Customer Reviews

Sony SS-B1000 5 1/8-Inch Bookshelf Speakers (Pair)

5 star:		(228)
4 star:		(68)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Hello friends,

Before you begin to read my review, please understand that I only wrote it because there are so very few reviews currently available about these speakers. Knowing that, here is what I can tell you about them:

First of all, I purchased these speakers for one, and only one, reason. I presently own a very nice Panasonic 27" color (stereo) television. The sound from the internal TV speakers never thrilled me, so I looked into purchasing some better speakers. The first thing I discovered (to my dismay) was that my TV did not have "external speaker" jacks. Okay, so I dropped a few extra bucks ($99.00 to be exact), and I purchased a very nice, 100 watt Sherwood, stereo receiver. Bear in mind now that I am only talking about a "stereo." I am not talking about a surround sound system, a Dolby digital system (5-1, 6-1 or the like), or any other high-tech system. Just plain old, every day, run of the mill stereo!

Now, I really thought that I was home free because I already owned a great pair of Bose bookshelf speakers. Wrong again! The Bose speakers are only "four" ohms, and my new Sherwood receiver called for "eight" ohm speakers. I know that seems to be a minor problem, but the receiver DID run very hot, and numerous reviews regarding the receiver clearly stated that it WOULD overheat using anything less than eight ohm speakers.

After realizing that the reported problem was true, I visited several electronic stores; I listened to numerous bookshelf type speaker systems, and I finally decided on the Sony. Let me tell you my friends, these little babies are absolutely superb! The bass quality absolutely blew-away my $300.00 Bose speakers (regardless of impedance). The sound is crisp, clear, and the typical problems of "no", or "very little" bass, are gone. Don't get me wrong . . . you are NOT going to get 15" bass speaker sound out these, but you WON'T be disappointed. They are truly, in my humble opinion, the very BEST bang for the buck!

My wife, who doesn't give a s**t about audio quality, actually commented on how really nice the TV sounds now, compared to my fancy-dancy Bose speakers. These little speakers deliver sharp, crisp, clear sound, and they seem to easily handle all the power that my Sherwood receiver throws at them. If you want some really nice speakers, with all of the bass that you can realistically expect from a small pair of bookshelf speakers, buy these! In a nutshell . . . they sound GREAT!

It is probably pointless to add yet another review to this speaker that says "good for the price". Everybody knows that by now. What I have noticed is the few reviews that say the sound is muddy or there is no midrange or highs. (I will discount the complaints about "needing an amplifier")

I will start by mentioning something I have seen in no other review: When I opened the box, there was a notice from Sony taped to the top of the wrappers on the speakers. A warning, actually. It said to be sure to connect the speakers to an amplifier "near" the maximum rating of the speaker. It went on to say that failure to connect them to a "sufficiently powerful" amplifier would result in tweeter burnout.

So, the question is: What is "sufficiently powerful"?

I will spare you the boring details of my research, and give you the bottom line. Do not connect these to an amplifier of less than 40 Watts RMS per channel. At 40 Watts and up, you are pretty much safe no matter how much you crank it. Below that, you risk clipping the waveform going to the tweeter. The clipping will distort the sound and apply what amounts to a straight DC voltage to the tweeter voice coil. This voltage heats the wiring until it melts the lacquer coating on the wire and shorts out the tweeter. (maybe more than you needed to know)

The tweeters use a large amount of the power in, and handle the upper midrange as well as the highs. Severe clipping and/or burnout would result in weakened midrange, no highs, muddy sound.

Not exactly a review, I guess, but maybe it will help some buyers decide whether they want to try these or not.

If you are curious, I have these hooked to an amplifier putting out 105 Watts per channel. Plenty of reserve power, achingly clear and bright highs. Bass is barely adequate, but OK for most stuff I play. You can always mess with tone controls, but turning up the bass doesn't boost the bass so much as richen the lower midrange which is carried by the woofer (also, turning the bass up too much results in a "boxy" sound). Voices are quite clear. I could use better speakers, but these will do until I get around to upgrading. It could be a while.

I'm the manager of WRNC in Ashland, WI and we've used these speakers as our studio monitors for 2.5 years, almost non-stop. They've never complained or degraded in any way. From time to time we also knock them around as we move them to remote broadcasting locations, and they've survived even this quite nicely.

I recently purchased two pairs of these speakers for use with my home stereo, and they have not disappointed. They may not be the most expensive speakers out there, but they're a vast improvement from the Panasonic speakers I've been using for the last twelve years.

