Pioneer SP-BS22-LR Bookshelf Speaker Review

[jaykay77]

Loving the comments...especially those who still swear by these Andrew Jones marketing marvels.

Y’all should check the $99 edifier on amazon and trust me you’ll be impressed if you think these pioneers sound good.

 

[napilopez]

Loving the comments...especially those who still swear by these Andrew Jones marketing marvels.

Y’all should check the $99 edifier on amazon and trust me you’ll be impressed if you think these pioneers sound good.

You can say you didn't like them, that's fine, but you can't argue that standout measurements for the price are "marketing."

Clearly they have some limitations that probably made some people dislike them - bass is probably limited in output and quality. Heck, maybe they have some fatal flaw not in the spinorama. But they are clearly well-designed speakers.

 

[aarons915]

Cross these over at 100Hz and smooth out the peaks at 1k and about 2.4K with some EQ and I bet these would sound pretty good, especially for the price.

 

[confucius_zero]

the $99 edifier

link?

 

[jaykay77]

link?

Edifier R1280T Powered Bookshelf Speakers - 2.0 Active Near Field Monitors - Studio Monitor Speaker - Wooden Enclosure - 42 Watts RMS https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016P9HJIA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_iKEpEbS2DJGG2

 

[jaykay77]

You can say you didn't like them, that's fine, but you can't argue that standout measurements for the price are "marketing."

Clearly they have some limitations that probably made some people dislike them - bass is probably limited in output and quality. Heck, maybe they have some fatal flaw not in the spinorama. But they are clearly well-designed speakers.

I rate the things I purchase based on how they sound to me. I’m 43, have had so much gear in and out of my rooms. Some stuff measures well, some of my faves measure just ok...the pioneers were such a huge disappointment to me.

 

[tmtomh]

If we discount the comments that use meaningless editorial descriptions - "fart," "horror," "marketing," "groupthink" etc - and comments that are overly general - "never liked them," "unimpressed" - what we're left with is comments saying that these speakers are unable to produce deep, clean bass, particularly at higher volume levels. That is no doubt true - and consistent with my own experience as well - but hardly a condemnation of these speakers given their size and price point.

I have a pair of these, which I picked up 4-5 years ago, when they were on sale for $60/pair. They're not currently in service, but I used them for quite some time in my secondary system, where they did triple duty as TV-watching speakers, speakers for watching music videos on YouTube and such (through my TV), and background/first-floor music while entertaining or cooking in my old house, which was a small space. For those functions I thought they were a stupendous value, and I was shocked at the quality of the midrange for the money, and even moreso at how good their L-R stereo imaging was.

But no, they never triggered the physiological/emotional pleasure that a higher-end speaker with better, tighter bass reproduction does. And they never produced the soundstage depth, transient snap, or perception of "clean" super-clear mid-treble that my main speakers do. Nor did I ever expect they would, since my main speakers cost me $700/pair used and originally retailed for $1500/pair.

So I'm firmly with the surprisingly small minority of folks in this thread who are positive about these speakers. I don't deny the negative comments (well, at least not the sensible ones), but I still think they're excellent for their price point.

I also find it interesting that most of the comparisons described here are either much more expensive speakers, or else similar-priced speakers. I'd be curious to know what folks think about these Pioneers vs, say, PSB Alpha 1b's which sell for about $300-$350. I don't have measurements at hand, but FWIW subjectively I think the PSBs and many other speakers in their price range underperform for the price and I don't know that I'd take them over the Pioneers even at the same price, which IMHO speaks well of the Pioneers.

 

[amirm]

@amirm what is the next speaker on the queue?

Second sample of Neumann kh 80 dsp.

 

[hardisj]

Here are the horizontal and vertical spectrograms from -90 to +90 degrees.

 

[MZKM]

Second sample of Neumann kh 80 dsp.

To confirm their production deviation claims as well as complaints of bass compression due to too high of a tested SPL?

 

[Prana Ferox]

If we discount the comments that use meaningless editorial descriptions - "fart," "horror," "marketing," "groupthink" etc -

"Fart" or "fart out" is a technical term, though. It's the sound of the woofer unloading below the port tuning frequency.

 

[BYRTT]

Cross these over at 100Hz and smooth out the peaks at 1k and about 2.4K with some EQ and I bet these would sound pretty good, especially for the price.

Cant tell anything about the sound but a EQ prediction for amirms sample looks pretty good for that price range, filter is graphed below and yes know its high Q and way into non recommended HF region but in its based pretty good numbers of 36 hor and 36 ver steps in anechoic enviroment it should be a close to pure transducer dedicated correction, listening axis called reference angle in plot is offset 10deg, polars are not normalized so they represent that 10deg offset and can say after EQ filter correction polar stays pretty much the same in a hor 30deg window (-10 to+10deg) also polar there below is now pretty close to speakers signature from a normalized polar, stopbands on axis are rolled of 4th order @68Hz and 2nd order @20kHz.

 

[SmackDaddies]

If we discount the comments that use meaningless editorial descriptions - "fart," "horror," "marketing," "groupthink" etc - and comments that are overly general - "never liked them," "unimpressed" - what we're left with is comments saying that these speakers are unable to produce deep, clean bass, particularly at higher volume levels. That is no doubt true - and consistent with my own experience as well - but hardly a condemnation of these speakers given their size and price point.

