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Unless you just have to have a center channel speaker this small I would recommend you get something larger and better. Ended up moving the surround sound rear speakers to the front and wiring into the center channel to get a better sound. These speakers are connected to a decent 5.1 Sony receiver. Purchased this mainly for the center speaker which was the right size to fit in the opening of my projection TV system. Was somewhat disappointed, the center speaker sounded very tinny and also had slight distortion in the upper frequencies at very moderate listening levels that everybody noticed.
Speaker wire that comes with it is adequate. First, Amazon's service is great. The back speakers are full and compliment the larger front and subwoofer nicely. Package arrived in a few days and I had to get an electrician to run the speaker wire behind my back living room wall.
This is just what I needed to complete my 5.1 AV system. For the money - can't go wrong. Center channel speaker does it's job well - providing mostly the voices for 5.1 movies. I had a set of Bose bookshelf speakers and a nice subwoofer already.
Once I got them mounted (you can buy brackets from home depot), and the system all tuned for these speakers, the sound is amazing. I was able to put together a nice mid market system for under $500 with these speakers. I finally found an AV surround sound receiver from costco (Denon) and now just needed the center and read channel (also called surround speakers) to complete the package. Got free shipping and five free mp3s.
The grille covers cannot be removed but with a bright flashlight I could see that the drivers were much smaller than 4.75" as indicated on Amazon's web site. Sony's web site also lists the drivers as 4.75" so this might not be Amazon's fault.On a positive note returning the speakers was easy. I ordered the SS-CR3000 speakers but was surprised when they arrived. They actually had 2.75" drivers, two in the center and one in each surround speaker. It was within 30 days of purchase so Amazon emailed a return shipping label. They were smaller than I expected with mostly midrange sound output. There was almost no bass output and the treble was weak.
However, you can take out one screw that mounts the wire hardware on the back to the wood chassis and use that hole to mount to your speaker stand as long as your stands support side mounting (with the mounting screw protruding horizontally, as opposed to bottom-mounting where the screw would stick up into the bottom). They sound great, and look good--black-stained wood, not plastic like the ones I'm replacing.Note that the side speakers do not have screw holes on the bottom or back to mount to speaker stands--they were designed for shelf use. I just needed to replace an existing pair of rear channel speakers that came with my Sony receiver several years ago. This was as close as I could come without spending a bundle; I didn't need the center speaker, but the price was still good considering, and I now have a spare, I guess.
They too, distort on the lower end frequencies, but it's not as noticeable since they're not in use most of the time. The two back surrounds sound great, but they are very small, and don't put out a whole lot of power (I do have my rear channels set at +6dB, and yet still I am not satisfied with the output, so I had to move the rear channels closer to the sitting area). Visually, they're not as appealing as some other same priced models, and they don't offer the option of taking the grill off, which I don't prefer anyhow, but some people do. I purchased this set because I was upgrading from a stereo system to true surround sound. The center channel sounds excellent for mid and high ranges that include voice, but when there are other sounds such as loud booms or traffic, it gets a little bit murky with lower frequencies, but that can be expected, as the center channel is intended for midranges.
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