Pioneer TS-A6903i

Three way loudspeaker from the famed high Value For Money Pioneer TS-A series of speakers. The midrange is taken care of by a cone driver and the top end by a skinny Piezo tweeter. These tend to sound less sweet than a Silk dome but TS-A6903i are only priced at £70. There is no lumpy passive crossover array here, just one tiny capacitor tucked up under the mid/high assembly in classic style to offer a 6dB slope. Grilles for the mid and tweeter match the slashy look of the resin moulded top grilles and they are supplied in a perforated carton that can be pushed out to use as a template for cutting the speakers’ mounting holes. You also get some wire and screws/fixings.
– Pressed Steel chassis
– 57mm cone midrange with 47g magnet
– 18mm Piezo dome tweeter
– Carbon Graphite IMPP (injection moulded Polypropylene) interlaced Aramid fibre cone
– Power handling 80w RMS, 350w peak
– Sensitivity 91dB (2.83V, 1m)
– Frequency Response: 28Hz to 22kHz
– Impedance 4 Ohms- Mounting depth 84mm
– Lug connection terminals for spade-end speaker connectors
– Steel mesh grilles with injection moulded plastic frames
Review by Adam Rayner
One thing that immediately struck me upon fitting these speakers to my test boxes was that they were not standard size frames but a tiny bit oversize.
Whether it is a stamper that has swollen a part-of-a-millimetre or what, I don’t know but I have had over 35 brands of six by nines in them over the years and only truly off-standard ones have any issues. So they have big frames by a small margin. I did manage in the end (but there was a wrinkle in the suspension you would never tolerate in an actual install) and found the output impressive. A good weight to the bass is all important and these do have that. The tops are a little sssibiliant, which is endemic with super-low-cost-high-output Piezoelectric tweeters but equates to a savage cut through on loud dance or through masses of bass in a street punk system. A little pishy on jazz drum brushes but bitching on percussive snaps and cracks. At first, I was only medium impressed, then gave them some real gonads from the Genesis Stereo 100 I use to test these things.
The bass spanked a whole load harder and it all got a lot louder without getting any uglier. In fact giving it lots of level and then wicking back behind the point where you could hear the speakers start to run out of steam made for a maximum level of 114dB at the test microphone’s snout. Measured on the AudioControl SA-3055 RTA on SPL setting.
Very shiny and look a bit plastic but great bass and a real, reliable step up from the cheapo ‘Who are you then?’ rubbish that just fails. If you have a small amp they are the business – look at the efficiency specification and the score I gave them from trying them out.
They go loud on not much power and not too much cost that makes them worthy.
Overall 7.8
Sound Quality 7
Build Quality 8
Power Handling 7
Efficiency 9
Value For Money 8