Sony SS-MF750H 3-Way, 4-Driver Floor-Standing Speakers

Rating:
Summary: clean, flat response & deep, tight bass
Review: After reading all of the excellent reviews about these speakers on other sites, I bought a pair to replace my beloved Advent Baby 8s, and update my home theatre system. I also purchased the Sony SS-CN550H center channel speaker, and SS-MB150H surrounds, which together I must say makes quite an impressive sonically (is that even a word?) matched 7 speaker system for about 400 dollars. Can you say, WOW!

These towers are tall, but narrow, which is one of the reasons I chose them over the other Sony tower models, all of which had excellent reviews. They are tall enough that the tweeter is right about at ear level when seated. I also considered the Sony SS-MB350H bookshelf speakers, which for under 100 dollars a pair use the same drivers minus one woofer and mounted in an acoustic suspension cabinet rather than the dual woofer bass reflex enclosure of these speakers. I have a certain place in my heart for acoustic suspension design, and I liked the way those bookshelfs sounded, but I would have had to purchase stands to go with them. For less than the price of the pair of bookshelfs and decent stands, I chose these towers with dual 8" woofers. There are other Sony tower models inbetween these two, one with a single 8" woofer, and another with dual 6 1/2" woofers, but the price difference between them isn't that much considering. Also, those towers are much shorter and the tweeters aren't high enough to ear level for my taste.

Anyway, I wasn't expecting much from a pair of 200 dollar towers; however, I was pleasantly surprised at how crisp and clean they sound. The stereo imaging and sound stage of these is excellent, and they sound oh so good when combined with the matched Sony SS-CN550H center channel in Dolby movie mode. If you don't have a matched front soundstage, you are really missing out; sounds move seamlessly from one side of the screen to the other without the slightest change in timbre.

Acoustically, these speakers sound flat throughout most of their advertised range 35HZ-50KHZ (at least through the part of the range that I could physically hear), with only a slightly noticeable increase in the mid-bass frequencies. This could be due to the crossover design at the point between the midrange and woofer, not being steep enough, but I'm only guessing. In case you are wondering, I tested them using a test CD with a slow sweep 20HZ-20KHZ tone, and they didn't balk at all while playing the 20HZ tone fairly loud. Even though I couldn't physically hear that low, I could feel the pressure in my ears, and these babies just belted out clean and unfazed. I was impressesed!

In the upper frequencies they sounded good and didn't roll off at the top end like some cheaper speakers, probably due to the extended range tweeter; Although they did sound a little brighter than I'm used to, not bad or harsh, just different. If you like a warmer sound like Bose, you might be dissapointed at first. But, at 200 dollars a pair compared to the cost of Bose, I'm already way over it.

One last thing, these seakers are pretty efficient (90dB@1watt/meter), and will play LOUD without much power, even though they are rated to accept up to 200Watts continuously. They are so much more efficient than the center channel speaker that I had to adjust the center volume up a few dB to compensate for being drowned out by these. This is not a big deal.

In the end, I don't think you can buy a more accurate sounding speaker for what these costs. Sure, you can get a better speaker if you are willing to spend a lot more, but if you appreciate quality and value then you won't be dissapointed. Spend the extra cash on a quality receiver like Onkyo, Denon, or Harman Kardon.