Stylish appearance

Cheap sounding

I've been an audiophile for over 20 years and should have known better. In order to save money, I wanted a relatively inexpensive set of speakers for a "second" stereo system in my home. These sounded "adequate" at a Best Buy store, so I plunked down the $259. Took them home and listened to them for an hour or so. I couldn't stand it any longer. The ported bass sounded like a cheap pipe organ, the mids were boxy, and the highs were compressed. I returned them the next day. As the old cliche goes, "You get what you pay for". For those of you who are inexperienced with loudspeakers, I recommend that you delay gratification a little longer, put back a little more money, and buy a higher quality loudspeaker system that you can live with as your own experience and tastes evolve. You will be glad that you did. I rated these 2 stars instead of 1 because there are indeed even worse sounding speakers out there in low-price mass-market stores like Wal-Mart, etc.

After i performed the mod, voices are soo much clearer and easier to understand. Relatively inexpensive

Had to buy a new crossover.

Well i threw down few hundred dollars last year on these speakers cause i thought they would do for a home theatre. They did quite well since they weren't doing any voices, my jbl studio center did them. Now here was the noticeable problem. If you listen to music it would sound fine if you left it in dolby, however once ya put it on normal stereo and the voices started going through the sonys, the voices were way too muddled, midrange just sucked and bass was a little overbearing. However recently i was able to do the mod that is described below and woa it made a huge difference. Music is soo much clearer. I can actually enjoy listening to music on these. Bass is much tighter and more well defined. Midrange is much crisper and smoother and the highs are just way better. These sound like completely different and more expensive speakers. I also replaced some of the wiring inside the speakers. Open them up and you see tiny 22gauge. I was like wtf. So i replaced most of it with 16gauge. This also helped to make it sound a whole lot better. Toughest part on the install of the new crossover is figuring out how to mount it. I mounted it to a 1/4" thick plywood board and spaced it off with a nut and then liquid nailed that to the inside of the cabnet right under the back plastic input panel. This seemed to work great for me. I didn't have to drill into the box and the crossovers are still strongly mounted to the box. And if you ever want to remove them just take a big screwdriver and pry the board off.

Similar Products Used:

speaker from infinity,polk,nht,klipsch, etc..

nice looks,good base

midrange is alittle weak

i thought i had good pair of speakers.....but i read some if not all of these reviews and decided to try them. I have a pair of sony sav-u571, its a tower that goes to a rack system. Its got a 12" woofer 4" mid ,cheap tweeter. These were what i thought great speakers, i got them at the sony outlet center in lake elsinore for 129.99. Now i think i see the diff between the two. The 515 rocks over the 571 bad at high volume. If your thinking that you need a big woofer for the big sound ....WRONG. This speaker produces very good bass for the size. One thing iv learned though, USE MONSTER CABLE AND GOLD TIPS ON YOUR SONYS...all off them. These are great speakers for the price, but with the larger wire and tips you will notice a big.big diff.

Bye the way cant wait to do the mod...just a little chicken right now there days old and i dont want to use the knife on them yet.

My system: teac reciver 400watts all around 120 a side
speakers: sony 490 surround and center
sub: sony sa-wm40
dvd: sony dvp-660( why are sony dvds so loud)
cable: monster(16g)
tips: gold (radio shack mega cable)

Similar Products Used:

sonysav-u571

Will explain in review

When speaker shopping compare this set of speakers with the following in similar products (this really isn't a weakness I'm merely refering you to comparable products).

Here's my story-

First off the sound when it is not modified is not bad. It has a lot of bass, and the trebles are ok. The midrange was definitely weak compared to my Boston's and my polk's which don't have midrange drivers. Also the bass seemed over bearing.

When you modify the crossover it sounds a whole lot better. The first thing I did is I compared the Sony's with my Polk Audio RT35 and with my boston Satellite CR6's. The first thing I got to test was Eric Clapten Unplugged (a really good cd for testing speaker treble). The High's of the Sony were incredible, especially for the price. The highs of the sony's seemed to be a little clearer than the boston acoustics. As for the midrange I thought it was better after the mod. However I'm not sure if I would rate it as being the most natural sounding midrange. It definitely stood out above the boston's and the polk's but it seemed a little painful or harsh at higher volumes. In classical music the trumpets jumped out (in your face type of sound) from the sony's and gets painful at around 50 watts. The crossover adjustment also made the speaker louder at a volume. What I mean by this is that the modified speaker at the same volume as the unmodified speaker is louder.