I have a pair of these, which I picked up 4-5 years ago, when they were on sale for $60/pair. They're not currently in service, but I used them for quite some time in my secondary system, where they did triple duty as TV-watching speakers, speakers for watching music videos on YouTube and such (through my TV), and background/first-floor music while entertaining or cooking in my old house, which was a small space. For those functions I thought they were a stupendous value, and I was shocked at the quality of the midrange for the money, and even moreso at how good their L-R stereo imaging was.

But no, they never triggered the physiological/emotional pleasure that a higher-end speaker with better, tighter bass reproduction does. And they never produced the soundstage depth, transient snap, or perception of "clean" super-clear mid-treble that my main speakers do. Nor did I ever expect they would, since my main speakers cost me $700/pair used and originally retailed for $1500/pair.

So I'm firmly with the surprisingly small minority of folks in this thread who are positive about these speakers. I don't deny the negative comments (well, at least not the sensible ones), but I still think they're excellent for their price point.

I also find it interesting that most of the comparisons described here are either much more expensive speakers, or else similar-priced speakers. I'd be curious to know what folks think about these Pioneers vs, say, PSB Alpha 1b's which sell for about $300-$350. I don't have measurements at hand, but FWIW subjectively I think the PSBs and many other speakers in their price range underperform for the price and I don't know that I'd take them over the Pioneers even at the same price, which IMHO speaks well of the Pioneers.

Well said

 

[dshreter]

I’m of the belief that everything important to a speaker’s performance is measurable, but that we aren’t necessarily measuring everything important.

Looking at the preference ratings, these should sound better than KEF LS50s and Harbeth Monitor 30s when used with a subwoofer. I can’t categorically rule it out, but it’s certainly surprising.

Once there’s a bigger body of measured speakers, it will create a fantastic basis for choosing speakers for a blind testing shootout.

 

[Sgt. Ear Ache]

I'm really interested in a blind test shoot-out. I think the results could be quite surprising. I think however that in doing the blind test, time should be spent setting each speaker up in such a way that it "puts its best foot forward." The speakers should be positioned and EQ'd/tuned such that they are putting out as close to a neutral signature as possible (within reason of course.)

 

[digicidal]

My first post here! I would definitely recommend the Polk RTI A1 when on sale. Sometimes they drop to the $129 - $189 range. Way better build and sound in my opinion. There are also many online reviews to read and they have been around forever.

I have a pair of these I bought when they first came out. I agree on both counts, the cabinets alone look like they'd cost more than the retail price (especially on sale). In fact, that initially turned me off to them as when I saw them I was sure they couldn't have spent more than $1 total on everything else inside the box. To be fair to the BS22's however, the difference between the low frequency drivers is significant... as is the dual porting which let's them reach even a bit further.

The RTI A1's are also quite bright on axis, more than the BS22's by a bit... but much more civilized toed out decently. I would expect them to rate poorer than I subjectively think they sound on the Olive scale however, as they do seem pretty directional and not nearly as well behaved vertically as they are horizontally speaking.

SoundStage has measurements.

I thought they were fantastic as office speakers - until I upgraded to the LSiM703's when they went on sale for $500/pr... (also SS measured) However that's immaterial in this context, as they're not even in the same demographic, being a much larger, more expensive, 3-way design. They also have amazing cabinets for the cost BTW. Both are really only comparable to the Pioneers in that they were all available at big box stores as well as direct from the manufacturer (and likely in the massive quantities produced).

 

[HorizonsEdge]

I have the BS22's ($69 new). I ended up using them as surrounds along with HTD L2 r/l/c and a Dayton sub-1500. Almost anything will work decently as a HT surround BUT I find that when I listen to music in the multi-channel stereo setting (x1500h) the BS22's really shine in a complementary fashion (completely subjective).

I have the Sony SCCS5's($78 new) as my computer desktop system (Sony190+sub1000). I listen to music and play games. Never going very loud. Good in the role. Looking forward to seeing their test results eventually. I think its great that you are collecting this data so people have another resource in their decision making process. While I generally accept the advice of others, I really like metrics (even imperfect ones).

 

[maty]

If the Pioneer were mine I would try to improve them by spending the least. The frequency response would modify it as I did with the coaxials: minimum phase PEQ + rePhase -> convolution filter. Few filters and with high Q of course!

* https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...inimum-phase-vs-linear-phase.8762/post-253826

* https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...phase-vs-linear-phase.8762/page-7#post-225351

I would open the box and add cheap dampening material.

Spend more on them does not seem logical, to listen to good recordings (music) with DR > 10 dB.

 

[maty]

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=butyl+rubber&ref=nb_sb_noss

-> https://www.amazon.com/Patch-Shield...?keywords=butyl+rubber&qid=1581247810&sr=8-10 - $12.88

-> https://www.amazon.com/Neoprene-She...?keywords=butyl+rubber&qid=1581247810&sr=8-37 - $17.60

Or thick vinyl floor or two layers. Or...

 

[maty]

Finally, as I suppose they are placed on a table or bookcase, it would be convenient to increase the acoustic insulation with respect to the furniture. Incidentally, tilt them slightly up so that the tweeter points better to our ears, if we listen in the near field as I suppose.