At One Time Sony Made Audiophile Grade Speakers

I had a pair of Sony APM-22's. They were made in three versions, according to an audio writer (Alvin Gold, I think): US (mine), UK and German versions; each were reportedly voiced differently for each location.

I thought they were pretty good, and they were far from the top end of the line. I also had a very small boombox (ZX7) which featured APMs. It imaged very well.

 

Still to this day my two front speakers are Sony. They were a part of the top most mid-fi equipment (the D-905 - see image of the equipment, not the speakers, here: http://cdnimages.gittigidiyor.com/423/4232568_0.jpg) they had back in the early 90s. I just can't tell if they have any handed down technology from their more high-end speakers of that time, but their finish looks like that of the SS-K series and they are composed of three speakers: tweeter, mids and a 10" woofer.

I can't seem to find their model number anywhere, so I can't tell you what they are.

Here's the best image I have been able to find of them: http://fotos.anuntis.com/sgm/2007/01/29/58945983/19536213.jpg The speakers do not come with the black stand shown on this image.

 

I have a pair of Technics SB-X300 speakers that have the honeycomb diaphragm drivers from 1985. These are definitely not high end, but were pretty good back then for $200 I paid for them.

 

Regarding the Sony speakers I mentioned earlier. At NAB conventions of years past.

As I recall, those Sony Broadcast Division, Pro-Studio Monitor speakers shown years ago at some NAB exibits in the past 25 years. I seem to recall no prices listed for them. The salespeople would not even quote a price to you, not for sale, they were "Just to show some new technology Sony has" But I got a whisper from a guy I was freindly with from many previous shows, and some big purchases I made back then. He said they were "over 20 grand each, and that's at Sony's cost" They were built with superb quality transducers, impressive technology then, and although the event was a poor venue to critically listen to speakers, I was very pleased with the sound I heard from them... Wish I could find a pair used around here for about $2,000 a pair?? But they seem to all have gone straight back to Japan.

... Yes, Virginia, Sony CAN make superb speakers.

 

"Honeycomb" drivers? Were those the square-driver units they built back in the 80s? Sony's first CD boom box had a small version of those drivers, and they did indeed have a honeycomb appearance to them. The APM stood for "Accurate Pistonic Motion", IOW, they were supposedly rigid enough to act as a perfect piston.

I'd love to hear those Sony speakers that Dale picked up, but the drive is a bit far....

 

Photos of Sony APM speaker model 33. Rebuilt homemade surrounds, poorly done.

These are some shots of my Sony APM-33's. They are in quasi "storage mode." The original surrounds have long ago rotted away. This is my temporary "Kluge" home-made experimental replacement. Not fully satisfactory. But they work. Eventually, I will improve them.... someday. This shows the flat aluminum "Honeycomb" structure of the woofer and tweeter diaphragm...Rolf E.

 

Those are wild looking! How would you characterize their sound?

 

Eh.....

Better than some, not as good as most. No, they are alright, but nothing very special. Bass is OK, not very deep, mids are a little muddled, trebble is good to fair. Overall, like, a middle-quality speaker. For all the work to make a strange design and weird looking woofer, not much result except a decent sound quality, but undistinguished loudspeaker system. I have heard much better using "conventional" transducers.

Actually, this woofer, if you look behind it, is fairly conventional. It has a normal round voice coil/spider/magnet/motor system. With 4 tubular aluminum posts glued and connecting the VC to the flat honeycomb diaphragm. Not all that different than regular "cone" woofers.

 

Very interesting. I'm always intrigued as to what happens when big CE companies have a bit too much R&D money and they let some engineers go wild. Sometimes it ends up a great success that consumers get to reap the rewards of.

 

Yes, Sony has done better work with other speaker designs. See my post above. Sony, as a company, has done many very wild engineering in their electronics/mechanics down the decades. Most come to nothing but an odd exercise in engineering, and few sales. I admire their attempt and willingness to try very obtuse directions in design to see what can be done. Occasionally, they hit paydirt... The Trinitron, as one example.

