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Thoughts on Pioneer speakers for this space?

J

Jason Hirsch

New Member
Hi Everyone, this is my first post here. Been lurking for a bit trying to glean what information I can. I'm trying to build a fairly inexpensive HiFi system for our family room and have some initial components selected already, mostly due to nostalgia and pricing. Curious what speakers make the most sense for my application.

(Below 3 components were part of my Dad's system from the 80s)

Receiver: Pioneer SA-950
Turntable: Pioneer PL-950
Equalizer: Pioneer SG-550

Wifi Streaming: TBD

Room Size: 13 ft 7 in wide, 22 ft 4 in long, 9 ft ceilings. We're going to setup some library/listening chairs in the open space shown, and would like to keep the stereo where my wife's all-in-one player (it was a gift) is currently shown.

Music listened to most often: Rock/Industrial but we listen to a bit of everything

Pioneer speakers I've looked into: Are these brief summaries pretty accurate?:

Pioneer DSS-9 - Look to be the bee's knees, but pricey, hard to find, and a pain to find replacement parts for

Pioneer S-910 - Not as shrill as HPM100s, Woofer cones more brittle than HPM100s and parts harder to find, box not as well made as HPM100s

Pioneer HPM-100 - Seem to be the easiest to find, most durable, too shrill/bright for some tastes

Pioneer HPM-150/1500 - Seem like an improvement all around upon the HPM100s, but pricier and harder to find. Overkill?

Pioneer HPM-900 - Later series HPMs closest to the HPM100s. Also have more delicate woofer material and replacement parts are harder to come by.

Pioneer CS-905 - These were the speakers that my dad had with his setup. If I can find them they'll probably be the least expensive option. They're extremely durable, I, unlike most people don't mind the looks (actually match the other 80s gear better than 70s stuff), I haven't actually seen detailed reviews on them other than 'Kabuki, garbage blah blah.' I think they sound good in person, but I'm by no means an expert of any kind.

I'm leaning towards the HPM-100s or CS-905s mostly due to price, accessibility, and ease of repair. What would you choose? Thanks!
 

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The only Pioneer speakers I have are the SP-FS52 model. These were the ones that are a result of Pioneer challenging famous speaker designer Andrew Jones to design them some decent speakers that they could sell for under $300 a pair. They initially went on sale around 2012 for $279/pair but by the time they went out of production (2018??) they were going on sale for $179/pair. My brother gave me this pair and I was pretty impressed with the sound. For low bass, they are best with a sub. I went back and read some old reviews and they were being compared to speakers costing two to three times as much. They are very clean and tight with excellent imaging. I have no idea what the used ones are going for but at $279 they were a great buy. My free pair, even better!
 
I have the HPM150's and they are certainly nice, but like you said , hard to find . And pricey .

I think they would fill your room up nicely.
 
I'm not too familiar with the SP-FS52s, I'll certainly have to look more into them. I'm probably shooting for around $500 max mark for speakers. Sounds like the SP-FS52s would do well accompanied by a woofer from what I've read so far. The price seems really good for what you get though. The HPM150 would be really nice but I doubt I'm going to find them in that price range. How do the SP-FS52s stack up to HPM-100s?
 
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Jason Hirsch said:
I'm not too familiar with the SP-FS52s, I'll certainly have to look more into them. I'm probably shooting for around $500 max mark for speakers. Sounds like the SP-FS52s would do well accompanied by a woofer from what I've read so far. The price seems really good for what you get though. The HPM150 would be really nice but I doubt I'm going to find them in that price range. How do the SP-FS52s stack up to HPM-100s?
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I've never listened to the HPM-100s or the HPM-150s but if you have a chance to compare them, I'd be curious to know.
 
I ended up getting the S-910s and I've been quite pleased with them! First time putting everything together, and I've been addressing some issues as they've come up. The first time I tried out the system I noticed that the left channel kept going out and that there was speaker static on the same channel. After cleaning contacts on the Equalizer and Amp well with deoxit the problem appears to have gone away. I also glued closed some cracks on the delicate woofer cones. Next troubleshooting item is getting the turntable up and working. I have a PL-950, and the quartz drive motor doesn't spin for some reason. I manually cycled the system but that didn't seem to help. I haven't had much luck finding a service manual for it, so I may just have to open it up to see if I notice anything obvious. Once that's working next steps are a nice stereo cabinet/record storage and a streaming setup.
 

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