Customer Ratings & Reviews

Five years ago I bought a pair of Sony B-3000 large 3 way bookshelfs with an 8 in, woofer for $75.00 on sale that my daughter now owns. Now for the price they were quite the rage and Sony was selling a lot of them. I mean, you hear these things and say, "How can I walk away from these nice speeks at this price!" Well, back in 2010, Pioneer's Andrew Jones upped the ante with his curved-side line of speakers with a bookshelf, a center-channel and a small floorstanding models. Andy then reworked them with better drivers and crossovers and these too sold like hotcakes. My opinion of the upgraded model was, "They look great and sound good but where's the detail and depth I was accustomed to hearing with speakers like the original $200 Paradigm Titan? Now, I'm always curious when a monster company like Sony or Pioneer kicks out a new series so I noticed last week online that Sony had a new line of budgets out and since they were in stock at my local store, I picked up a pair fo $219 + tax. I had also listened to the B&W 685's and the gloss rosewood Martin Logan Motion 10's in the Magnolia corner of the store just to update my recollection of the sound of these 2 speakers pairs in their demo room. The 'Motions' were clear and imaged really well but the B&W's just seemed too warm in the vocal range What I liked about the old Sony B-3000's was that they did indeed sound balanced. So did the Andrew Jones'! I listen to a lot of live music and know what a piano and an acoustic guitar should sound like but for some reason the B&W 600's just sounded too warm in the critical midrange frequencies. Actually my Energy RC-10's also have a bit of midrange bloom but not as bad as the B&W's. The Sony Core Series SSCS-5 bookshelves are a 3 way design with the bass port in the rear of the box. They are roughly 13 X 7 X 9 (HWD) with a frequency range of 53-50,000 Hz. Rated sensitivity is 87 db at 1watt/meter @ 6 Ohms, not the most efficient boxes you can find out there. Actually, like the Pioneer AJ's they like a little brawn from a receiver or amplifier. I have the Core 5's hooked up to an older Sony ES DA-555 that can handle difficult loads. I have them mounted on 24 in. metal stands on the long wall of my 16 X 11 daddy's den sized garden-style apartment living room. What Sony refers to as a midrange driver is actually a 1 inch dome supplemented by a 3/4 inch super tweeter. The foam woofer is 5 inches. So, what are you getting for your 220 dollar pair? I'd say much more than can be expected. No 'disappearing speaker' tricks and a huge sweet-spot to wow your friends with. What you will get is a smooth, accurate sound, adequate bass, and midrange and a clear treble. In this case Sony gives you plenty of good sound for a budget price and a sound that doesn't sound budget in the least!

These speakers blew me away! I didn’t think Sony was capable of creating such a good speaker, and was kind of a snob when I read all the positive reviews on these. I was like “ha!, Sony, they don’t make good speakers”. Boy was I wrong! These are not just amazing for the price, but amazing period! I bought these for my dad because he wanted a bookshelf speaker for his room. After browsing the BB site, these Sony’s were half off and had many glowing reviews, so I headed down to my local BB to have a listen. Sony had these bookshelfs, a floor standing tower, and subwoofer in one display. Unfortunately, it was not possible to just listen to one type of speaker by itself. All three played at the same time. I asked the sales associate if it was possible to unhook the towers and sub so I could just listen to the bookshelfs. His reply was “sorry, no”. I know it was possible and what he meant was “I can, but I’m to lazy to do it”. Wherever. So I just bought it and went home, with the thought I’d just be coming back for a refund because they sound junk. After getting home, I unboxed it and set it up next to my Elac debut 6.2’s that I recently bought (I left a review on those if you are interested in great 6-1/2” bookshelf). Hooked it up next to the Elac’s with my Yamaha A/V receiver that has a/b switching to do side-by-side comparisons. This is so that I have a reference to a quality speaker to compare it to. I put on some music I know well, and to say that I was surprised how good these Sony’s sounded is an understatement. The Sony’s sounded just as good as the Elac’s! How can this be?! These are $75!!! ($150 msrp). The soundstage is wide and the quality of the sound is just as good as the Elac’s. Mids are smooth and warm. Highs are detailed without being harsh. And has good bass for the size. Of course, the Sony’s can’t go as low as the Elac’s. 5” vs 6-1/2” driver. Physics. But the bass is tight and has punch. I don’t think a subwoofer is necessary for music listening unless you like a lot of bass. I think the bass it puts out is adequate. And quite amazing considering the size. I may just pick up a pair for myself if it ever goes half off again!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... I know... "Get the Klipsch! Get the Polk Audio!" Well, those brands have some pretty darned tough competition with these Sony's. I listened to all of them in the store, and between that and the online reviews, I went with the Sony's. I have not been disappointed in the least. The 3 way design gives crisp, clean highs and the midrange speaker gives a decent amount of bass for every day listening. I will be adding a small subwoofer to the set up (I have them in my office and do not need anything to get crazy loud or window shaking) to round things out, but I am quite satisfied with just these two speakers hooked up to a 20 year old Sony 5.1 system. I think my favorite thing about them is the rich, warm sound. The Polks and Klipsch bookshelf speakers, to my ears (and everyone is different), were a little hollow and sometimes almost too one dimensional for me. These speakers are fantastic for what I listen to, which is not death metal or rap. LOL Put in some Bob Marley, Xavier Rudd, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Miles Davis, or even Cody Jinks and you will find a nice, balanced, rich sound with plenty of top end clarity and just enough bass to make yourself question whether you need a subwoofer or not. For the money, I seriously doubt you can find a better set of quality bookshelf speakers than these!

