Amp & speaker match question.

You should treat the speaker "ratings" as meaningless. The new speakers will be fine.

At these (price and brand) levels, I agree. Where you can get into trouble is powering low impedance rated speakers (4 ohms and below) with inexpensive receivers or amps that cannot deliver enough current at higher sound levels and you get clipping and/or compression that destroys the speaker. This is critical when you have expensive speakers; not so much with Sony or Pioneer brands (no offense). H/K and NAD receivers are generally better in that regard, but the Sony should have no problems with those speakers unless the OP plays them so loud his hearing suffers.

Your amplifier is not going to damage those speakers. Four-inch drivers are very small, though.

If you are not using a subwoofer, you might want to consider some speakers that have at least a 5.5 inch main driver.

For $140, you can get a pair of Polk Monitor 40 speakers, which have dual 5.5 inch drivers and should give you much more sound.

That's a vague statement and not helpful to OP. Just because speaker driver is 5.5 inches or larger doesn't mean much. There are bunch of those out there with poor performance. What you are suggesting is to approach it from the wrong end.

The BS21s are only $70 shipped at Newegg through today.

However, if your older Sonys have much bigger drivers, you might be disappointed in the sound of those very small bookshelves. If you like the Pioneers, you might want to talk to the people in the owners thread for that speaker line. For instance, it might be worth saving up for the BS41s, which is the model getting great reviews: http://www.stereophile.com/content/p...lr-loudspeaker

I agree. It might be better to save and get a pair of BS41s or the FS51 mini-towers. Newegg was having a sale on the FS51s for $130. That's a steal. I think you would be much happier with the FS51s. They have decent, clean bass as well. You won't be able to hit the super low notes (rap, house, or movies) without a subwoofer if that matters to you.

Somehow a certain speaker in a manufacturers lineup exceeds all expectations, and it's often not the most expensive or largest in the group. It seems that this is the case with the BS41. I recently purchased a pair through Amazon.com for $144. The BS41's larger and smaller brothers are more deeply discounted because they are less popular.. I strongly suspect the BS41 is stealing their thunder. Perhaps that's due to the extremely positive reviews in the press and the word-of mouth going around on the street

Some folks will dismiss them out of hand because they come from Pioneer ...too bad for them. You owe yourself a listen.

Cheers,
SB

Over the years, the speakers made by Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, and other big Japanese manufacturers have ranged from the cheapest trash imaginable to some big-bucks high-end speakers that are excellent (and super-expensive). Sony currently makes speakers for under $100 that you probably wouldn't want to listen to, and they also make $30,000 speakers that you would love.

Going by the brand name is seldom a good idea, but that is even more true with these big companies. There are a few brands I trust to put out a good product, like Vandersteen and PSB, but companies that can match their track record are few and far between.

The big companies certainly have the engineering resources to put out good products when they choose to do so.

I remember some floorstanding Pioneer speakers I listened to in a recording studio in the 1960s that had built-in multiple power amplifiers and were incredibly good-sounding. They actually were three-way speakers with three separate power amplifiers in each speaker. They were about $2500 per pair though, which was more than I spent to buy my new 1967 Ford Cortina. I bought some Wharfdale speakers I could afford.

Built by one of the best speaker designers in the business. Andrew Jones designed the Pioneer TAD series. He was also at one time head of KEF speaker design. Always a great challenge to create a great product on a limited budget. Very impressive speakers at that price point.

I agree that Andrew Jones is a talented designer. I would like to hear the SB41, but they don't seem to be available locally.
TAD also have a great heritage.