Customer Ratings & Reviews

OK speakers, for the price. Sound just average. Being a Sony product expected more. Connected to a Sony AV system

Sony has always been a pioneer in audio industry and I have always bought their receivers, home theater systems and other audio products. With the growing interest in High Resolution audio, I decided to try these 3 Way 3 Driver Bookshelf speakers. Since these are a set of 3-way speaker in a space where 99% of speakers are 2-way, I figured it would be a good fit for me. I have a number of Super Audio CDs (remember those?) and I figured I would use them first to test the audio. It is always exciting to start your listening experience with your favorite audio track and see how it sounds. After listening to a number of tracks, I was pretty surprised: the bass was punchy and after I added a subwoofer to my set, the bass really became deep and rich. The auditory experience of these speakers is characterized by a notably expansive soundstage, exhibiting both considerable width and a good sense of depth. I would even say that the broad sonic stage is particularly advantageous when reproducing complex or spatially rich musical genres such as classical and jazz. Within these genres, where the placement of individual instruments is crucial to the listening experience, the localization of instruments is rendered with exceptional clarity and precision (huge plus in my book). I could distinctly perceive the positioning of different musical instruments (flute, guitar, violine, etc) within the three-dimensional space created by the soundstage, contributing to a highly immersive and detailed listening experience that captures the spatial nuances of the original recording really well. Honestly, these speakers totally blew away my expectations. From a sound perspective, they're super clear and transparent, giving you an honest take on whatever you're playing. The sound is incredibly clean with really tight transients, and you won't hear any muddiness or weird distortion across the whole range. That kind of clarity means you get playback that is spot-on, making them perfect for any serious listening or mixing. The design of these speakers is really good in for certain setups. They sound amazing for near-field monitoring, when you're sitting pretty close to them. Plus, their size and power are just right for smaller areas, like home studios, apartments, or a desktop setup. They'll easily fill the room with rich, detailed sound without being too much. What's really awesome is how affordable they are. Getting this level of transparent and accurate sound, especially in a compact (bookshelf) package, usually costs way more. The fact that these speakers are so budget friendly makes them an unbelievable deal, bringing high-fidelity audio to a wider crowd of music lovers and creators. I would definitely recommend checking these Sony speakers out, they’re widely regarded as one of the best entry-level hi-res bookshelf speakers in 2025 and I definitely would agree with that.

BOTTOM LINE: You cannot go wrong purchasing these updated Sony SS-CS5M2 bookshelf speakers. I am currently using the pair in our media room, powered by a 100-wpc stereo amplifier, with our HDTV and for playing audio CD’s. I believe these speaker’s bass response is more than acceptable for my everyday use. But do occasionally kick-in a small subwoofer to add a little “floor ratting” bass to the mix. RATING: After using for the past week, these Sony CS5M2 earned themselves a solid 4-Star Rating for overall accurate soundstage, bookshelf size dimensions, acceptable low end, and numerous connection options. Add another Star if you can pickup at sale pricing. TL;DR BACKGROUND: I am in my mid 70’s and have been listing to component stereo systems since I was 13. Have owned and used numerous bookshelf and floor standing speakers, from all the major brand venders, in various sized rooms for over 60 years. Although I prefer the soundstage output of much larger floor standing speaker systems when listening to music, my wife who gauges speakers with her “eyes” versus her “ears” prefers much smaller speaker systems. So, we compromise with bookshelves with a hidden subwoofer. CS5 vs. SS-CS5M2: I must mention the CS5M2 is a welcomed update from the older CS5 version. Now with a newly developed 5.12 in woofer, advanced cabinet design (I believe with modified internal bracing to reduce unwanted resonance), updated crossover, improved tweeter design coupled with a new “wave guide”. SENSITIVITY: Note that the original CS5 has a published sensitivity level of only 87 db. After researching, I cannot locate any information on the SS-CS5M2 sensitivity level. Therefore, I assume it's about the same making these speakers a tad power hungry to effectively drive output at music creation levels. Here is where “room size” plays into the mix by deploying these speakers in a small to medium sized environment. Anyway, that’s what I would recommend. FREQUENCY RESPONSE: Not certain why Sony publishes two different frequency responses for these speakers? The FEATURES states “Hi-Res Audio With a wide frequency response of 53-50,000 Hz” (I assume ±3dB). Then in the Q&A SonyListens states “…extended bass response down to 45Hz (vs. above 53Hz)”. Well, which is it, 45-Hz or 53-Hz? Sony, please advise! 3-WAY SPEAKERS: Yes, technically this is a 3-way speaker system with crossover components that will separate the frequencies to each of the three drivers. Please recognize most speakers of this form factor size are 2-way with a single woofer coupled with a single tweeter. And most 3-way speakers use a dedicated woofer for the low-end, a mid-range driver, along with a tweeter. This Sony system to me is basically a 2-way system, but with the addition of a super-tweeter that will extend the high frequencies way beyond human listening capabilities. Would I prefer this “Hi Res” system over a traditional 2-way set of speakers? Certainly, why not. Can I hear the extended high-end? Ahhhh, hard to tell; but my neighbor’s dog certainly can. PRICING: When the original CS5’s came out, I almost purchased a set on a Black Friday sale for $75. But I purchased a competitor’s similar spec’ed pair that was on sale for $55 that sadly I ended up returning in less than a week because they just sounded muffled. Moral was, I should have purchased the CS5’s. Anyway, most consumer items these days has increased due to inflation (except LED HDTV’s). And these updated SS-CS5M2 are no exception. Therefore, the current MSRP I believe is in line with the overall speaker build quality. When these are on sale, they are cost effectively priced for a value set of bookshelf speakers that provides possibly a “best buy” in this price range. .

