Cheap $88 Sony SS-CS5 Speakers - Awesome

Another impressed owner here, feeding them with the Schiit Vidar and Freya.  The imaging is really good!  Warmth with detailed highs, a neat trick there.  The budget speaker market has really improved in the last several years.

I've got a pair of the old Pioneer BS-22 that i'd been somewhat unimpressed with and left them in storage.  I recently took them apart and soldered all the interior connections, which has changed my mind on them.  I might just try that with these Sonys.

linnlp12

Thank You for the report. Over the years, Sony, has been known to build a few "sleeper" loudspeakers.

This goes for Car Audio applications as well.

Happy Listening!

seanheis1

471 posts

11-09-2021 4:24am

I tried them. They were too bright and crisp for me in near field. A lot more clarity than Pioneer BS-22, but I enjoyed the Pioneer’s warm tone more. 
In far field I think I would have liked them more. Still impressive for $100 any way you look at it. 

I love those little Pioneers. I have a bunch of them lying around and looking for a way to use them. LOL.

Amazon had these on sale for $88 earlier today and I jumped on a pair. I needed a pair of stand mount speakers to use with the Audio Refinement Complete Integrated Amp in my office. Source will be the excellent sounding Raspberry Pi based streamer I recently built up.

So, the Sony speakers I purchased from Amazon on 12/14 have still not arrived and they are showing "possibly lost" in the tracking system. If they don't arrive soon, I've got a line of a couple of really nice used speakers on Craigslist. The Craigslist speakers are more expensive, but they are classic older speakers that I'm sure are much better than these cheap Sonys.

I recently stuffed, makeshift style, some felt strips around the tweeters (simply taped to the grille cloth), and these great-sounding speakers sounded even just a bit better. I recently traded them out in my system with my Harbeth P3ESRs and my Graham Chartwell LS6s, and while the Sonys were not in the same league, I sat for extended periods just enjoying the fact that the little things sounded so, so good for what they cost.

Amazon shipped my Sony's on 12/14 and they were promptly lost by the carrier. Yesterday I requested a replacement order and they are in transit for delivery tomorrow. Should be fun to see what $88 sale speakers sound like. They will be replacing a pair of $39 Radio Shack Presidian speakers that I bought on closeout after reading a similar internet thread years ago. This is for a toy/experimental system in my office.

I’m listening to the Sonys right now, connected to 250 wpc.  Only reasonable volume levels of course!  

Mine arrived this evening and I have them up and playing now. Too early for any analysis, other than to say they look WAY better than the $88 sale price would indicate...

I prefer the Sony ss-cs5 over the Andrew Jones Pioneer SP BS22.  The Sonys are smoother, have tighter bass and can handle more power.  The speaker terminal cup is also smaller, which means less bass escapes.

Sony really paid attention to the details.

I've had the cheap $88 Sonys playing for a few hours this morning. Really, very impressive for the money spent. Listening to Radio Paradise and Spotify via my $100 Raspberry Pi/HiFi Berry DAC, Audio Refinement Complete Integrated amp and the Sony speakers. No, it is not as good as my main rig, and it shouldn't be considering the cost disparity. However, it is enjoyable, especially for background music and music discovery via web-radio and Spotify.

So, when they are on sale for $88 on Amazon, pick up a pair if you have a need/use for them. At the current $168 Amazon price, I would pass and just find a pair of good $200-ish dollar used speakers. You can find a pair of used speakers for $200 that would be a significant upgrade from these Sonys IMHO.

Reubent, agree generally with your take, except I have a somewhat higher opinion of the Sonys.  I’ve had mine for a couple of months and think they opened up over time.  Put 50 hours on them and they will have improved.

Still, they are not perfect and have their limitations.  There is better, and if one has a budget of $300 new, can find better.  But for $170 the Sony’s do more than hold their own.  But tastes differ and certainly ymmv!

@213runnin  - I agree they are good (and getting better as the break-in longer). My point was for $200-ish you can get some great used speakers. For instance, I've purchased a pair of vintage Infinity Qb speakers for under $200 and there is no comparison. I've also recently seen a pair of used Energy Connoisseur c-4 on a nearby Craigslist for $200. Those speakers are from a completely different planet than the Sonys.

Now, if one needs NEW speakers, and their budget tops out at $170, the Sonys would be on the list, for sure. And they are way more compact than either of the speakers I mentioned, so they will work in locations where the others simply will not fit.

Happy listening...

I hear you!  After I posted I swapped in my Totem Acoustic Rainmakers($1200 new) and the difference was jaw dropping.  Now those are real speakers!

I'm listening to the cheap Sony speakers today in my office system. The system currently consist of a RPI based music streamer, Audio Refinement Complete integrated amp and the Sony SS-CS5 Speakers. In this system, the cheap Sony speakers sound really very good.

At the moment, I'm streaming the latest album from Daniel Lanois - "Heavy Sun" and it sounds very good.

Great speakers for anyone who has a budget of less than $100 (when on-sale).

@reubent  That ARC integrated is a nice amp. Likely gets the most from the Sony speakers.

Got me to thinking about a somewhat unrelated subject regarding persons just getting into audio on a restricted budget. My advice is to purchase a quality 50-100wpc amplifier and source component then spend the rest on the speakers. The result is ownership of an amplifier at a higher cost than the speakers.  There are budget speakers available these days that when driven by a quality amplifier sound quite good.  Time can then be spent enjoying current system while saving funds for better speakers after obtaining some idea of one's preferences prior to making the next speaker choice.  My thinking is that speakers provide much of the character of a system. One needs to know what 'character' they are listing for and then search for the best quality of speaker providing said character. 

@mesch  - Agreed that the Audio Refinement Complete is a pretty solid little amp. Hard for me to disagree with your philosophy as that's exactly what I'm doing right now. The very inexpensive Sony speakers sound pretty darn good driven by this good quality integrated amp and playing streaming audio. Ultimately I will likely buy a "step-up" pair of bookshelf speakers for the office. But for now, the cheap Sony's are meeting my needs for background music and streaming music discovery.

@reubent , why not try the upgrade kit from gr research.  Danny really liked those speakers and said the measured incredibly well.  I know the upgrade kit is around $200 but if you already like them but just want more…

A strong point of them was that the frequency response didn’t change much off axis and they also measured really flat and smooth.

@b_limo  - Thanks for your reply. Just went out to the GR Research site and the upgrade for these speakers is now $345. So, not a chance I'm going to invest that much into an upgrade for these. I could easily buy a much better speaker for that money. For instance, I could buy a pair of Spica TC-50 for less.

For now, they sound good enough for the current use case. If I ever decide to step up my office system, I'll probably buy a pair of small-ish floor standers.