# Official Pioneer Speaker Thread



## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

*Official Pioneer Speaker Owners Thread*

Yes they do make speakers, I looked and didnt see one yet for Pioneers owners.

My current speakers,

SP-FS51-LR Floor Standing Speakers 
SP-BS21-LR Bookshelf Speakers
SP-C21 Center Channel Speaker

All running through a VSX-816k Receiver.


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

Pioneer does make great speakers, but they lack anything in that $800 to $3000 range that i'm aware of, or at least anything designed by Andrew Jones.

The bottom end stuff is fantastic. Smart design choices like a directivity control waveguide and surprisingly good drivers in terms of power compression. I'm thinking of picking up a pair of FS51s myself just because they represent a great deal.

The high end stuff, the Pioneer EX line, is also just great. Again use of directivity control via waveguides on the magnesium coaxial cones, drivers with _very_ good power handling and low distortion. 

The Ultra-high end stuff, the TAD Compact Reference and TAD Reference, are probably my dream speakers. Dual 10" drivers mated to a 6.5" Magnesium coaxial, with a beryllium tweeter :spend: :yikes:


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

GranteedEV said:


> The Ultra-high end stuff, the TAD Compact Reference and TAD Reference, are probably my dream speakers. Dual 10" drivers mated to a 6.5" Magnesium coaxial, with a beryllium tweeter :spend: :yikes:


Nuff Said:clap:


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

I actually got to speak with Mr. Jones about his entry into entry level and he said that was very proud of them. They presented him with a unique challenge in making a quality speaker at an affordable price. Thats manufacturing price and retail price. Dudes an amazing engineer to be able to squeeze performance like that into such a low price. To really get them to sing they need power. 

It's unfortunate that most people will overlook them because of their lower sensitivity they don't A/B as well without changing the volume of the receiver.


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## Jungle Jack (Jul 28, 2009)

Wonderful idea. I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular Thread.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

GranteedEV said:


> I'm thinking of picking up a pair of FS51s myself just because they represent a great deal.


I just hooked up my FS51s today and got to listen to a little Stevie Ray Vaughan & Eric Clapton it was beautiful:wow:


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## Kriszilla (Jan 1, 2012)

4 weeks previous, I picked up the FS51's, the C21 center, and the BS21 rears as part of the $284 Best Buy package. Two weeks ago, I was lucky enough to pick up two pairs of the BS41's when Woot had them for $89/pr. I may eventually move the 21's to my PC and use them there, then use the extra pair of 41's to jump to 7.1 from 5.1 surround.

I spent months researching speakers. I listened to Polk monitor 70's, the low end Infinity's, Klipsch Reference, some Jamo's, and lower end Energy (50's). My initial budget was $1K - $1.2K for the speakers, not including my sub. 

I never even had the Pioneers on my radar until I kept seeing threads pop up on another forum with how impressed people were with them. I'd heard of Andrew Jones before, and have a buddy that has a 2.1 Kef setup I really love. Since the Pioneers could be bought local, I picked up the package from Best Buy to do an in-home audition.

I hooked them up to my Pioneer VSX-1121, put the FS51's about 2 feet off to each side of my TV toed in a smidge, ran MCACC, then I tested them with the gamut. 

For music I hit them with everything from Tori Amos to Slipknot, Sinatra to Public Enemy, and Miles Davis to Five Finger Death Punch. Yeah, I've got eclectic taste. The low end on them is amazingly tight with great presence. I love that the upper end isn't harsh or fatiguing. I can leave them running for hours while working though the house. The upper mid-range is a little "hollower" than I personally like, but thanks to MCACC I was able to tune it in a little better for what I prefer.

For movies, I'm just flat out impressed. Everything I've thrown at it I've loved.

They're not the most efficient speakers at all, but when you're running all Pioneers and they're all timbre-matched, you just don't notice the little extra bump in power you have to give them to get them at the same output as some other brands.

Best. Money. Ever. Spent.  Oh, and as the owner of a cat and a 4 year old, I love the metal grills. My wife loves the way they look, too.