The difficulty with reviewing speakers has a lot to do with the fact that whether something sounds good is usually something that occurs in the ears of the hearer. My point of reference for these speakers are:
-A pair of Radioshack Optimus-1s from the 1970s (sealed three way, 2" twt, 2" mid, 8" woof)
-A pair of Sharp speakers from the 1970s (tri-ported two way, 1" twt, 10" woof)
-A set of TheSpeakerCompany RC1s from the 2000s (MTM 5.5" mid, .5" twt)

If your'e comparing these speakers to a conventional HTIB setup, oh man, these things blow typical HTIB satellites out of the water and into outer space. Get them, get them now, replace all 5/7 of your satellites! You'll be glad you did! Most of my friends fall into this category, and these are perfect entry level speakers for someone who is looking for an inexpensive upgrade to their HTIB. You'll be blown away by the improvement. There isn't a whole lot of bass, so make sure you have a sub. Oh, and put these on stands and not in a bookshelf.

If your'e a bit more discerning/slightly larger pocketbook, though, you'll find their fairly average, and more on the mediocre end of average. I picked up a set of these speakers on clearance as surrounds for my 5.1 system, and they do the job adequately. For a small room or a *very* small surround system, these could be okay as your L/R front speakers but overall they are just too small for my tastes as fronts. The sound is rather neutral, with not a lot of bass extension. A bit ho-hum, but that means they strive for accuracy in reproduction, which is good. The really good thing is the speakers aren't boomy! A lot of little speakers like this have boom, but the Sony engineers decided to get rid of that, thank you for putting some foam in. They are good entry level speakers, esp. for the price per pair these typically go for.

hey, let me tell you that these speakers are a real deal, big sound
from a small box, i wasn't sure about getting these babys or the polks for 70 bucks more, so i risked it and got the sony's i've read reviews saying that they dont have bass! thats a lie! im using them as my main speakers
with a sony receiver and a technis equalizer and they hit loud and clear with planty of bass (people be realistic please they are not 15" subwoofers, don't spect them to tear down the house. that's why you use a subwoofer) why spend alot of money on just a brand name ( like bose) if you are short on cash like me get these speakers, im sure you'll love them.my

I'm a big fan of booming bass so I didn't want to use these as my main fronts. I decided to use them as my surround speakers and couldn't be happier. They are the perfect size for surround. Not too small and underpowered like bose surround and not too big to be a nuisance. Since surround speakers are generally just a mid and tweeter (sometimes just a mid) these work perfectly in that respect. As loud as you want, and as crisp and clear as speakers get. I am very pleased.

Just a word of advice, if you plan to use these as your front channel speakers, you will most likely need a good sub woofer to go with them. But perfect as surround!

Sony is having lots of trouble these days--from making a competitive HDTV set in the face of Samsung's domination to alienating an international customer base by encoding CDs with a virus capable of infecting users' computers. The emergence of Blue Ray as the industry standard for DVDs has barely made a difference to the bottom line--certainly not enough to atone for the company's earlier loss of Beta to VHS. The Walkman Mini-Disc has a cult-like following but is of no consequence to the company's struggle to keep up with the competition even in a falling stock market.

But I still look to Sony for "traditional" technology along with value and quality. These are speakers that might have been sold 40 years ago--but at several times the price. They'll complement any quality amplifier and satisfy all but the most zealous sub-sonic freak. No, they won't vibrate the walls or give you a massage treatment, but they reproduce everything from a symphony orchestra to a jazz ensemble to solo piano or acoustic guitar with impressive faithfulness (fidelity).

Be aware that these have no receptacles accepting RCA, mini and similar plugs--just spring-clips for attaching bare speaker wire. And they won't work with your iPod or big screen TV without an amplifier. Still, they're high-efficiency speakers that sound clean, undistorted, and unstrained when driven by as little as 20 watts (RMS) per channel.

We bought these speakers to replace our bulky rear speakers in our bedroom; they are great, good reproduction of sound (music, movies) without distortion; nice small size and at a great price. Great performance with a Sony 150wts surround receiver. They work very well with the SSB-3000 as front speakers.

I purchase these speakers as a upgrade and got more. The seperation and bottom is down right lovely. There the perfect speakers to use as starting point to build a system around

We were needing a speaker upgrade once we aquired a significantly higher powered amplifier. The old speakers were high quality speakers that provided excellent sound and response, but distorted at medium loudness (this was in a small bedroom). They were rated for 25 watts. I searched through the low budget speakers, buying and returning each pair the same day. The sound was not comparable to our original speakers. They were all bad: one had no treble, one sounded like a can, one sounded like the enclosure was being thumped when the strong bass notes, etc, etc. I kept on my budget and tried the Sony B1000 speakers. They sounded great and exhibited none of the sound issues of the other low budget speakers. They have the power capability to hang on at volume levels far higher than we ever listen to, and provided very adequate frequency response. While they are definitely not a high end audiophile component, they definitely worked well for us and our varied music listening taste. (from hard rock to modern pop to country)

I cannot say these are the best $50.00 speakers available, but I can say these are the best sounding $50.00 speakers I found.