Sony Hi-Res Audio Speaker Systems

The photos are wrong.
The photos of the larger SSHA1 4 speaker 3 way. These SSHA3s are 3 speaker 2 way.

To echo the previous poster, I think the pictures are wrong.

Thanks, guys. I sent a note to the team.

UPDATE: Pics have been updated.

So what if I made my purchase based on the original pictures? Can I modify my order?

Please send CS an email; they can check into your order and options.

The SSHA1 speakers that we got some time back on woot! are such a pair of enjoyable, fun speakers. Clarity is definitely there, especially when you play high resolution/less compressed music through very good DAC (may cost 10 times as much as the speakers or even more) and good amp (may cost again 10 times as much as the speakers or even more) plus interconnects (again may cost 10 times as much as the speakers). The quality is evident even when hearing streamed music from Spotify Premium and TIDAL (now my main go to source of music). Even when in synergy with such system, the 99 bucks a pair clearance sale SSHA1 still can hold its candle. Compared to Pioneer BS22, the Sony provides more stable imaging, deeper bass extension, tighter bass as well as better top end frequency extension. For the price, it’s probably the best 99 bucks speakers that we could buy brand new.

Same things maybe said about the SSHA3 but a brief comparison with SSHA1 on home trial with the same accompanying system told me otherwise. SSHA3 didn’t really provide similar low and high frequency control and extension. It’s really a scaled down version of SSHA1 and could sound congested at times especially during louder passages. However, adjust the volume slightly lower and you will get similar sounding system actually (less the bass extension of the bigger SSHA1).

If you are planning to use 3 pairs of these for a 6 channels systems (plus one subwoofer), I bet you will have quite a lot of fun. This is especially true when clarity on a budget is your utmost importance. If you are building a system that costs under 1000 bucks inclusive receiver, speaker stands and wiring, the Sony speakers will get my vote.

Bring back the silver ssha1 set
By far the best under $250 and perhaps a bit more. At the $99 a no BRAINER. And definitely only play lossless (Vs. Lossy mp3 or apples non alac junk compression) if you can help it.

Would these work well as 5.1 bookshelf speakers, or are these especially designed as computer speakers?

Sony calls them bookshelf speakers.

You will need an amplifier/integrated amplifier/receiver to drive these speakers. Basically these are a pair of passive bookshelf speakers.

While Sony does call them bookshelves, it appears that they are especially designed to play digital music from compressed audio files through a Hi-Res amplifier.

Because they seem specially engineered for a particular purpose, I wonder if I were to use them as 5.1 bookshelves in my home AV rig–a rig that is used primarily for video, not necessarily audio–whether they might not perform particularly well.

On the contrary, any well designed speakers should be able to reproduce well the materials given, be it music, movie soundtracks and dialogue. In fact, as my personal experience has suggested with the bigger SSHA1, these could very well the best budget passive speakers that you could buy brand new today.

Thanks!

I wasn’t aware that you would need an amp to play these. Does anybody have any recommendations for a very basic amp? It will literally just be playing music from our record player, so just need something inexpensive that works.