Pioneer's Speaker Genius Hits Low Price Point - Page 76

Hello eveyone,

I have been reading through this thread and i am really interested in these speakers. I have been toying around with upgrading my current setup. Currently i am running 4 x Insignia NS-B2111 fronts and rears and a RC-1 center channel from The Speaker Company with 2 x 12" Sound Splinter DIY subs, and a Pioneer VSX-918V.

Due to space i have no room for the towers. I am thinking about running 3 x C21 center channel speakers for the fronts and keeping the Insignia's for my rears. Or i may run fronts and rears all with C21's.

I am wondering if this would be a decent upgrade over my current? I am a little concerned with the Pioneer's having a lower sensitivity compared to the Insignia's.

Thank you

I thinking of doing the same thing. I would like to know how you wired them. Series or Parallel ? What amplifier? Ive done this with a pair of mod'ed Minimus 7's with great results.

I used my sixth and seventh channels, google "stacked Advents" for wiring suggestions. Btw,i no longer think of these as great speakers"for the money"....just great

i thought the rca connection would put out inferior sound so thats good to know.

the center channel is sold out on neweg

just got the amp and the speakers. these little amps are awesome. im breaking in the bs21's with it as i type.

Yeah I just noticed this as i order.......but good thing qvc has the center $54 shipped........Man I'm hyped a quality full size 7.1 sound system for $350.....These are give away prices.....

Yep. They were my main system until I found the JBL 190 firesale. They performed better than my $1,000+ 7.0 Acoustech system it replaced.

Yeah I gonna use these a my 2nd-3rd system for the living room

Man, I'm really bummed.

So I snagged the deal from Newegg for the FS51's because they were $30 cheaper than the set I haggled from Best Buy (which I returned).

My new FS51's sound completely harsh. It's like hissy s-sound city. It's really annoying. I went from really enjoying these to finding them taxing to listen to.

No idea how that's possible, and maybe I'm just crazy and the old ones sounded like this, too, but I can't imagine that's so.

What the heck. They have the exact same manufacturing month and year. This is why you don't go over thinking it all this much.

Any reason I could be experiencing this? Break in? I generally don't even believe in "break in" havin appreciable effects on sound. I haven't changed my receiver settings.

Anybody else notice hissy or harsh vocals? That seems completely opposite of the normal characteristic of these.

Never felt that my FS51s are hissy or harsh, could be a problem with your speakers

Something isn't right. They aren't harsh at all.

Just added the FS51s to my setup this week and what you are describing isn't part of my experience. They sound full and beautiful but fairly neutral. Sorry that your experience isn't seamless. That's frustrating and disappointing when you are adding to your setup.

Hello everyone. I picked up the pioneer SF51, C21 and BS21 from the recent new egg sale (just that it sounded like a great deal). I intend to use these in a very large room. I'm opening a martial arts studio and wanted something to play back ground music and later add a 5.1 system for movie nights. I thought this paired with the VSX-521-K I picked up on sale a few months back might do the trick.

One of my concerns is that these speakers my not do a good job filling such a large space. I have a 2016 sq ft with about 1500 sq ft of it open. Any music I play will be mostly just back ground music so not too concerned there (should I be?). But for movie (something the will take place just on occasions) will the speakers be enough to fill the space with provide an enjoyable experience? Also thinking of eventually picking up a pair of BS41s to replace the BD21s as it suck a large space I'm afraid the surrounds may not offer enough effect.

What say you?

Oh, to give you an idea of the dimensions the wall room is approximately 42' wide and about 38' to the next wall (my office area). Of course everyone will be seated closer to the 42' wall where I plan to have the LCR speakers (with the surrounds mounted high on the wall about 16 to 20 feet back from the LCRs).

Also, last night I watched a movie (Cowboys and Aliens) with these in place of my long time system and it sounded really really good. No one was home so I was able to listen at what I consider a good movie level without the wife yelling at me. These are really a great value for an HT system.

I almost want to keep these to replace my home HT (Audiovox Advent Heritage H500, H400 and matching center). Now, I'm not sure if I'm being fair to my old speakers as I was listening at a level that I normally don't listen at and I was using a much larger Sub than I plan to use at my studio (It made a big difference and was the first time I felt the room really shake like that). Still I think the Pioneers had a warmer sound and my Advents seem sharp to me now. The Pioneer center channel is better, I could hear all the dialog. I did turn the C21 to 0 0r +1 while I usually have the advent center at +3 or +4.