The next thing I tested was the bass. The Sony's out did both the polks and boston's in the area of bass. I also tested different recievers and found that the bass depends mostly on your receiver. If you're using a Yamaha, Onkyo, Denin or Pioneer receiver then your bass is going to be, none the less, rather poor. If you're using an Aiwa or Sony with bass boost (whatever they call it) You're going to get an amazing amount of boom that will shake the entire house.
I also noticed that various Onkyo receivers didn't put out a lot of base for music but put a lot out for movies. The first movie I tested for bass response was U-571 (A must watch movie) in DTS. At 50 watts the speakers were shaking my house and putting out excellent mid's and highs. The base reached to 35 hertz with no distortion at 55 watts. These speakers simply DON'T bottem out like cheap subwoofers.

The last thing I tested were dynamics and the ability to produce a full range of sounds. Compared to the Martin Logan Electrostatic speakers the Sony's were beated 10 to 1. Because there are better speakers out there I'm not going to stupidly rate the sony's down as other people have. As I was sayint the Martin Logan's were phenominal. They were also two thousand a piece. The sony's, compared to any bookshelf or floor standing speaker, delivered a beautiful range of notes and sounds. When I listened to Jurassic park, cd, I was able to pick out almost all of the music groups. The drivers also seemed well matched but the midrange was far more powerfull then the base or tweeter.

Another note- If you plan on using two hundred and fifty watts I would not reccomend using the current crossover. I wouldn't say it's a crappy crossover, it's just built to have nice sounds at high volumes. When using the speakers at nearly 80 watts unmodified I noticed that the midrange and highs were more apparent. The new crossover makes the spakers a hell of a lot more sensitive. So if you plan to blast at high volumes I don't reccomend using the crossover modification. However if you listen to music at moderate to high levels I reccomend the modification. The crossover modification will make lower volumes seem a lot louder.

One of the things that I also wanted to mention was the how to do the modification. I would also like to thank Bob and Rootz for suggesting the idea and helping me out. The only thing I couldn't figure out immediately was how to mount the crossover to the speaker terminals. Think all "C's" on the new crossover are all negative voltage and if you follow Bob's instructions in his review you should do fine. When I was replacing the crossover I was worried about blowing the speaker. This will not happen unless you crank the volume too much. Also try not to cross negative and positive wires (you won't blow the speaker but your receiver will be short-circuited. Thanks again to other reviewers.

My stereo equipment- Onkyo tx-ds484 (an excellent receiver)
And one of the various sony DVD players that I can't remember right now (and too lazy to go check).

Similar Products Used:

Polk Audio, Phase Technology, Definitive Technology, Klipshe, Boston Acoustics, Martin Logan, Bose, AR, JBL....

*PRICE* Sound Quality, modern look. Heavy!

Crummy supplied speaker wire

While not the best speakers on the planet, I would wager that there are none other that sound anywhere near as good as these Sony's for the price. You would be very hard pressed to find any floor standing speakers with these specs for around $240 a pair. Unbelievable deal, for extraordinary sound. Team them up with the Sony CR-490, and you've got yourself a really nice surround sound system for around $400. Truly a great deal. Deserves 6 stars for Value, and absolutely a 5 on Overall.

Similar Products Used:

Infinity, JVC, Cerwin Vega, Yamaha

Midrange is right there, perfect for home theater, amazing price, overall sound for the price, oh, did I say price?

where is the bass?

I picked these up at, of all places, Best Buys for $175.00 (Open box) for the pair. I bought these, quite frankly, to replace a couple blown Pioneer speakers. They sounded fine at the store, but how can you really compare the sound in the Best Buy environment? I hooked them up at home to a JVC Dolby Digital Ready receiver with a Toshiba 3109 DVD. Since then, I have purchased a sub and new surround speakers (Polk). I thought the system really rocked! Then I invested in a Technics 930 receiver with Dolby Digital and DTS. I also picked up Monster Cable everything! For the price I paid for this system, It is incredible. The Sonys made it all come together. Are there better speakers out there? Are there better constructed speakers out there? Well, yes, but try finding this sound for triple the price. You can't do it!

I realize that speakers are the single most important thing effecting a HT. Do not be scared off by the looooooooooooow price. These speakers, along with a sub woofer, give me more listening pleasure than I deserve for the price.

Similar Products Used:

Polk, AR, Cerwin Vega

Good clarity with the highs and mids, quality speaker posts, slim design for a small footprint

particle board cabinet, not wood

These speakers are amazing. I purchased them about 5 months ago from Best Buy for $249 a pair. These are the best floor model speakers you can buy for less than $1000 in my opinion. I heard them in the Best Buy room and was pretty impressed with them. Took them home and hooked them up to my Sony STR-DA50ES receiver and was even more taken back. Granted that I was only trying to power a small 2 bedroom apartment but it did a hell of a job filling it.