Now I just need the low-end to round it out. For now, I think I'm just going to go with dual BIC F12's. We're buying a house next year with a basement, and I plan on building a pair of DIY subs, with each box holding dual opposed Dayton DVC 15's running off of a Behringer EP2000 with a MiniDSP handling the crossover & EQ'ing.


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## GranteedEV (Aug 8, 2010)

Stereophile reviewed the Compact Reference

http://www.stereophile.com/content/tad-compact-reference-cr1-loudspeaker-specifications

:spend:


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## bhazard (May 1, 2008)

I absolutely love these speakers.

I bought the 51's and 41's and replaced my surrounds with them. They are an incredible value for the price.

I like them so much, I'm replacing my Acoustech Towers with them. Even though the Acoustechs are more powerful and have 8" woofers, they were never that great for music. These Pioneers sound great with both music and movies.

The newegg price is a steal. I hope they get the 51's back in, and I hope they add the center channel and -41s as well.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

Jungle Jack said:


> Wonderful idea. I have a feeling this is going to be a very popular Thread.


Hi Jack...
Unfortunately it appears this thread fell by the wayside which makes me sad but I'm hoping now that almost two years have past more members / owners will have had time to experience these jewels and be willing to post. 

I'm going to try to restart this thread :help:

Before these speakers came to market I was wanting to get the SVS SBS-01 5.1 system back in 2008 (You can see my very first post *here* at HTS) but that never happened due to one reason or another. Then in mid 2011 I started hearing about these Pioneer speakers and how good they where for the cost. It was then that I made up my mind I was going to save my pennies up to get the SP-PK51FS system.

By early 2012 I had myself the complete SP-PK51FS system minus the sub. I really wanted a sub made by SVS but settled for a Bic F12 due to my poor saving skillz :rant:. I believe I made a good choice going with the Bic instead of the Pio sub and the 1st movie that I watched which really got my attention was War Horse, when the horse calvary raced across the open field it nearly :hsd: . 

Today I'm thankful to say in May I acquired 1/2 of my dream from 2008, I won the SB13-Ultra sub from SVS here in the HTShack giveaway. To whoever owns or is planning to buy these Pioneer speakers made by Andrew Jones, you really owe it to yourself and these speakers to get the best sub you can afford. My Pioneer SP-PK51FS speakers took a huge leap in SQ after they got to play with a real sub. Don't worry about them not being able to keep up or match the Q of a good sub either because that is just not the case, a good sub will make these low cost speakers sing and then if you ever decide to upgrade to better speakers you'll already have a good sub!

Ok, I'm done for now and look forward to hearing from others about their experiences with Pioneer speakers or answer any questions others may have.


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## Kriszilla (Jan 1, 2012)

I still have my set of Pioneer's and they still sound fantastic. I have absolutely no desire to change anything right now until I move into my new house in November. Sadly, the Pioneers won't work with my living room layout so I'll relegate them to my office. I'm running two of the BIC F12's with it.

I kept the BS41's on my computer and added the C21 center and a BIC F12 sub to it as well. Love it!


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

Kriszilla said:


> I still have my set of Pioneer's and they still sound fantastic.


:wave: Kriszilla,
Thanks for stopping by last night and it's amazing how good these speakers really are for the price they can be found for. I love mine too and as you stated above, I have no need or desire to upgrade to more expensive speakers now or in the foreseeable future and as a grandpa of a 2 year old monkey (my grandson is just like his father), 2 cats in the house those metal grillz let me sleep easy.

Am I reading correctly, you have 3 Bic F12's in the house and where are you setting the XO? I was running a 80 Hz XO for a year with my Bic F12 but have since went to 100 Hz after integrating a much better sub into my system, finding the dialog sounds better with the higher XO - less bloated and more natural.

Also best of luck with the move in November!


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## afterlife2 (Jan 23, 2013)

Anybody ever try to remove the grills on the Pioneer SP-FS51-LR or bookshelfs?


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

afterlife2 said:


> Anybody ever try to remove the grills on the Pioneer SP-FS51-LR or bookshelfs?


Hi there Afterlife,
I haven't tried or had the need to remove the grills but read it is possible with a small hook tool and patience. If I can find the post I'll send you a PM with the link.


