Pioneer S-IW871LR, S-IW571L User Manual
TEST REp ORTS
OCTOBER/09
TR
Pioneer elite
S-IW571L & S-IW871LR
IN-WALL SPEAKER SYSTEM
Reviewed by BRENT BUTTERWORTH
here are few concepts in manufacturing
more hallowed than the “skunk works,” a
T
design group that operates outside the
mainstream of the corporation that employs
them. The name was coined to describe a Lockheed facility in Palmdale, California that has
produced some of the world’s most extraordinary
jet aircraft. Only 80 miles away, in the nondescript
suburb of Pomona, another skunk works has
been flourishing for more than a decade. In this
backwater of Pioneer’s worldwide operations,
su rro unded by sh elve s of ra w driv ers an d ca rcass -
es of past prototypes, Pioneer chief speaker de-
signer Andrew Jones and his crew have designed
everything from $40-per-pair minispeakers to the
$60,000-per-pair TAD Reference One towers.
Jones’s team has recently focused on architectural speakers — i.e., in-wall and in-ceiling
models. Extra effort went into the models designed for Pioneer’s high-end Elite line, which are
intended to compete with the world’s most storied speaker brands.
The Pioneer Elite architectural speakers are
notable for their concentric drivers, which use
1½-inch titanium tweeters mounted in the
center of various woofers. Pioneer refers to its
concentric designs by the acronym CST, for Co-
herent Source Transducer.
Key Features
+S-IW571L
($699 each)
(2) 51⁄4-in woofers;
61⁄2-in midrange/woofer;
11⁄2-in tweeter; 2011⁄16 in
wide; 13 lb
+S-IW871LR
($899 per pair)
8-in woofer; 11⁄2-in
tweeter; 1315⁄16-in high;
7 lb
Price
$2,996 (as tested)
PIONE EREL ECTRO NICS. COM
52 OCTO BER /2009 | SOUNDANDVISIONMAG.COM
»
uP ‘n down sound
The S-1W571L’s concentric-driver
arrangement means it can be installed
either horizontally or vertically with
no effect on the sound.
TEST REp ORTS
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
soundvision
+
OCTOBER/09
TR
Pioneer elite in-wall SpEakER SySTEm
The advantage of a concentric arrangement is that two drivers share
the same physical location. When a
woofer and tweeter are separated,
as they are in a conventional twoway speaker, the two drivers’ sound
waves interfere with each other, reinforcing certain frequencies and
therefore canceling others. The effect worsens when you move closer
to one driver, such as when you listen standing up.
With concentric drivers, it’s physically impossible to move closer to
the woofer or the tweeter because
both occupy the same space. Thus,
the speaker’s sound will vary only
“The voice of a screaming, ecstatic
56-year-old man would push any speaker
into harshness and distortion, but the Elites
treated Iggy Pop with far more care than he
ever lavished on himself.”
The S-IW571L will work fine for surround channels, too, but to add some
variety I asked Pioneer to supply a
pair of S-IW871LR speakers for the
surrounds. The S-IW871LR looks as if
Pioneer’s engineers forgot to give it a
tweeter, but of course the tweeter’s
sitting right there in the middle of the
8-inch woofer.
Both Elite speakers feature a cast
aluminum baffle holding the drivers.
This baffle is much more substantial
than the molded plastic ones used in
most in-walls. The more massive the
baffle, the better it prevents the drywall panels around the speaker from
vibrating. Stray vibrations in the dry-
»
concenTRic-dRiven
subtly as you move around the room.
The downside of concentric drivers
is that the woofer cone can narrow
the tweeter’s dispersion and color
its sound. As proven in the TAD Reference One and designs from Thiel
Audio and others, though, careful
engineering can lessen or even eliminate this problem.
Of the latest Elite in-walls, I was
most curious about the S-IW571L, an
LCR-type speaker designed primarily
for use in the front left, center, and
right channels of a surround sound
system. The S-IW571L is unusual in
that its midrange driver — the 6½inch aramid fiber cone that surrounds
the 1½-inch titanium dome tweeter
— is larger than the speaker’s dual
5¼-inch woofers.
wall are the primary contaminant of
in-wall speaker sound — and one reason in-walls still suffer a poor reputation with many audiophiles.
setuP
These speakers install like most other
in-walls: Plastic “doglegs” flip out to
clamp the speaker bezel against the
drywall surrounding it. The concentric
drivers give the Elites an advantage
in installation, though — your installer
can mount them vertically or horizontally, and they’ ll so und m uch t he same
either way. This isn’t true of conventional in-walls, with a tweeter mounted
above a woofer. Some installers make
the mistake of flipping such speakers
on their sides for the sake of looks or
convenience, but this practice often
54 OCTO BER /2009 | SOUNDANDVISIONMAG.COM
»
fliP the switch
The S-IW871LR in-walls (above)
feature an 8-inch woofer for big
in-wall bass, along with treble
level and bass cut switches to
fine-tune the highs and lows.
Loading...