Love them! Unbelievable performance at a great price!

Similar Products Used:

AR-3, Bose 401s,Bose AM-10, Old Pioneers

Value!!!

size, but that's all

Let me start off by saying that I'm a college student, so I don't have a lot of options on purchasing speakers. Price was the main concern, then sound, and finally space. Everyone is probably wondering why I got my set for only $200, it was a deal that I bargined for with the Sony STR-de845 receiver. For anyone living in Hawaii, Shirokiya in Ala Moana shopping center has a pair of 515's for only $168. Yes that's right $168. I would've bought them there, but shipping would've made it the price I paid up here anyway.
the 515's are in my opinion the greatest value you can get on the market in the $200-400 range. When I speak of value, you have to understand that value takes into consideration price, quality, and need for the product. In terms of price you can't beat it. When it comes to quality, you can't beat it. It has the Sony "reliabilty" with it. In terms of need for the product, I wanted speakers that would shake the room. When I hooked the "bad boys" up, it filled the room with music. My dorm room dimensions are 15 feet by 25 feet. The ceiling is about 15 feet high. It's a rectangle, with fire absorbing walls. So a lot of the bass does get absorbed up. But even with that, the bass vibrates all the walls. My friends upstairs say that they can feel and hear what were listening to below. The highs aren't the greatest, but they can produce some pretty good highs. I'm comparing the highs to the BOSE acoustimass series that my sister owns, so I know how good sound is, not to mention I played in band since 6th grade.
If you really want to add to the 515's for souround I would recommend drivers, I have two BOSE drivers hooked up as my rear. The drivers drown out the highs of the 515's so it makes the overall sound a lot better. For the final touch I would recommned a sub woofer. I just bought the KLH110 from COSTCO for $99. Our room is pretty much a speaker initself.

If your going for loudness, I seriously recommend these speakers, these boys can pound. If your going for value, these speakers are the ones to get.

NonModified: Nice sound for $200. Attractive cabinet.

Modified: Wow! They sound better than most speakers that cost 3X more. Clear highs, rich mids, smooth (although not powerful) bass. Attractive Cabinet.

You need a crossover upgrade to really exploit their potential.

These were for my Dad's living room, and to be honest, for $220 at Best Buy they were a pretty good bargain (he's notoriously cheap too) ;-). After a while though he started to complain that they sounded a little "muddy" and asked me if I knew any tweaks that could be done on them (I'm really into tweaking my car, OCing my PC, etc). Well, it just so happened that I stopped by here to look at other people's impressions and I saw the previous reviews of this model with information about upgrading the crossovers. So I ordered them from partsexpress.com (part # 260-210) and when they arrived I went over to his house and did the surgury on his 515s (thanks for the tips listed below guys). I must add, that the new crossovers are HUGE in comparison to the old Sonys. They really need to be flogged for putting such a crappy piece of electronic hardware in a product like this at the factory. Anyway, I digress...

Wow... what a difference! It was like turning on a light in a dim room! The new sound is rich and clean and the highs are oh so clear. Even my mom, who is almost tone deaf, could tell quite a difference.

If you own these speakers GET THE REPLACEMENT CROSSOVER. If you don't know how to use a soldering iron, find a friend who does and have them do it. If you're thinking about buying these speakers, don't hesitate to buy them as long as you plan to GET THE REPLACEMENT CROSSOVER. Honestly, even if you buy these and never modify them they sound good. But, they sound EXCELLENT if you do the tweak.

BTW, no, I'm not giving these a 5 star rating (even after the mod). I know better. ;-) But, to be honest, after the surgery they are a solid 4.

Similar Products Used:

B&W, Bose (yuck), Paradigm, Polk, Infinity... numerous models of each.

I, like many people, didn't think I could get a set of good speakers for under $400. I thought I was going to have to settle for a junky set of KLHs to keep my budget intact. I was wrong. Very wrong. At $240 a PAIR these babies are awesome. One of the best things about them is there design. The unit is tall and slim, and the actual speaker is about 2-3' off the ground (below it is the woofer). No need for speaker stands to get the sound to your ears (and not to your feet!) Some people have questioned the bass in these units, which for me they put out more than enough. To them I say buy a subwoofer. With the money you save buying these speakers you can buy a very good subwoofer to shake your house down with. If these speakers sold for $700 a pair they would be the talk of the internet. Alot of people brush them off cause of their price, but I'll keep these over-achivers a LONG time.