PIONEER S-3EX

MJ20.12.2009

Floorstanding loudspeakers

The Pioneer S-3EXs are beautifully built speakers. They look good on photos but they look even better in reality. The curves of the speakers as if were sculpted by Michelangelo's chissel.

Function and form

93%
Ease of use
47%
Sound
100%
Appearance

The S-3EXs are actually predecessors of TAD speakers and therefore both designs share the same principles. The focal point is a CST, the Coherent Source Transducer, with a tweeter sitting in the acoustic center of a midrange driver. This should improve time alignemnt of both drivers. The time alignment is further reinforced by a concave shape of the speaker which is "bent" in a radius of 3m (as if the speaker was wrapped around a 6 meters big sphere). The centre of this sphere is the listener and this is also the optimim distance for your listening seat. The CST is made of Ceramic Graphite, the bass units are Aramid, which is modified Kevlar. The reflex port fires foward.

A massive plinth is an inseparable part of the speakers. There actually only three spikes that stabilize the speaker; the rear two 'legs' of the plinth are there only for visual balance and they work like safety side wheels of a kid's first bike. I had no issue with the stability of the rather high speakers on any surface (a thick carpet and wooden floor).

Bass management

Weight
80
Slam
55
Articulation
40

Though the enclosures of the S-3EXs were very rigid during knocking test I could hear them during listening. Some resonances permeat the bass and mids so vocals were tonally aletered a bit. Other than that the Pioneer's bass is weight, just not textured and articulated enough, which is a pity.

Clarity & delicacy

Detail
63
Air
45
Transparency
45

The Pioneers were very relaxing speakers, I could listen to them for hours. But I had to pay a tax for the comfortable sound - details were surpressed and the sound veiled. These are not analytical speakers at all.

Tonal accuracy

Timbre
55
Dynamics
60
Temporal resolution
50

With ATB PC Pro software I measured the flattest ever low frequency response in my room with the S-3EXs. The bass appeared at around 32Hz and up to 8kHz the fluctuations were not more than +/-1.5dB. From 8kHz there was a linear roll off to -5dB at 20kHz. This was also what I heard: a bit reticent and careful sound.

Spatial resolution

Holography
50
Soundstage width
60
Soundstage depth
44

It is fair to say that the Pioneer S-3EXs will probably not appeal to classical music lovers. They can play as loud as a symphony orchestra and they can shatter your room with deep bass but they will not let you see into the music. Also, though the lateral soundstage is as wide as your room allows, the depth is reduced to a picture that is flat. Thus the S-3EXs reminded me of cinema sound rather than multidimensional space.

Price as reviewed:130 000,- Kč

Recommended resellers

Basys CS, Praha tel. +420 234 706 700,

Associated components

  • Sources: Pioneer PD-905, Accuphase DP-78
  • Amplifiers: Accuphase C-2110, Accuphase A-60
  • Interconnects and speaker cables: Nordost Heimdall, Krautwire Fractal, Homegrown Audio DNA
  • Power cords: Nordost Valhalla, Furutech Powerflux
  • Power conditioning: Monster Power HTS 2600

Gallery

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