Pioneer TS-A1703i Co-axial Speakers

Three-way coaxial speaker with 6.5 inch woofer. This set has regular ferrite magnets and the cone is softly suspended. The chassis is pressed steel and has the regular speaker lug connectors, (not Gold plated). A central plastic pole supports a 25mm dome midrange (that’d make it a 1 inch in old money) and there’s a 10mm tweeter with no magnet to be found, making this a Piezo electric type. The passive crossover is just one capacitor to give the basic -6dB roll off to the lows for the mid/tweeter assembly together. The Piezo sits on one side of an oval mounting plate with the midrange which features shiny bits and the Pioneer logo nicely mirror-imaged so you can put the speakers in also correctly mirror imaged left and right. They arrive in a carton with plentiful instructional printing upon it as well as templates perforated in it to help installers and pretty mesh and plastic moulded grilles as well as fixings and two terminated, 4.5m long speaker leads.
– Nominal Rating 50W
– Impedance 4 Ohms
– Frequency Response 30Hz to 30kHz (-20dB so ‘generous’ like the 240w ‘peak’ power rating)
– Metal mesh and moulded plastic grilles
– Sensitivity (1W/1m): 90dB
– Woofer size: 165mm (6.5 in)
– Woofer magnet weight: 280g (140Oz)
– Cone material: Injection moulded Carbon Graphite IMPP Interlaced Aramid Fibre Cone with Foamed Rubber Coated Cloth Edge
– Tweeter size: 10mm
– Midrange size: 25mm (1in)
– Midrange magnet weight: 2.1g (0.07Oz)
– Passive crossover simple -6dB type
– Mounting Depth: 66mm
– Weight per speaker .99kg or 2lb 3Oz
– Complete with 8 screws/clips and two 4.5m long terminated speaker wires
Review by Adam Rayner
These are the baby brothers of a set of mighty ten inch tri-axials tested with just headunit power recently. They don’t actually feature as highly in the bump-per-watt bracket as their efficiency is lower than the big old ten inchers, since they have a much smaller cone area and yet similar technology.
They are as good looking as any and have a set of bling bling features both on the audio and looks fronts to make them more appealing to the entry level customer. For although they are listed as a suggested seventy quid sale, they are more realistically sold at around fifty quid. For the keen self fitter, the internet is a great way to buy car audio and it is growing and thriving. Yet for the rest of us who are not too happy to take a Bojo trim removal tool to the panels of our pride and joy, do expect to pay a little more than the internet price. This allows for an expert to advise and fit the things in his general runnings and costs – otherwise the labour rates would be higher. In fact I do know of some outfits than will fit the driver’s own equipment bought elsewhere (especially for rarer and more esoteric kit) but at a higher rate.
But I thought I’d explain as this is the first review where I will quote an Internet price. Hardly surprisingly, I choose to use the Car Audio Direct price as a ‘Known Good’ supplier, without becoming a meat-based price search engine.
So were they any good? Well yes, in exactly the same way they are built to look at and think ‘ooh pretty’, they sound very shiny too. You get a fat-bottomed bass end that holds a decent weight of watts just up to a certain amount and you get a three-way array finishing in a Piezo-electric super-tweeter. Pioneer do not seem to like the term tweeter and super tweeter for this product any more and instead describe the simple one inch dome as a ‘midrange’ yet there is no passive crossover with up and down filters to make this small dome do owt but eat what it’s given. The highs are also fed into the tiny wee Piezo electric device which simply spits highs all the way up to bat frequencies.
But get close to this speaker and you will detect it’�s a budget item. From the shiny plastic bits to the cheapo terminals, it is made down to a cost and yet has so much clever Pioneer filtered-down speaker technology (like say the Aramid Fibre cone stuff) that the sound still impresses.
So for your real-world nifty, you get a pretty feature-worthy set of speakers with loads of highs and some true ability to image and place. I tried some Adele and while it was good, I got some smeary, spitchy dulling of the edges of those strings and when it got louder and more busy, any volume level raise tended to create a congested, confused feel.
I would place these as the top of the heap of head-unit power use speakers, that will cope for a bit once you upgrade and get an amplifier but you’ll want to trade up again before long if you take a progress path. For Camper van dudes and those looking for some better Pioneers than their stockies, they are a no-brainer and highly regarded by this reviewer.
Sound Quality 7.0
Build Quality 8.0
Power Handling 7.0
Efficiency 8.0
Value For Money 8.0
Overall rating 7.6