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## pddufrene (Mar 14, 2013)

I bought the Pioneer SP-FS52, along with the bookshelfs and center, and really enjoy listening to them. The play very well with my PSA XV15, they make a really good match.


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## arkiedan (Oct 20, 2013)

I bought a pair of SP-BS21-LR Pioneers just for grins and was wildly impressed by them. I switched them back and forth with my Ascend Sierras (on the same stands) and they held their own bravely. If I had to put a figure on it I'd say they were easily within 90% of the Sierras. It was very hard to find a fault and, in fact, I never did.

They now reside in my bedroom, for use with my little 32" HDTV. I just couldn't send them back.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

pddufrene said:


> I bought the Pioneer SP-FS52, along with the bookshelfs and center, and really enjoy listening to them. The play very well with my PSA XV15, they make a really good match.


Thanks for posting pddufrene, 
I do believe matching these speakers with a good sub is the #1 best thing owners can do to really get the most out of them. 
Where are you setting the crossover, is it set globally or for each speaker?


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## FJR (Jul 5, 2012)

Anyone heard the SP-BS22-LR, $129/pr bookshelfs? Sound like a great entry level to help populate this hobby.


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## pddufrene (Mar 14, 2013)

hyghwayman said:


> Thanks for posting pddufrene,
> I do believe matching these speakers with a good sub is the #1 best thing owners can do to really get the most out of them.
> Where are you setting the crossover, is it set globally or for each speaker?


I have the crossover set at 110, reason being that the sub is very capable and does a good job of giving my receiver a break. The speakers are totally capable of taking the load at 80 Hz and below but I just chose to let the sub handle it. And they are all set to the same crossover settings.


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## pddufrene (Mar 14, 2013)

FJR said:


> Anyone heard the SP-BS22-LR, $129/pr bookshelfs? Sound like a great entry level to help populate this hobby.


And the bookshelves play very well I use those for my surround speakers, and when I listen to music I set my receiver to 5.1 where it plays the music through all speakers and they hang just fine with the towers and center.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

pddufrene said:


> I have the crossover set at 110, reason being that the sub is very capable and does a good job of giving my receiver a break. The speakers are totally capable of taking the load at 80 Hz and below but I just chose to let the sub handle it. And they are all set to the same crossover settings.


I had been using a 80 Hz XO setting but changed it to 100 Hz and found the change improved the overall sound of my system along with the dialog coming from the center channel, sounding cleaner (less nasal / bloated).


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## pddufrene (Mar 14, 2013)

hyghwayman said:


> I had been using a 80 Hz XO setting but changed it to 100 Hz and found the change improved the overall sound of my system along with the dialog coming from the center channel, sounding cleaner (less nasal / bloated).


I totally agree, I found that the receiver was able to provide better wattage and cleaner sound just by adjusting the crossover point. I also been doing some fine tuning on the channels to try and improve sound even more. I'm thinking about trying REW to attempt to get the best I can out of my system, but it sounds some what complicated.


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## hyghwayman (Jan 15, 2008)

pddufrene said:


> I totally agree, I found that the receiver was able to provide better wattage and cleaner sound just by adjusting the crossover point. I also been doing some fine tuning on the channels to try and improve sound even more. I'm thinking about trying REW to attempt to get the best I can out of my system, but it sounds some what complicated.


Ya REW is something I'd like to do someday but keep coming to the same complicated conclusion and to that the findings may tell me things about my room/speakers I don't wanna know  - the old saying "ignorance is bliss"


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## kingnoob (Mar 12, 2013)

If only Andrew Jones would build a Flagship series of Pioneers :bigsmile: Like some type of Pioneer Elite speakers.

I am considering buying the Current entry level Pioneers next time I see the price drop a lot on towers.


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## rab-byte (Feb 1, 2011)

kingnoob said:


> If only Andrew Jones would build a Flagship series of Pioneers :bigsmile: Like some type of Pioneer Elite speakers. I am considering buying the Current entry level Pioneers next time I see the price drop a lot on towers.


That would be the EX line


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## FJR (Jul 5, 2012)

TAD is not flagship enough?


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