Pioneer TS-C171PRS

A two-way component speaker system with separate tweeter units, midbass drivers and passive crossovers. Complete with a mounting kit to fit the tweeters in more than one application, a perforated card mounting template and screws and fixings. Built in a very heavy duty style, the woven Aramid fibre fabric cones have Strontium magnets driving them and play past solid billet Aluminium phase plugs at their centres. The chassis are massively built and the whole set reeks of posh engineering, scoring a ten for build.
The tweeters are cast Aluminium mounted and have dual Neodymium magnets and are loaded with Ferrofluid in their voice coil gaps for cooling and damping of the coil and so higher power handling. They have a rear damping chamber too, which is a pure high end feature. These are a filter down of the insane competition-designed £2,000 speakers made expressly to kick ass at sound off time. They are not especially efficient, having traded off the need for a decent amplifier against ultimate quality. After all, these will not be going with entry level amps at their price.
– Power Handling 50w RMS
– Sensitivity 88dB 1w/1M
– Own Pink noise test figure 112.2dB (Vol @20 @ trk 9 dB Drag Vol III)
– Passband 25Hz to 32 kHz
– Tweeter diameter 28mm with Neodymium magnet and Ferrofluid cooling/damping
– Tweeter Mounting Depth <40mm
– Midbass Mounting Depth 67mm
– Cone: 3-layer Aramid fibre with Aluminium centre phase plug
– Tweeter: cast aluminium chassis with rear chamber
– Crossover slope & point: 12dB per octave @2.5kHz
– Chassis: cast aluminium
– Complete with: Surface/flush/angle mount kit for tweeters, fixings and perforated card mounting template
Review by Adam Rayner
Pioneer pride themselves on producing loudspeakers that are able to compete with the finest on all levels whether it be stereo, 5.1 cinema or automotive. I reviewed some Pioneer speakers in Air Studios in Hampstead north London and I’ve been to Antwerp with Pioneer to compare several journalists’ choice of whatever we thought was most impressive with their then current efforts. We were sat in a test room and listened to lots of speakers. Their SPL subwoofers have carved legends and they have attacked the sound off scene with near violence of engineering effort to produce cost-no-object car speakers that win at competitions.
These top end components then, have a heritage of excellence. They live up to it too and you can tell the moment they fire up and sing to you. There’s that lovely realistic vocal midrange presence that is so indicative of really good sound. They don’t quite have the weight and authority of the JL Audios (same price) to go with it but they loved being driven hard and they stay linear as they get louder, avoiding that brashness that so often creeps in as speakers get spanked a bit. The Aramid fibre stuff is wicked and along with the really excellent tweeters allows you to hear the edges of the saxophone reeds on Yello’s track The Race.
A beautifully built set of speakers with some lovely engineering to look at as well as lots of output to enjoy.
Overall 8.4
Sound Quality 8
Build Quality 10
Power Handling 10
Efficiency 7
Value For Money 7