Pioneer FS51

TEST
Keeping up with Jones
Pioneer asked their high-end speaker designer to reduce
the price of his designs by 99%. Remarkably, he agreed.
Speaker package
each protected via a circular steel mesh grille. The crossovers (to all
the speakers) are simple but claim high-quality components with
tweaking and tuning by Jones. The centre speaker has the same
tweeter and two of the same mid/bass drivers, while the surrounds
have the tweeter and one smaller four-inch (10.1cm) driver.
The SW8 subwoofer has an eight-inch driver backed by
100W of power — though for a product promoting its high-end
aspirations, the specification sheet is poor indeed on providing
proper hi-fi figures, with no indication of how that 100W was
measured, no dB envelopes for the quoted frequency responses
(rendering them meaningless to quote here).
Performance
Pioneer FS51
speaker package
Price: $1299
T
he Japanese giant Pioneer has a
rich history in high quality sound.
Quite aside from the wealth of its
well-known audio-visual products
— nowadays, sadly, minus the benchmark
Kuro plasma displays — the company also
offers a growing range of loudspeaker products,
some of which aim remarkably high.
Captaining this push into esoteric territory
is respected engineer and designer Andrew
Jones, ex-KEF, now sharing his considerable
engineering talent between Pioneer and the
sister über-high-end speaker company TAD
(see CES News p23), where Jones has been
responsible for some of the most expensive
and highest-tech speakers in the world. Jones
has championed the point-source concept
as manifested by the concentric driver,
iteratively improving the idea over a number
of generations to culminate with the current
TAD beryllium technology (KEF uses its
version of the principle as Uni-Q technology).
So, has Pioneer trickled such high-end
dogma down to the FS-51 package?
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Equipment
They say it’s just as challenging, if not more
so, to design a good-sounding budget speaker
system, with all the carefully-balanced compromises, as it is to design a cost-no-object flagship
with freedom of creative expression. In the case
of Pioneer’s FS51 speaker package, Andrew
Jones and his design team faced the challenge
of producing a budget 5.1 speaker system with
appropriate performance to bear his signature
— which appears as a motif on all the packaging
and accompanying documentation here. The
price for such cachet? Just $1299 the lot.
For that, the FS51 provides small
floorstanders (80cm high) for the front
left and right channels, a foot-wide centrechannel speaker, two small two-way surround
bookshelf speakers, and the SW8 active
subwoofer, which is roughly a 35cm cube.
Impressively at this price, the speakers
feature nicely-curved cabinets and good
quality binding posts, while the floorstanders
include an equally well-executed plinth. You
can find the budget compromises in the large
plastic amplifier backing on the subwoofer and
in the relatively low-cost cabinetry (mostly
good-grade vinyl-wrapped chipboard rather
than the more expensive MDF/wood veneer).
But the driver count lifts things back up,
with 25mm soft-dome tweeters and triple
13cm woofers for the three-way floorstanders,
The use of similar drivers throughout (barring the subwoofer) has
paid dividends in terms of coherence and timbral consistency.
The overall sonic balance is smooth and extended, if a little thin
sounding when used without the sub. But then that’s not the
intended use of this system. Bring the sub in and you’ll be taken
aback by its bass power, depth and attack. Indeed the show was
almost stolen by the sub, which kicked butt considering it features
a fairly modest driver and amplifier. So ample was the deep stuff
that we ran the sub at a fairly low volume setting (giving us plenty
of headroom) and, in our small room, we were more than satisfied
with its output. The ‘collapsing building’ scene in Transformers:
Dark of the Moon is a tough test for any sub, but the Pioneer was
more than adequate, rumbling with deep and solid tremors that
rattled room furnishings. This scene features many elements
— oodles of sounds and details. The FS51 system was able to
resolve all the mayhem without harshness and with surprising
overall dynamic contrast.
The centre channel deciphered complex dialogue well, keeping
it clear and intelligible. We also found the small rubber feet-strips a
simple but very effective method of angling the centre to the listeners’
ears. This also helped homogenise the surround field, which was
large and tonally uniform, with well-focused spatial cues.
When playing music, the limitations of the speaker enclosures
were evident as a subtle coloration through the midrange. This
didn’t much diminish the enjoyment quotient, however, and
overall the performance in that frequency band displayed good
dynamics, lots of subtle detail and precise instrument separation.
Conclusion
The Pioneer FS-15 AV package represents one of the best valuefor-money 5.1 propositions we’ve heard. It performs extremely
capably, is generously featured, and the elite engineering team at
Pioneer can take a bow at achieving their goals in waving its collective wand on the drivers and crossovers here. Edgar Kramer
Verdict
Pioneer Electronics FS-51
speaker package
Price: $1299
• Good sound quality
• Appealing design
• Superb value-for-money
• S
ome box colorations
through mids
Warranty: One year
Contact: Pioneer Electronics
TEL: 1800 988 268
WEB: www.pioneer.com.au
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REVIEWED
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Phono Preamp
Usher Audio S-520
Bookshelf Speakers
Unison Research S6
Integrated Amplifier
D’Agostino Momentum
Monobloc Power Amps
B.M.C. BCCD1 & DAC1
CD Player & DAC/Pre
MK Sound SB1250
Subwoofer
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MK SOUND SB1250
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