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Thread: Did Sony Make Great Speakers?

  1. #1
    Join Date: Sep 2009

    Location: Houston, Texas, USA.

    Posts: 181

    Default Did Sony Make Great Speakers?

    I know what your saying Sony couldn't make great speakers could they? Just like Technics couldn't make a great turntable, right? Wrong on both counts.

    I was at a friends the other day and he is a speaker hoarder, he has over ten pairs, mainly a/d/s monitors and floor standers. He had this pair of Sony SS-M7 speakers, I asked him for an audition, he gladly obliged.

    I was taken aback by how good these things are, if you had blindfolded me and told me they were Sony's I would have laughed out loud.

    Apparently Sony wanted to get into the high end speaker market and gave an open check book to Dan Anagnos and respected speaker designer.

    From Stereophile on the bigger SS-M9:

    A key aspect of the design is the cabinet. It needs to be narrow in the region of the tweeter and midrange unit in order to optimize treble dispersion, hence imaging. However, it also needs to be wide enough to accommodate one or more woofers capable of moving sufficient air to achieve good bass extension. The result is a narrow pyramid—fabricated from MDF, veneered on both sides, and filled with polyester fiber—that is considerable deeper than it is wide. A number of horizontal figure-8 braces provide rigidity, and bituminous pads mop up any stray resonances that remain. The front baffle is complex, with four separate facets. Completing the picture is an excellent grille made of black material stretched over a wire frame to minimize any acoustic obstruction in the vicinity of the upper-frequency drive-units.

    They just fill the room with glorious sound that does not appear to emanate from the speakers at all. Instruments occupy there own space and voices are natural like the person is in the room with you.

    I am going to get a pair of these, nothing I have heard for anything like the cost of a good pair of these comes close.

    But I will expect some funny looks from snobby people who see the Sony badge, that's until they hear them.

    So Sony did make great speakers.

    Phillip.

    Records... the Vinyl Frontier. These are the voyages of the turntable Perspective. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new records, to seek out new artists and new sounds, to boldly go where no hyper elliptical diamond stylus has gone before!

    Polk Audio SDA 1C + Yamaha C4 / M2 + Custom Made DIY Phono Stage + Pro-Ject Perspective + Pro-Ject Speed Box II + Benz Micro Ace = Magic.

  2. #2
    Join Date: Nov 2011

    Location: Guildford, Surrey

    Posts: 925
    I'm Bob.

    Default

    They look the business!

    Their bigger brother got a page to themselves on the Vintage Knob . .

    The trouble with the Japanese manufacturers is that most people only know them for their lo to mid-fi stacking systems. The Vintage Knob guy asks why Sony were so reticent to publicise their top end gear.

  3. #3
    Join Date: Jul 2010

    Location: North Cambs UK, Earth, Sol, Orion - Cygnus arm of galaxy

    Posts: 11,166
    I'm MadeOfDeadGiantStarsThatExplodedEonsAgo.

    Default

    See if you can find yourself a pair of SS-G9 Nice design those above are, good for imaging & they look to be time aligned as well
    Bests, Mark



    "We must believe in free will. We have no choice" Isaac Bashevis Singer

  4. #4
    Join Date: Oct 2011

    Location: Bacup

    Posts: 502
    I'm Andrew.

    Default

    Funny, I was only thinking to myself the other day, I wonder why the big Japanese manufacturers do not make speakers that are acclaimed by hi-fi buffs. You would think that with the economies of scale, research departments and the quality of their front end electronics they would beat the small scale, almost cottage industry, European speaker companies hands down. What do they use to test their own CD players etc?

  5. #5
    Join Date: Mar 2008

    Location: Galashiels

    Posts: 13,669
    I'm inthescottishmafia.

    Default

    A lot of them probably do make great speakers, they just don't export them.

  6. #6
    Join Date: Feb 2012

    Location: Falun, Sweden

    Posts: 2,245
    I'm Mike.

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    They look nice! Like a couple of baby Avalon's!

    But i agree on the sometimes very good japanese speakers. I personally had the good fortune to own a pair of Pioneer Prologue 9 from the mid 80's and they were certainly not bad! Now i own a pair of Pioneer CS-530 which are not bad either. These were built on location in Europe, so mine are actually made in Sweden:
    http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/pioneer_cs_e530.html

    BR /Mike

  7. #7
    Join Date: Nov 2009

    Location: Devon

    Posts: 1,903
    I'm stu.

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    I remember technics made some very expensive speakers in the late 70s or early 80s.
    £10,000 iicr.
    301/Puresound 2A3/quite large Grf cab horny ones.Eminence/Coral/Le cleach

  8. #8
    Join Date: Mar 2010

    Location: Sheffield

    Posts: 2,898
    I'm Simon.

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    Sony currently make a very good speaker that got raves at CES this year.
    Kuzma Stabi/S 12", (LP12-bastard) DC motor and optical tacho psu, Benz LP, Paradise (phonostage). MB-Pro, Brooklyn dac and psu, Bruno Putzeys balanced pre, mod86p dual mono amps, Yamaha NS1000m

  9. #9
    Join Date: Dec 2011

    Location: Far Away

    Posts: 1,396
    I'm Gone.

    Default

    In the late 70s into the early 80s i was Technical Liaison Officer at JVC UK, when I first got the Job I knew they made some high end and pro audio kit, but like most british Hi Fi fans I thought all jap speakers were rubbish. Part of my "empire" was the showroom, and when I first got in there I was amazed to see a wall of speakers the UK company never sold. There was a pair of FB-5 2 way back horns which where the most dynamic speakers I ever heard. Also, there was a set of Tannoy or Altec like co axial studio monitors with a 15" and a horn tweeter, staggeringly good and more besides.

    The first really good high end speaker JVC UK sold was the Zero 5, this was a three way with a ribbon speaker, I took a pair to Bronze Records, Chalk Farm Studios were they were used as a reference speaker.

    Great kit and a lot of fun developing it, I've just got a pair of the ribbon tweeters on flea bay and they will form partofmy next project.

  10. #10
    Join Date: Feb 2012

    Location: London

    Posts: 243
    I'm Jay.

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    I owned a pair of SS-3300s, and wish I'd had the space to keep them. http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-SS-3300.html

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