If they go on sale again in the near future I may just have to buy another set of Pioneer speakers for my home.

For anybody who's been waiting to pull the trigger, the BS21's are on sale at NewEgg today with free shipping...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16882117405

set up the pioneers today. sound is better than the energy take fives they replaced. question about the sf51 towers. they are set to 80 and small.

when playing music from denon receiver, i believe only the tweeters and speaker right below it are putting out sound. the other two below them no sound. i have denon set to plII music

Sounds like normal. Set the speakers to full range and test them with some music. All speakers should play then.

Try setting the crossover to 70 or 60 and see if u like it better. If you have a good sub, I usually prefer setting the crossover to 80-100 and letting the sub handle more.

That's interesting luisfc. Pioneer's site states that the fs51s are set up as a 3 way speaker. That should mean 2 of the woofers are putting out the exact same sound, and one of them is handling different frequencies. So it's plausible that the bottom two woofers could be handling only the lowest frequencies and a crossover at the receiver could cut them out completely. But I sure wouldn't expect that point to be so low. How are you determining whether they're making sound? Just holding your ear up to them?

yeah just hold my ear up to them. just installed today though

bhazard by full range you mean set them to large? and i thought i wasnt supposed to lower crossovers.

sub is budget bic f-12

audyssey had originally set the towers to large and crossovers to 40. i changed to small and 80 crossovers

Setting the speakers to large is full range. Make sure they are at a good volume and you should hear all the speakers just fine. Once you know they are working, set the crossover back to 80 and let the bic handle the low frequencies.

For those grabbing the bs-21's, I highly suggest getting the JBL 130's at buy.com right now for $99 instead before they're gone for good.

They have the same sound as the BS-41 speakers (which are better than the 21s), but with even better clarity and highs. They blend in well with the Pioneers too, so you could use the FS-51's, C-21, and JBL130s for an incredible system at HTIB prices.

Almost got a pair of the JBL 130s for rears, but when the BS41 I was wanting to bid on on ebay went past $118 with several hours still left, I decided to just pick up four more C21s and just use the C21 for all five.

Probably not as good as having the 41s or 51 up front but better than the 21s, but for the price should be close enough (about 47 bucks each shipped from QVC). For the price I think it may work out fine. Hopefully it will sound nearly as good as having the 51s or 41s upfront (surly better than the 21s).

Maybe the 51 will go on sale again soon.

The c21s are perfectly fine for this too. They would be the best option for a bookshelf speaker of this series, as long as you have the space.

Maybe the tweeter diapragm is misaligned?

Thanks for the tip on QVC for the C21, Newegg was out of stock by the time I got around to ordering the Pio's, but now I am complete again

just curious but isnt the c21 better than the 41 because it has an extra woofer same size?

i want to order a couple of c21s from qvc (around $100 total), but would those jbl 130s for roughly the same price be a better option?

Credit goes to The Murderousone who mentioned QVC a few post up, but I'm glad you benefited.

Hopefully five C21s will provide a pleasant HT experience. There's that little voice in the back of my head saying, "Are you crazy you can't use a center channel speaker for fronts and rears. But with the BS41 running over $150+ and the FS51 running $175+ (until there's an other sale around the corner) I think the C21 was the best "bang for the buck" option at the moment. At least hope so.

I can't say for sure, but the BS41 has received praise for sound/price. I would guess the BS41s having been designed to be main speakers would probably be a bit superior. That's just a guess of course. I can't imagine they would put two of the exact same speaker in the C21 and charge less for it, so I'd tend to believe the BS41 had a single but better speaker.

Now having said that I would imagine that the C21 should not be too far behind and quite possibly may be an overall better deal, as far as value, at about $100 a pair (the more you buy from QVS the better the price gets). That's what I'm hoping anyway...


Never heard the JBL 130s. But decided to go with the C21s because:

1. I figured the C21s would match the C21 center I already had coming in both looks and tone.

2. The JBLs have a single 4" driver where the C21 had dual 5.25" drivers.

3. The C21 had a higher watt rating and I plan to use them in a LARGE room.

All thing considered I decided to roll the dice and go with five C21s. If it turns the perform very noticeably less than the FS51s I'll get some FS51s when the next go on said and move the C21 to surround duty for my other HT setup.