price.

Similar Products Used:

Bose, Polk, Harmon Kardon