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New Sony Speakers
- Thread starter Peyton
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Well I don't really care about people not liking the brand, I was just wondering about the specs, if any audio pro people knew if there was a fatal flaw or something I (being a novice) couldn't pick up. I understand what you're saying tho...
The specs don't tell much, if anything, about how it sounds --- it's like saying my car has 300 horsepower, do you think it will corner well?
So unless someone has personal experience with this specific model, the you have to go on more general experience with the brand-- even though it is not reflective of the sound of this model.
About specs: You will see that the "1000 Watts total Music Power" is measured at an astounding 10% distortion level. That is sound quality approximately equal to a police bullhorn "Now hear this!". Or something Jimi Hendrix would play a guitar through. What it really means is about 100 Watts output at a clean music signal (under 0.5% distortion) There are also no specs, qualified or unqualified, for the frequency response of the speakers... the only frequency numbers are "Frequency Response: (DVD, 96 kHz PCM) 2-44,000Hz, 1.0dB" -- and that is measured at the digital output of the DVD player, it is not any sound that you get to hear. Whoop de doo... the DVD reproduces what's on the disc. Big deal. But that's the only indication they give of the response of the system.
It's numbers games like this that lose companies their reputation for quality.
So unless someone has personal experience with this specific model, the you have to go on more general experience with the brand-- even though it is not reflective of the sound of this model.
About specs: You will see that the "1000 Watts total Music Power" is measured at an astounding 10% distortion level. That is sound quality approximately equal to a police bullhorn "Now hear this!". Or something Jimi Hendrix would play a guitar through. What it really means is about 100 Watts output at a clean music signal (under 0.5% distortion) There are also no specs, qualified or unqualified, for the frequency response of the speakers... the only frequency numbers are "Frequency Response: (DVD, 96 kHz PCM) 2-44,000Hz, 1.0dB" -- and that is measured at the digital output of the DVD player, it is not any sound that you get to hear. Whoop de doo... the DVD reproduces what's on the disc. Big deal. But that's the only indication they give of the response of the system.
It's numbers games like this that lose companies their reputation for quality.
Yeah... except it's not $335 for the speakers, its a receiver, with a 5 channel amp, and a 5 disc DVD changer, and a subwoofer, and 5 speakers.dmw007 said:Seems like a good deal for some nice speakers in my opinion.
So the speakers themselves have to be worth about $15 each in this package. I am not hopeful of audiophile quality.
Sorry, I can't jump on the bandwagon to reassure you and say "Peyton, you got'chersel' one heck of a deal there, podner"
You're just going to have to wait until it arrives to see if it meets your personal standards. I suspect it wouldn't meet mine.
If it matters much, I've heard these on wal-mart. I turned it up almost full power for a bit. They sound 'OK' for the price. I found that the sub did too much work, and it wasn't very good at it at high volumes, which seems to be the problem in HTIBs these days. The rest of the speakers sounded like tiny-loud-screetchy things, but only when I turned it up a lot. Again, they didn't sound horrible, considering the price. I also like the standing tower look, but thats just me.
I do however, find a 'fatal' flaw in these. And that is the integrated DVD+Amp. If the DVD player breaks, you're out of luck.
2¢
I do however, find a 'fatal' flaw in these. And that is the integrated DVD+Amp. If the DVD player breaks, you're out of luck.
2¢
I like the contradiction with the specs.
"...(RMS) 143 Watts x2; Subwoofer (RMS) 135 Watts; Subwoofer (RMS) 285 Watts; 800 Watts total "
Where is that 200W missing from the advertisment on the front page?
Then you look at...
"Power Requirements: 120V AC, 60Hz
Power Consumption: 160 Watts (at stand by less than 0.3 Watts) "
I think Sony are telling porkies. How can the amps be 1000W RMS when the total power consumption is 160W for the whole unit.
Woha, they are crap speakers, "2.7 ohm".
"...(RMS) 143 Watts x2; Subwoofer (RMS) 135 Watts; Subwoofer (RMS) 285 Watts; 800 Watts total "
Where is that 200W missing from the advertisment on the front page?
Then you look at...
"Power Requirements: 120V AC, 60Hz
Power Consumption: 160 Watts (at stand by less than 0.3 Watts) "
I think Sony are telling porkies. How can the amps be 1000W RMS when the total power consumption is 160W for the whole unit.
Woha, they are crap speakers, "2.7 ohm".
I have to disagree about Sony quality. I bought a pair of Sony's noise cancelling headphones and they're incredible. Looooooove them.
blaskillet4 said:
interesting... so there is there NO way to run these speakers as comp speakers? Maybe I can replace the DVD player if it goes out? The speakers won't work with...say... PS3? Sorry, I just really don't know...maybe I should have looked closer into this but they looked great for $339 at Bhphoto.
thanks
howesey said:
This seems to be a trend in consumer audio products over the past several years: stretch the numbers as tight as you can.
Take for example my hand-me-down Pioneer 1970's vintage receiver. It's rated (conservatively) at 65 watts per channel, although it's capable of producing over 110 watts before clipping. My vintage Pioneer speakers are also rated conservatively at 60 watts max with 99 dB/watt sensitivity. Put them together and you get an impressively loud system with clean sound.
As far as this "1000 watt" system is concerned, well let's just say I wouldn't worry too much about driving my "60 watts max" Pioneer speakers with this setup.
Edit: I just looked at the back panel of my receiver. It's rated at 120 volts/60 hertz/180 watts. See what I mean?
Sony receivers are notorious for quite a number of things.
I will not say which manufacturer tested this. They tested many manufacturers receivers for power ratings. It was found that Sony stated 110W per channel, however after research and testing it wasn’t quite correct.
It was something along the lines of:
110W with two channel driven L/R.
85W with L/R/C
65W with L/C/R/SR/SL
40W with L/C/R/SL/SR/RL/RR
Power ratings were given per channel, but with only that channel driven. Obvious the power supply wasn't good enough.
I know Arcam and Harman Kardon were a constant power rating no matter how many speakers running. IIRC, Denon were a bit iffy, Yamaha and Pioneer were way off the mark similar to Sony. I do not know what Marantz, Teac and NAD were like.
Arcam’s always had the power even though they were advertised at 80W/channel at 8ohms (something like that). Good way to sell it to customers, you could also hear to power difference in a full sized setup also. Yeah, and did I forget, Arcam’s also sound great.
I will not say which manufacturer tested this. They tested many manufacturers receivers for power ratings. It was found that Sony stated 110W per channel, however after research and testing it wasn’t quite correct.
It was something along the lines of:
110W with two channel driven L/R.
85W with L/R/C
65W with L/C/R/SR/SL
40W with L/C/R/SL/SR/RL/RR
Power ratings were given per channel, but with only that channel driven. Obvious the power supply wasn't good enough.
I know Arcam and Harman Kardon were a constant power rating no matter how many speakers running. IIRC, Denon were a bit iffy, Yamaha and Pioneer were way off the mark similar to Sony. I do not know what Marantz, Teac and NAD were like.
Arcam’s always had the power even though they were advertised at 80W/channel at 8ohms (something like that). Good way to sell it to customers, you could also hear to power difference in a full sized setup also. Yeah, and did I forget, Arcam’s also sound great.
Well, of course these are passive speakers -- they do not have their own amplification like most computer speakers do -- so to hook them up to a computer, or an iPod, or a VHS recorder, you would have to have an amplifier (actually, one channel of amplification for each speaker if you want surround, which is what the Sony combo DVD/Tuner/Amp is) in between the computer.ipod.whatever and the speakers.Peyton said: