Customer Ratings & Reviews

In June, I replaced my 30 year-old Sony Prologic Receiver with a Sony STR DN590, just so that I could continue to use my existing 5-channel set-up. With the addition of a PSW10, my 30-year-old Yamaha 3 way front speakers sounded great with bass, but with treble and mid-range, not so much. I began reading reviews of suitable replacements, and the Sony SS-CS5 seemed to stand out for sound quality, construction, and price. I placed my order with Best Buy, which pleasantly surprised me by delivering them two days earlier than expected. Upon hooking them up to my receiver, I tried them on some of my heavy-bass favorites, and they blended with the PSW10 "like a seamless garment", as good if not better than the Yamahas they replaced. Better still was their high-end performance with vocals, which the Yamahas could never attain. I paid $50 each for those Yamahas in the early 1990s, in 2021 dollars, the SS-CS5s cost less for better all-around performance. I am actually considering replacing my old DIY surround speakers with a second pair of SS-CS5s. Great job, Sony! Great price and service, Best Buy!

For one thing I never write a review unless I am flabbergasted and mouth on the floor impressed.. WHICH I AM RIGHT NOW....I can barely speak right now, I am so blown away by the sound of these speakers, for the last 3hrs I have been in amazement of how incredible they sound. I have a pair of IL40's by Infinity that were $1200 for the pair that I have had for a long time, nothing ever touched them in sound. ..... Until.....Now..... I think I may be ruined now.. lol... anyway the key is placement on these speakers, I put them on top of my entertainment center about 4 or 5 inches from the back wall.. they sounded really good and beat out my Klipsch 51-m immediately I could hear an improvement over them and they cost more than twice as much as these.... then I moved them out from the wall about 8 3/4 inches..... and the sound quality went up 10 fold.. . at that point they sounded better then my Infinity's which I didnt think would be possible... The sound is so full and clear... I have them hooked up to a Yamaha 995 receiver that puts out 100 watts per channel... The bad reviews may have been from bad placement to the wall, etc. The price is unreal because I felt like I just purchased a pair of at least $2000 speakers based on sound alone.

Decent sale price, large in size, sounds great. Impressive.

Fills my need for speakers to hook up 7.5" reel to reel and connecting pc and 200W amp to play music. Got tired of the pour pc speakers that are normally connected to a pc. Music quality is a lot better.

I'm rebuilding my home sound system piece-by-piece after losing my previous Bose system in a divorce. I bought these to couple with a Sony receiver I bought last year and I'm not disappointed. They provide really good sound while I'm waiting to add a sub, center and surround channels. My original thought was that I'd move these to the rear channels and buy high end speakers for the front channels, but after hearing them I'm seriously considering keeping these on the front channels. And though these are only rated down to 50 Hz, they produce enough base that I don't feel any great pressure to add the sub, though it will come eventually.

First off I want to say I’m not an audiophile but I most definitely appreciate good sound and I do own some nice gear(Cambridge CXA60 amp and Martin Logan Dynamo 700 sub). I did get these on the $75 sale price but even @ $150 these are freaking incredible for the money. Look up Z Reviews and Zero Fidelity on YouTube. They both did reviews on these speakers and were thoroughly impressed as am I. Now before I bought these I was daily driving a pair of KEF Q150’s and while those are good I think I may actually prefer these no joke. These are so good I even bought a pair of the floor standing models for my dad for home theater use and they are being powered by an older Denon AVR and they still sound incredible for the money. Buy these without hesitation you won’t be disappointed

Using 4 of them as side surrounds and back surrounds. They fit in very well. A bit larger than expected so I was pleasantly surprised. Even a better deal when you buy them on sale

Just my size. I wanted a pair of small set of speaker but did not want to sacrifice sound quality in the process and these met my need.

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.

These speakers will surprise, even shock you. I heard them at a friend's place, and bought them on sale the next day, almost as a lark. A tremendous value. The strong point is the sweet and clear tweeter, but it is all good. And they weigh only 10 pounds each. How did they do this? Fyi, I do use a sub. I have owned the Klipsch rp-600m and the Elac uni-b52. Both very good speakers that will make many people happy. For me, the rp-600m was bright and verging on harshness at high volume in the very high registers. The uni-b52 tweeter sounded somewhat veiled and heavy at times, little 'air', though its mid-range is first rate. Both of these speakers cost 5-6 times more than the sonys. Of course all audio judgements are predicated on your hearing. and your audio room. It is largely subjective. I am retired, and listen to hi-res classical and jazz, for the most part, in an acoustically friendly space.