I figure most people looking to buy speakers in this price range are like me, looking for an excellent sound quality in an entry+ home theatre without dropping $1000 per speaker. I would also guess that like me the choice between the Sony and the Klipsch can be a tough one. The big difference between the two speakers in my opinion come from what some people call brightness. This is basically the sound of the higher frequencies being more distinctive than from a pair of speakers that are more neutral. I chose the Sony set (these are the surrounds in my 7.2 setup) because they bring excellent detail while creating an "atmosphere" where everything works together more than the brighter Klipsch, which at first sound great and detailed but sound a bit disjointed after awhile and can be harsh to my particular set of ears. While I was watching the Revenant on UHD it was amazing how much that emersive sound added to the movie, as opposed to a different set of speakers that would sound like noise coming from 7 different directions. The one thing I will say: if your receiver has the ability to bump the dialog just a hair, it would be worth doing that. Since the speakers strength is making things sound more like a symphony than a rock concert, the vocals can be swallowed up as part of the atmosphere. Giving a bump to the vocals or a slight boost from the center channel on movies gives it just enough separation to add the desired effect of the mix.

Ok, I'm far from an audiophile. Don't know diddly about cones, warm, bright, etc. Having said that, I know what I like to hear. Rich bass, clear sound. I just hooked up these Sony speakers and tested my Barry Manilow Greatest Hits CD. Next, my favorite of all time, Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall. I’m very impressed! My son-in-law is a commercial audio/visual tech so his opinion means a lot to me. To his ear, these speakers have a really good sound. As of now, I highly recommend these for someone who might have space and $ limitations and just need a darn good sound to listen to on a medium to low setting. I don't crank up the volume so I can't comment on that level. At this price point, on sale to boot, I figured I'd give them a chance. Glad I did. I have them hooked up to my JVC RX 507V receiver and playing my CDs on Kenwood DP-M7740, all older equipment that still works. Haven't tried playing vinyl yet but expect to hear the great sounds that only vinyl can produce. I hope this helps someone out there on the fence. I decided to buy locally rather than online in case I wanted/need to return them. No chance of that happening. If my opinion changes in the future, I’m hoping I can update this review.

After discovering that my pair of old Paradigm Titan's had blown/torn speakers and coil damage I began to research a pair of replacements for these units. Long story short, I found these Sony speakers for sale at a local Best Buy on sale price of $75/pair. I was somewhat skeptical because of the price point and the name of the brand but upon doing research, they had a lot of positive reviews across multiple vendors. Once I got these units home, I hooked them up to an already existing 7.2 system running a Denon a/v receiver, and ELAC for the other speakers/subwoofers and was immediately surprised, in a good way, regarding the Sony's I had just bought. To my ears, these speakers sound somewhat "bright". I found that the highs sound crisp but not overly aggressive, the mids are adequate, and the low's provide enough bass to balance things out. Comparing these to my already existing ELAC B5.2s, the Sony's sound less "balanced" to my ears, but the differences aren't significant enough to warrant any negative comments. In closing, for the price I paid, these speakers are a hidden gem among the many more "expensive" models that are present in the audio market. Overall, I'm very pleased with their performance and would recommend them to anyone looking at filling a void in their existing set up, or is looking for a "budget priced" entry into the world of audio.

I am totally surprised at the sound quality of these Sony speakers. I had recently purchased some BIC America bookshelf speakers for my family room that sounded fantastic and considered buying another pair to use in my living room. However, after reading some of the reviews on the Sony speakers I thought I would give them a try since the price was comparable to the BIC's. After hooking these Sony speakers up to an older model Pioneer Receiver and playing one of my high quality CD's I was totally blown away. I could not believe their clarity and response. I was surprised that Sony could make a set of bookshelf speakers sound this good. I could go into much more detail about my experience with these speakers but the bottom line is that for the money you can't go wrong. I highly recommend to anyone looking for some very reasonably priced bookshelf speakers. If you want some really deep base to go with these speakers I recommend the Sony powered sub-woofer. This combination will provide you with a very good sounding setup.

