Sony SS-CN5000 Dual 5.25" Center Channel Speaker (each, black) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)TV: Panasonic 58pz800u
AVR: Onkyo SR-605
Bluray: Oppo BDP-83
Sat: Dish Network ViP 211
Fronts: Sony SS-F7000
Center: Sony SS-CN5000
Surrounds: Sony SS-B1000
Subwoofer: Onkyo SKW-530
I've been using this center for the past 6 weeks now and let me say first that this center looks simple, clean, and doesn't attract very much attention. It's size is noticeable, however. It's a pretty big Center, and weighs like about 15 lbs.
BUILD
It's a nice looking fake black wood enclosure. It has some heft, heavier than most centers I'd think. It's made of MDF inside and has some foam in certain patches in certain areas. The front screen is easily removeable revealing the composite woofers, tweeter and front port. Has spring clips for the speaker wire. Overall, very good build for this price.
MATERIALS:
The tweeter is a 1" Nano Dome, good solid choice for a tweeter.
The Mid Range Woofers are slightly less than 5 inches and made of HOP. This type of material is stiffer then regular polypropylene.
Overall, the materials used is really good considering the price of the center. 10 years ago this stuff was high tech in speaker construction, esp in car speakers which run on 4ohm usually. With the prices of these materials coming down, Sony is able to use them and give us a lot of great sound and tech for not a lot of money.
SOUND:
I primarily use my system for Satellite and movies. I don't listen to too much music, but when I do it's a CD and through my Oppo. So since this center most typically will be the most used speaker of all. It will be in charge of voices, action, some background music and other directional effects. It handles all these with EASE. It is extremely accurate sounding. Audessy shows that the center is FULL RANGE and lets all bass frequencies go to the center on the center channel. This gives insane dynamic range, from deep exhaust notes and voices to high bells and screams from movies.
For music the center sounds crystal clear on everything from symbol to sax to bass guitar to electric guitar, etc. Very good, solid music reproduction. Doesn't have any punch in the lows, but, it's a center channel, it's not supposed to. Most center channel information won't ever go lower than a deep vocal.
I can definitely understand why this center is sitting pretty at #1 in the Center Speaker section for some time now. I would not have tried this Sony setup if it weren't for other reviews. For the price (I paid $83 shipped), this is a really good center speaker. The only thing about it is it's too accurate at times, and can be slightly lower in volume during whispers or low passages due to it's crazy dynamic range. Anyone with an AVR that has Dolby Volume Plus or Audessey Dynamic Volume won't know it though.

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