These sound great! I started with four bookshelves, a center, and a sub in this series, and was so impressed, I grabbed another sub and the towers. In general, I'm very impressed with the Sony Core Series. It's probably your best bet in this price range. In my opinion, they sound better than the Polks, and if you can get these on sale (every two weeks or so), it's a great buy. The cabinet isn't wood, so it could look better-- I buy my audio equipment for sound not aesthetics; so, in my opinion this is irrelevant--, but it's definitely sturdy.

I bought these after Christmas and still on sale for $75 for a beginner's audio system for listening to my vinyl. They sound great and are worth the $75, but I would not have paid full price even though I'm a die hard Sony fan. Actually, I won't pay full price for anything unless I absolutely have to. I am not an audiophile, but my son is and he thinks they are great for a starter system. They do not fill up a huge room, though. I have a big area and high ceilings and they didn't blow the walls apart. I didn't want them to do that, anyway. Ultimately, I bought a pair of Wharfedale's that I got a great price on and moved these to my surround sound. Holy moly, what a difference in my TV experience with these. I am waiting for them to go on sale again to get 2 more for rear speakers. I replaced my almost 8 year old speakers from a Sony 3D surround sound system.

Great speaker for the price. Even better when on sale. My primary use has been for left and right mains in 5.1 entry level hometheater setup. I used without a subwoofer for about a little over month and bass was surprisingly good when placed about 1ft from wall. Pretty clear imaging as well. Crisp highs and decent mids. Once paired with a subwoofer and sony’s center speaker and properly calibrated this speaker offers impressive performance for its price. I handled reference level really well. My speakers are approx 14ft away from viewing position. Using a denon x1700 at 80 watts per channel at 8ohm with avr set to 6 ohms for these speakers.

Sadly after my Energy C3 L/R speakers decided that their woofers wre no longer functioning I had to find a replacement. When looking for lower priced speakers often the speakers are sacrificing something, usually either something in the highs or somewhere in the mids. These do seem to make some sacrifice on the lower end but retain a wonderful note through the high, mid, and upper low range. I will say to meet the full range these do need a subwoofer to accompany them, but if you have both these and a subwoofer you will be very pleased.

I was deciding on surround speakers for my system and i found these on sale and decided to give them a shot. So far I’m getting a nice clean sound for the task of surround i have them on but i can definitely see them doing a fine job as fronts with a good sub.

Great speaker for my home office. I play vinyl while working. Sound great a low volume. With the super tweeter engaged and coupled with a powered sub I get even better sound when the volume pumped up. Are they as good as my Definitive Technology towers? No. But the Sony's are one tenth the cost and deliver as promised. Highly recommend this speaker.

My wife suggested we bring our turntable out of storage and start playing our albums. I had kept everything necessary to get up and running except decent speakers. I purchased a pair of these to keep my costs down. Wow! was i pleasantly surprised. These speakers have a sound comparable to much larger speakers with a much larger price tag. Nice solid bass and crisp highs without being brassy or tinny. They are rated at 100w/channel. I am running 60w/channel through them and the volume is more than enough for our living room. I would recommend these to anyone looking for a small set of bookshelf speakers, especially if they are on a budget.

These are very well built and great sounding speakers for the money. Did a lot of research before pulling the trigger, and at the on sale price these are amazing speakers for the price. These go toe to toe with other 500-600 bookshelves in my opinion.

I finally decided to replace my tiny little satellite speakers and go all out with a new surround sound system. These became the perfect addition to that setup. While not your high end $1,000 speakers, it’s still amazing quality and sound. To truly appreciate them, don’t just crank the volume up and turn on an action movie, listen for the quieter moments. The high end and subtle sounds are where these speakers really stand out. They’re going to pack the punch you’re looking for, but the clarity in the softer sounds really comes through. While Sony and some others recommended these as your rear surround speakers, they work well as your front speakers also. If you’re serious about your home theater, first find a nice high quality receiver, then add these.

These are absolutely fantastic speakers. I know to go with Sony when I want high quality, deep bass, and an expansive soundstage. Just having a single pair makes music come to life with astounding clarity. They sound amazing with a Sony STR-DH770 7.2 channel receiver. I want to emphasize that the bass on these things is no slouch and reproduced an impressive dynamic range even without a subwoofer. The design is obelisk-like and classic Sony, which I absolutely love. These are impressive speakers at this or any price range.