I decided to purchases a pair of these while on sale, just to test if my cats would mess with bookshelf speakers, knock over, damage, etc. before spending big money on a real nice pair. After unhooking my Monitor Audio Bronze towers and hooking these up, I was dumbfounded.. Right out of the box, no real difference in sound. Had the same airy, sweet highs of the MA's C-Cam tweeters as well as the smooth, uncolored mids of the MA's midwoofer. Bass was surprising as well being taught and full without the cheap cabinet, boomy, muddy bass I was expecting. My jaw dropped to the floor as I sat there just after a few hours of run in time. I couldn't believe my ears.. I have them paired to a couple of Emotiva mono blocks with a Rega Cursa 3 preamp. All Straightwire cabling. If you're on a budget and want a really good pair of bookshelf speakers, try a pair of these. You will not be dissapointed. I don't think that I will be looking for replacements anytime soon..

This speaker sells for $120/pair. Sony refers to it as a Hi-Res speaker, designed to play music in utter detail. Most comparisons will be to the Andrew Jones speakers from Pioneer, an excellent speaker in its own right. The Sony is very compact. Surprisingly for the price, it comes with a multi-way banana connector in the rear. The speaker appears very nice, especially with the grill removed. It has three drivers, a 5" woofer, a tweeter and a super-tweeter. Sony claims that the super-tweeter is needed to bring out the harmonics and detail that regular speakers do not reproduce. Sound-wise, the Sony is very crisp and clean. It does a very good job within its limits. It can be played somewhat loud but too loud will have some audio compression. The weakest spot is the woofer, it does put out some bass but sounds a tad weak. Still, the Sony is a very good speaker for the price. It sounds more like a $300-500 speaker. if you are looking for a cheap speaker, this one should be on your list.

I'm using these speakers as an upgrade to the tiny satellite speakers found in my Yamaha Home Theater System YHT-399UBL. I also got the Sony Core center speaker and together they now make up the front left, center, and right of my 5.1 speaker setup (other speakers are still the Yamaha supplied ones). The sound quality from these speakers is excellent for the money, size, and for my purposes (watching BD movies, Netflix streaming, console gaming, and some HD cable TV watching). Music also sounds great, though I don't use it much for that (unless you count music in movies and games). One thing worth mentioning is right now the sub woofer I'm using is not able to compete with these speakers too well and so the low end seems to be lacking vs. the mid range and high end. That's not a fault of these speakers, just the sub woofer's limitations (50 watts RMS, 8-inch driver). So, I'll need to upgrade the sub woofer so that the low end can match the great mid range and high end these Sony Cores can provide. For that, I'm looking at the Dayton Audio SUB-1200, which sells for around $125 and has 120 watts RMS and a long throw 12-inch driver.

The engineers at Sony Corporation have been on a roll lately. I just finished reading the review of their STR DN1050 receiver in Sound & Vision magazine. The reviewer concluded that article saying that based on its features and its unusually good sound quality, the Sony was now his number one pick for receivers in its price bracket. I purchased these Sony speakers on a whim having read good things about them on the net. Let me just sum up by saying that the makers of other affordable audiophile speakers just got some major competition (think PSB, Paradigm, Music Hall)!. This is no joke friends, these speakers are the real deal. Like the reviewer said in that online review, this is one of the rare affordable speakers capable of conveying the "texture" of music. Audiophile speakers can now be purchased brand new for $220 a pair. Unbelievable but true!

I originally purchased these bookshelf speakers to use with my home computer, but before taking them upstairs for that purpose I decided, out of curiosity, to do a direct A - B comparison with the Elac Debut 2.0 bookshelf speakers I already own and am using for music listening and for home theater. I'm not going to say that the Elac Debut 2.0 speakers sound terrible by any means, but I can tell you that these Sony bookshelf speakers produce a better overall sound to my ears. I can hardly believe these little speakers can produce such an impressive and immersive sound stage. The other thing I find amazing is the tweeter because it manages to be so clear and so beautiful even at higher volume levels. I simply can't believe the quality of sound these produce. Best speaker purchase I've made so far!

So after owning second hand and hand me downs, I finally decided to let loose of some money and buy a new system. I was originally going to go with Klipsch, but I’m glad I made this choice instead. I enjoy the mids, and highs the speakers produce (The sound fills our space with no problem. We live in a 1400 soft Townhouse). I spent multiple hours with the “burn in”, and there is a great quality of sound that they reproduce. I purchased four of the towers, a couple bookshelves, and center (I already had a nice subwoofer). I married them up with the Onkyo TX-NR656 (7.2 ch) receiver. As of yesterday I finished off our entertainment area with the Samsung UN65MU8000 television. Everything looks and sounds great!! I would definitely purchase again, and recommend to a friend.

