Review of Pioneer's "H" Series 253 budget loudspeaker

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by Taurus, Oct 18, 2004.

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  1. Taurus

    Taurus Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Houston, Texas
    After buying the Pet Sounds dvd-audio, I had to face sonic reality and buy some new speakers for the rear channels of my system. More and more of the dvd-audios I've bought lately (and I think some movies too) feature full-range bass in the surround channels and my faithful little Radio Shack aluminum Minimus speakers with 5" woofers just couldn't keep up anymore. And those Infinity SL30 bookshelfs I've been using lately were actually just loaners while a buddy was on a temporary job out of the state.

    Here are the 253s on Circuit City's website. The 3-D viewer gizmo gives a much more accurate shot of the speaker than that distorted photo nearby.

    And facing a certain economic reality, I finally bought a pair of Pioneer’s "H" series 253 loudspeakers with an 8" woofer from Circuit City which were on sale so I got them for only $97 with tax. My similar-sized Boston Acoustics CR9s they are paired with cost $458 back in 1998. Right now I just can't afford the $1500+ to buy a decent-quality matching set of 5.0 speakers (I'll buy the sub separately), so I had to make a compromise. But the center channel speaker will be at least as good as my Boston CR9 front mains though. I had heard the 253s before and thought they sounded pretty decent, with no obvious problems. I have always liked the sound of Pioneer speakers & since they build their own drivers, this helps keep the cost down but quality high. Though if you pick up the speaker you can tell where they probably saved a chunk of money: these speakers are light, weighing only 16lbs each (IIRC the cabinets make up @60% of a speaker's price). And spring-clip connectors are used instead of binding posts.

    After placing them in their final positions as full-range surround channels (with all my receiver's channels set to "large" as most surround mixers advise doing) the difference between these and the Minimus models was INSTANTLY obvious: now I finally had a nearly-seamless sound field around me. And all those low-frequency sounds back there now were reproduced much, much better & when needed, blended properly with similar sounds emanating from the front mains which is very important in any type of surround system. I don't usually talk this way very much, but after using the small Minimus satellites for more than two years, my entire surround system sounds completely different and in a totally positive way.

    I used the 253s for three days as my front mains to see how they stacked up--here's what I found:

    Tweeter looks like it's based on one of those ubiquitous polycarbonate designs that have been around for years but this one uses a totally different dome material. Whatever, it sounds fine to me though it has a slightly "zingy" quality compared to the fabric domes in the CR9s. The fact that the Pioneer's dome is set into a shallow horn might account for this.

    The midrange driver is active, but I think they only used one for marketing purposes.

    Bass quality is similar to my CR9s but didn't audibly reach as low (the 253s are rated to 45Hz but there's no mention any type of +/- XdB scale to clarify this; the CR9s are rated to 42Hz +/-3dB) and lacked some definition. But that's relative because they still sounded decently full & rich anyway. Nerdy observation: their smallish bass port could literally launch puffs of air detectable from almost six feet away at high volume levels. If they used a larger diameter port to reduce this potentially detrimental effect, the tuning tube behind it would have to be longer > more $$$. But I couldn't detect any port chuffing noises so this wasn't a problem. Its woofer bottomed a little earlier than my CR9s when the princess' ship flew overhead at the beginning of Attack Of The Clones. Same thing with the table scratching effects on "Three MCs and One DJ" on Hello Nasty. But this was at about @75% of my receiver's full volume so.......

    Woofer looks like it has good excursion capabilities. It uses a rubber surround, rare at this price level, and a nice looking satin-silver polypropylene cone. Otherwise the bass sounded smooth, and only a tiny trace of boominess was evident & only with certain sounds.

    Final thoughts: unless you (physically) picked them up, in my opinion this speaker could easily be priced at $250 per pair & no one would know the difference. Overall they have a full, pleasant & slightly bright sound. They do have a slightly coarser character in comparison to the CR9s but nothing irritating. The only thing I really noticed that was lacking was imaging ability: instrument and vocal placement was a little unfocused. For example, unlike with my CR9s, with the 253's voices were spread across my monitor's screen rather than emanating directly from the center of it. But I think this aspect of speaker design is one of the most difficult to accomplish well, especially at this price level (lots of listening/testing is required with various crossover settings & designs, driver placement, etc).

    Lastly, styling: the photos on the various websites look lousy because the grill fabric on this speaker has a semi-shiny sheen to it, so I guess the photographer’s lighting must be reacting adversely to it. Anyway, the cleanly designed & simple black enclosures won't win any design awards but have a quiet attractiveness to them anyway. They even look nice with their grills off.

    So, I think three pairs of the 253s mounted on stands for a budget and fully-matched :thumbsup: 6.1 system would be a cool thing in a bachelor pad. "Oh my, you own so many speakers! What college did you go to?" :cool:
     
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