brett_day's Full Review: Sony SSF-6000 Main / Stereo Speaker
It has been a long time since my last review on epinions, I am glad i am back once again! Have plenty to review now! In my absence I have been continuing to build my entry level home theater system! I now have blu ray and a receiver that can decode loss less audio, so I needed some speakers that would help me hear the great sound tracks on blu-rays!
There are really two types of speakers that can be used as surround in a home theater system. Floor standers, also known as towers or bookshelf speakers. I decided to use towers as my front surrounds and seeing that i was on a budget I was somewhat limited to the brands that were available in the floor standing variety. I already had a Sony center speaker and in wanting to match timbre settings, decided that I would opt for Sony floor standers. There are 3 series in the Sony range right now. The SS-F5000's, SS-F6000s and the SS-F7000's
The differences between the 5 and 6000's is the fact that that the 5000's are 3 way speakers and the 6000's are 4 way speakers. Other than that there is a small increase in wattage in the 6000's. 150 watt maximum on the 5000's and 180 watt maximum on the 6000's. The wattage maximum for the 7000's is 200 watts. The price difference between the 5000's and the 6000's was minimal, As low as a $50 difference if you shop around! The 6000's seemed perfect for my current needs so i ordered them and waited for them to arrive!
The day finally came! The box is big! Big enough to house a small town! Upon opening the box I could tell that the speakers were very well packaged! Lots of Styrofoam peanuts and copious amounts of foam to protect the speakers during transit! Wow the speakers are bigger than I thought! Even after I had read the specifications online I still did not picture them being this big for some reason! They weight just under 30lbs each and they measure 37.4" tall, 8.5" in width, and 10.3" in depth, so make sure you have room next to your TV before purchasing. The speakers look very nice, with a matt black finish and a cloth speaker cover, that is removable.
Turn the speakers around and you will see two binding posts that you use to connect the speaker wire, which is a rarity in speakers this cheap! Cheap speakers normally use push connections where you push the little tab down and insert the speaker wire. The binding posts are nice and can even accept banana plugs if you desire to use them. Setting them up is incredibly easy, took all of 5 minutes to connect the speaker wire. All that was left to do was position them and fire them up! On that note I must say that these speakers are magnetically shielded, but that is not an issue with today's newer lcd and plasma sets as they are not affected my magnetism.
So how do they sound? Honestly, for the money, incredibly good! Obviously to get the best out of any speaker you must calibrate your system, so it took a little tweaking to get the speakers sounding how I liked them. The speakers have adequate bass response, nothing earth shattering and honestly with these speakers you will still need a separate subwoofer for deep bass when watching movies or TV, if you are just wanting speakers to replace the speakers in your TV then you will be more than happy with these.
The 1" tweeter does an okay job at reproducing highs during use! Remember these are budget speakers but I have been more than happy withy the performance in this respect, the 6.5" range driver also produces solid mids as well. Combine all 3 together and you get a pretty impressive field of sound from this pair fo speakers for under $200!
I have pushed these speakers fairly hard through my Onkyo receiver and i have never head a crack a hiss or a pop! They have stood up pretty to the tests that I have given them! Some movies sound better than others, but that is not to do with the speakers, it is to do with the movie soundtrack. The last test I gave these towers was with The Dark Knight One of my favorite movies. I really cranked the system up and had a huge smile on my face the whole time! The sound effects were clean, clear and crisp from these speakers, the bass they did put out was tight and deep and not boomy, overall I was very pleased.
If you are looking to build a home theater on the cheaper side, then these Sony SS-F6000's are an amazing value. I have recently seen them as low as $132 for a pair which is an awesome deal! They will be a huge upgrade to those using home theater in a box speakers and even some seasoned audiophiles will like the response they get from really some quite inexpensive speakers! I highly recommend these speakers!
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