For all of my adult life I have been a fan of Sony products. These wonderful little speakers are my latest purchase and are deeply discounted for Black Friday 2017. My living space is small and bookshelf speakers are a must. These deliver crisp, dynamic sound and make my whole music collection -- everything from cassettes and LP's to MP3's and streaming -- sound brand new. They have removable grilles with the distinctive Sony badge and are unremarkable in design, just a black box but one good feature are the screw terminals where you feed the wire through a hole in the bolt and screw the red or black cap down onto it. This is much better than the ones where you either curl the wire around a screw and tighten it down or push a spring-loaded black or red button and then must feed the wire through a hole. So, if you're like me and you like great sound but are short on both space and funds, these SSCS5 speakers are an outstanding value.

After trying several different brands of speakers for my Onkyo A9050 integrated amplifier, I decided to try the new Sony hi-res bookshelf speakers. The result was full range sound with good detail and dynamics. Somebody had posted a comment online saying that these are an answer to Pioneer's Andrew Jones series of speakers targeting the budget oriented buyer. These speakers are way better than the Pioneer SP-BS41 that I own. Sure, I paid twice as much for the Sony but it was worth it. The pioneer speakers I can describe as dull, missing detail. The Klipsh speakers I also own just sound harsh, no matter what amp I use. The sony speakers have a balanced sound. You simply need to hear it. I highly recommend these speakers , especially with a better amplifier.

I've been watching these for some time now. I like the three way speaker set up better than the two way and have been comparing these with the Yamaha three way that Best Buy has. After studying both thru reviews and other info I decided on the Sony CS5. I wasn't disappointed! They have a rich clear sound and are accurate to instrument sound. Their quality rivals speakers that are twice their price or more. Since my room is not large the bass response is very good. I have a small project studio and was using a pair of KLH 911B that did a good job. But these blow them out of the water with their rich lows and clarity. I'm powering them with a Crown DC150 ( 75 watt per side) and they fill the room and then some. Don't need it here but if you need more low end to fill the room get the Sony active sub to go with the CS5s. That would be a good match.

This review is part of the whole Sony core series. The sound coming from these speakers is fantastic. Paired with a Yamaha Atmos enabled v683 these speakers rattle my house with clear and full sound. Testing some movies I only have issue with the Sony subwoofer that has an auto off feature that is too aggressive. Sub turns off only to turn on halfway through with an audible click and have you miss most of the bass. Best thing to do is to leave the power saving move on the sub off and just leave it on all the time. I would gladly test a subwoofer for Sony to get this right. Great entry level speakers with awards of acclaim behind them and it shows. Overall I would buy these over if I have to. I did however buy them for half price as these regularly go on sale so make sure you pick them up at the discounted price.

I was tossed up between these and the polk t15's. the polks sounded amazing and I may pick up a pair to accent these. the on floor display of the Sony's didnt make it possible to hear just the bookshelf speakers. only the whole sony setup of towers, bookshelfs and sub. so I took a chance and I am not regretting it. they were more than the polks but I like the 3 way speaker design better. they sound awesome. very full sound, highs are crystal clear. I can hear things in my music that I've never heard before with my old sony/klipsch speaker setup! size was also a factor in why I wanted bookshelf speakers. although the polks were smaller these still in the size range that I needed. construction quality is great. they look as good as they sound too! great choice these were!

I'll start this review by saying I do own several Sony products, and I love them, but I went into speaker shopping with an open mind. I initially wanted to purchase the more expensive Klipsch speakers, but after hearing them in store, the Sony core series stuck out. They are a mid price point, but punch at a higher level. The sound is warm, even from my nearly ten year old Insignia receiver. I wasn't expecting much being bookshelf speakers, but I put them through their paces and they performed very well. Even at high volume, the tone stayed true, lows didn't distort, highs didn't peak. I can't wait to get some floors, maybe a center, and a subwoofer from this series. The removable grills make sure our cats can't "redesign" the mesh.

These Sony CS5 bookshelf speakers are really top notch. I was a bit skeptical of the positive reviews I had read, but I was looking for a pair of bookshelf speakers and decided to give these a try. I also ordered a pair of Q Acoustics Concept 20 bookshelf speakers and compared the sound of the two sets back and forth. The Concept 20s edged out the Sony Cores, but not by much, and the Concept 20s cost over twice as much (actually four times as much because I caught a great deal on Best Buy for the Sonys). I kept the Concept 20s, but I also kept the Sony CS5 speakers for my office. They are too good to return. I was impressed with the full, clear sound of the Sony speakers. The bass is very acceptable, especially for bookshelf speakers, and the mids and highs are clear. Add a small subwoofer, and the Sony Cores shine even more.