 

Most people fault Sony for its "failures"....MiniDisc, SACD, DAT, etc. But it's this kind of risk taking that resulted in "home runs" such as CD.

 

ELCASSETTE? Remember that?

Don't forget the "ELcassette" a 3.75 ips large format cassette for the "Audiophiles" in the late 1970's? I had possession of one 4 years ago. Waste of space.

Sony has many more "Orphan" products that most people have never seen or heard of. They at Sony try, at least. They have a culture at Sony, of adventurous engineering... I like that.

 

They also have a stubborn infusion of Not Invented Here syndrome.

 

I had Sony APM22s, and a Sony Boombox ZX7, that featured minature APM speakers. Their strength was imaging.

The closest sounding speakers I've found are Monsoon computer speakers.

 

Congratulations on your find. Love the look with those stands.

From a link from your link, thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyvault/SSA5/SSA5-aceri.html
I read this about the "Bio-Cellulose dome tweeter":

"Bio-Cellulose

...as made by the acetobacteriae aceti.
You can actually see hem threading bio-cellulose in this x 10,000 image!

The raw bio-cellulose, waiting to be pressed to become the diaphragm...

...bonded with thermosetting epoxy adhesive to the pure aluminium voice coils. The thickness of the bio-cellulose diaphragm is 1/1000 that of paper and 1/300 that of silk ; its weight is 1/2 of a silk diaphragm"

So the tweeter diaphragm is actually made from something created by bacteria?

How is the sound compared to metal dome tweeters? And silk dome tweeters?

I noticed the freq response is 40-20, but that woofer looks huge. How do the lower frequencies sound?

Very interesting!

 

The frequency range looks narrow--but I'm hearing bass in recordings I thought had virtually none. I was so effusive about my speakers that a friend in another city took a chance and bought some. He'd been using some B&Ws, but he loves these. He phoned me five minutes after hooking them up.

The thing about the tweeters is that they are at the same crisp AND totally non-fatiguing.

Definitely one of my all time audiophile bargains. But, they have me wanting to listen to music all the time, and to upgrade my run-of-the-mill poweramp.

Dale

 

Great Thread Dale,
At one time Sony made many audiophile products that competed w/ world class companies. Sadly that dynamic has changed? It is fun to revisit these products. Personally, I collect older ES cd players- really sweet!

 

Very nice set-up Dale.

It proves one thing, trust your ears.

 

I just bought a classic Krell power amplifier (KSA-50) from an audiophile dealer I know in California. I discussed with him the pairing. Here's what he had to say about the Sony SS-A5s:

"Hi Dale.
Very few people know about how wonderful these Sony's are. I was tempted to grab a pair when they were at the Sony Outlet store in Tracy a few years ago. Didn't pony up the $800, and when I went back they were gone.
Len"

Nice to know someone who's heard them and has expertise in these things thinks about the same thing I do. I do not consider myself expert in audiophilia by any means, but it's nice to know someone in the know more or less agrees.

Dale

 

The Sony SS-G7a are my audiophile bargain - these speakers hand made by Sony have massive soundstage, very neutral sound, despite the huge woofers and they were made around 1980. Not small but sound sublime. Very impressed with Sony's speaker making abilities

 

i like those speakers, very nice. sony can do audiophile if they choose to. btw, they do have a current high end set on the market-
sony ss-na55es et al. i heard these at my dealer (6K a pair) and they are literally the smoothest speakers i have heard. recommended listen for anyone with that budget for stand mounts.

 

http://discover.store.sony.com/ES/es-speakers/SS-NA5ES.html

 

Most any of the big Japanese companies can do astounding work when the engineers are left alone, but usually the cost is very high and nothing much comes of it. Most of the really good Japanese audio work is for the JDM only and never comes here.

 

That appears to be true. There are companies and product lines that only appear to be available in Japan.