Pioneer TS-E1702i Co-axial Speakers

There are two versions of this speaker. The TS-E1702iS and this one TS-E1702i, without the ‘S’. A two-way coaxial speaker with a high quality tweeter above it, pole mounted. This tweeter is a soft dome and has a chamber behind it, like high end home HiFi devices but lacks the extra diameter and Ferrofluid loading of the model labelled with an ‘S’ for ‘Superior’ that has also been reviewed here on Talk Audio and afforded Best Buy status. In many ways very similar to the S version, this has the same high technology Basalt and Aramid Fibre cone named  after spiders. I gather it makes for a wondrous cone material for the classic lightness with rigidity and that Basalt as against glass, fibre is a better cone material, too. The frame is a pressed multi-hole custom-fitter job as against that on the  ‘S’ which is a more robust affair. However, both get the same mounting depth and both have the shaped housing to the tweeter to angle the sound out and at you a bit more than merely hemispherical. The same kit of fixings and included terminated speaker wires and cable ties is also provided with this model as with the ‘S’.
– Nominal Rating 35W (S version is 60W)
– Impedance 4 Ohms
– 230g / 8 Oz Strontium magnets
– Frequency Response 30Hz to 40kHz (-20dB, which sadly is a bit meaningless versus he -3dB figures others use)
– Metal mesh and moulded plastic grilles
– Sensitivity (1W/1m): 88dB (or a half dB more than the ‘S’ ones)
– Cone material: Dual Layer IMX Injection Moulded Matrix Aramid/Basalt fibre and ubber edged
– Tweeter: 23mm soft dome with rear chamber (28mm with Ferrofluid on S type)
– Passive crossover: Simple -6dB type
– Mounting Depth: 54.5mm
– Weight per speaker 0.87kg or 1lb 15Oz
– Complete with 8 20mm screws and 8 panel clips two 30cm long terminated speaker ires and two cable ties
Review by Adam Rayner
The second most annoying edit I ever got was when a neophyte sub editor fresh out of doing English at Oxbridge saw fit to change my expression ‘materials science’ to ‘material science.’ The first, as like what I writ it, refers to the near-alchemical mystique of materials, in our case stuff like Kevlar, Nomex, Aramid and Basalt fibre. Material science is that science which is no longer theoretical but backed up by reproducible results of experimentation, or ‘actual’ as against ‘imaginary’ science. This dork thought it would be better his way
And my point is that I reckon materials science is the sexiest and most exciting part of engineering. Once it was a fishing rod made from actual strands of glass fibre that excited me, then it was Lycra stretched across the Eighties female form and then came the era of Carbon Fibre, which while having loads to do with fishing, has not resulted in any new sexy clothing.
But I do know that the holy grail of speaker cones is a material that doesn’t resonate in any way and yet is rigid as a ramrod but also weighs an inconsequential nothingness. Likewise, each kind of transducer has its own favoured technologies or ways of doing things that have been proven down the years and these TS-E1702i coaxials have lumps of it. All sorts of superb materials tech and methods used on much more expensive speakers are found within this product and as such they represent a pinnacle of value for money.
You are effectively getting a Jaguar drive train with a small engine here in regular-car bodywork! As the cone is the self-same material as used on the much more expensive version, the one in the posher body work or better chassis and also has a tweeter with a special chamber behind it. This tweeter is fashioned from real Silk fabric, which like paper is still a classic natural material and hard to beat. However, Basalt, as against Silica (quartzite, glass) has been used to make the fibres in the fabric of the main cone and is woven with another super tough synthetic fibre that Pioneer call Aramid, that is a serious contender in the space age materials genre.
Mark my words, one day, as they develop fibres fit for use to construct elevators to take us up to geosynchronous-orbit space stations, they will use the stuff they make the cables with, in speaker cones!
Back on planet Earth, I played the Pioneer DEH-P88RSII headunit for its competition quality output into the speakers which were housed in Acoustic Wood enclosures and played the old audiophile test disc. The sound was lacking some of the bass weight and speed of the ‘Superior’ version and didn’t have the same clarity band-to-band as the model with the far more expensive passive crossover components stuck to it, yet that is an utterly unfair comparison. The very fact you can even be discussing such a low priced set of speakers in the same breath as the ones with the slightly different suffix on and much bigger price tag is what’s amazing, as the TS-E1702i coaxes are bloody tremendous performers.
The detail is breath takingly clear, with real ability to tell all the little edges apart. Again, 23mm tweeters not as expansive as the 28mm models on the costlier jobs and they won’t have that same lack of power compression snap when amplifier-driven as they do not have the Ferrofluid stuff hanging in their voice coil gaps. Nevertheless, they are fast and detailed and cast a lovely image with just the headunit power and a signal from one of the better headunits in existence.
Not really a bump and grinder, these are for those who really want to play a wide variety of music and may even want to impress their mums with the clarity and purity of their system if not to blow their mates away with the shaking of their door panels.
A superb value set of coaxes that will fit into most cars with this size of hole and will make the stock sound systems of just about any car sound better. Up to and including the majority of the so-called Premium OEM speakers in costly cars! Easily scores a Talk Audio Recommendation.
Sound Quality 8.0
Build Quality 9.0
Power Handling 8.0
Efficiency 8.0
Value For Money 10.0
Overall rating 8.6