I have the older version of these bookshelves and love them. The only problem was that I never bought rears and use some old speakers I pulled off of some old Sony Theater-In-a-Box set for the rears. Now, my use case is that I use these bookshelves for computer gaming and not as a home theater set up. You get better sound, bigger subs, and you get to take up more space, lol. I used to have a the Sony Center but I ended up returning it, not because it performed badly but more that games didn't mix their sound right and would have the majority of the sound coming from the center and ignore the left and right. So using a phantom center sounds more immersive to me. These bookshelves do need a bit of tweaking giving I'm using them from less than 5' away. The highs can be a bit bright and the lower frequency can be a bit boxy. Tweaking the crossover to keep the lower frequency out of the left and right helps a ton and dropping the higher frequencies a bit make the sound near perfect. And now that I have, nearly, matching rears...OMG the sound is incredible! If you're a computer gamer and have the space for a receiver, sub, and speakers I suggest slapping it all on your system and enjoying some powerful sound!

The basis of this review was using the Sony SSCS5M2 bookcase speakers plugged into a receiver and listening to vinyl on a high end record player. I listened to heavy metal, classic rock, rap, and hip hop. The songs ranged from delicate acoustic versions to heavy bass. I love these bookcase speakers. They sounded great through the entire range. The high end is clear and crisp but not too harsh. I could hear the mids well. The bass was punchy but don't expect it to shake the room. Everything was well rounded. I think these are great for listening to vinyl. I felt like I could hear all the nuances of the recording that you seek when listening to vinyl. These can get really loud without distorting. The enclosure feels strong, looks good, and well made. The screw connectors feel very durable and secure. These don't feel, look, or sound like cheap speakers. I think these would be a great addition to a home theater system to help round out the surround sound. However, for my use with their dynamic range and compact size I think these are perfect for listening to some vinyl even from across the room. I highly recommend.

I wanted to use these Sony CS5 M2s as front speaker replacements for my aging floor standing speakers that are too big for the smallish 10 ft by 12 ft listening room allotted to them by the powers that be (my wife). Initially, I just moved out the floor standers and moved in the Sony's mounted on speaker stands, did a little manual adjustment to the calibration in order to accommodate the audio characteric differences between the different speaker pairs and started listening to different music sources and music styles while toggling between stereo mode (front speakers only) and surround mode (5.1 system). In surround mode, each piece of music that I played sounded acceptable, but in stereo mode, that same music sounded rather empty although the speakers delivered high highs and good lows, they lacked punch/depth. After some research, I relocated the Sony's to be further away from sidewalls and backwall and that marginally improved their sound. Then, I realized that the Sony's are 6 Ohm speakers while all of the rest are 8 Ohm speakers and that required that I reconfigure my Denon AVR for 6 Ohm usage (in order to protect the AVR) and rerun the Audessy room correction calibration which I did. Afterwards, the 5.1 configuration sounded really sweet while the Sony's in stereo mode sounded a little better but still lacked depth overall. The Sony speakers look good and seem to be be well built. They are fairly light, so you really could place them on a bookshelf - just keep in mind that a being rear ported speaker means they need some clearance behind them - probably at least a foot or more. Sadly, I will not be using them in the manner that I had planned. Perhaps they will work better in a different listening situation or in a different room.