Sony APM-X5A aka The Lunchbox

[natureboy]

Greetings!

I thought I'd open a thread about my recent acquisition while hopefully sharing information about this model in the Sony APM series of speakers. I bought it sight unseen, untested, only some blurry photos that shows a pair of dusty speakers. Looked up some info and found this:



I kinda like the flat response graph and so I called the guy (I've dealt with him before) to have it sent to me. That same night when I got them I'm already prying open the grill on one.



I wasn't kidding when I said it was dusty:



Looking at the box I kinda figured I need to do some cleaning inside, and I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the inside:





The drivers are shielded, and the inside looks clean! The woofer is made of stamped steel, and the square cone is attached to a round cone on the bottom. On the more expensive APM pictures that I saw, the drivers either had four magnets or four rods connecting the back to the cone to the motor. This is a simpler approach on entry level model, it seems. Crossover is very simple, 2.2uF to the tweeter so it seems the woofer is run full range and the tweeter is 6dB high passed at around 9000Hz.


This is a well made speakers. I think this model is designed to be attached to the sides of a monitor, used in broadcasting or music studio. They are well made, the plastic is sturdy, the drivers hold up pretty well, surrounds are all intact. I was surprised by the film cap used here, looks like a good quality one, hopefully PP.

Cleaned up pretty nice and sounds clean, sounds flat and leaning towards bright to me. I like it. No rubbing or any problems, really. I left the grill off permanently. All in all not bad for the price of two McDonalds happy meals.

 

[A400]

I have a pair of these too, in good condition except one of the terminal clips is broken. I'd leave the grills on to protect the honeycomb driver from any damage.

Mine sound like there is a peak in the bass response, as if the box is too small for the woofer. The graph you posted doesn't show that so maybe I need to try them again and experiment with positioning.

Thanks for sharing.

 

[natureboy]

Thanks A400. How do you place yours? I had mine on a counter top just flat against the wall. Do you think they will benefit from some dacron stuffing?

 

[zycamaniac]

I have a pair of these too, in good condition except one of the terminal clips is broken. I'd leave the grills on to protect the honeycomb driver from any damage.

Mine sound like there is a peak in the bass response, as if the box is too small for the woofer. The graph you posted doesn't show that so maybe I need to try them again and experiment with positioning.

Thanks for sharing.

I recently got a pair of APM-X5A and one of the clip on the input terminal promptly broke. And while inspecting the damage, the other non-broken tab on the same speaker joined the strike without hesitation.Then I recalled that I have recently bought a set of speaker binding posts to upgrade my Realistic Minimus 7. However, it still need more parts to complete the crossover upgrade. So there comes the binding posts for my APM-X5A.

Then I tried to pull the connector off, but it was tight and i don't want to damage the connector by brute force, and i ended up pulling the metal contact tab out of the terminal's plastic housing (a good thing, actually), but hey, didn't damage anything that i would care to protect.

Then I tried to find a replacement for the assembly that would fit the rectangular hole, or at least cover it to a degree that wouldn't turn it into a reflex port. Then i realized i could just remove the tab and spring from the original terminal, shave the top flat, widen the holes to the side (so to give the binding posts some space and not touch eachother), and just fill the void with epoxy.

I realized that would leave some spaces between the binding posts that would let epoxy flow through, and that was fixed with a small piece of scotch tape. Don't mind the seams, as dollar store 5 minutes epoxy wouldn't leak through it fast enough, but big gaps needs to be taped up.

Now the metal tabs i pulled out are drilled to make it easier for me to attach them to the binding posts. Secure them on and reassemble the speaker! Rinse and repeat with the next one



new and old.


Gooey... Notice the tiny bit of scotch tape


Epoxy filling, remember to turn the posts a couple of turns after filling, so that the epoxy can soak all around the screw threads to seal it up properly. Also make sure you have the posts angled correctly to make it easier for you to run your wires.


This is how it looks after everything has attached.


This speaker is too nice looking as is, I didn't want to modify it any more than the absolute minimum... But then again, I might upgrade the wires later, and solder all connections.

 

[tattacchi]

Hello Natureboy,
thanks for the very interesting post.
I myself recently acquired those Sony APMs, and wanted to clean them as well.
I tried to take the metal grill cover off but I am afraid to damage it, as it seems stuck or glued.
Could you kindly share how you managed to take the cover off?
Was it damaging to the grill?
Many thanks,
Cheers

 

[tattacchi]

I have a pair of these too, in good condition except one of the terminal clips is broken. I'd leave the grills on to protect the honeycomb driver from any damage.

Mine sound like there is a peak in the bass response, as if the box is too small for the woofer. The graph you posted doesn't show that so maybe I need to try them again and experiment with positioning.

Thanks for sharing.

Hello A400,
I have the same broken terminal clip.
If it is of any help, you can find replacement terminal under reference WP2-35.
There are no name ones and also Uxcell produces them,
Best.

 

[PianotunerNJ]

I LOVE Sony APM speakers. I’ve invested a couple of grand into 5 pair, 2/22’s, 2/33’s and a pair of 55’s. The flat speaker surface has a distinctive presentation. I find that no matter what other speaker I demo, I keep coming back to the APM’s. I’ve listened to speakers costing upwards of $7000 and my 55’s sound better. To be fair, the $7000 speakers (Vandersteens) I heard were set up with a full Benchmark system and it’s a beautiful and expensive system, in a horrible “L” shaped room with obstacles in the way, not optimal listening space. Goes to show how the room is crucial. Some rooms are not HiFi capable I guess. I would love to put them (APMs) in a head to head shootout with some other high end speakers to more directly compare.

Just yesterday, I noticed an ad on the classified list here in NJ and I grabbed a pair of Sony SS HA-3 bookshelf speakers for $120, in mint condition. I took them home and spent a couple of hours playing with them throughout the day. If you get a chance to check out speakers from this line, I highly recommend it, you maybe impressed. The HA-3 has a tiny 4” woofer and 2 (silk dome?) tweeters, one geared for more mids facing front and one super tweeter facing upwards. I’ve wanted to demo these for a while so I hopped on them.

Firstly, they are 4Ohm speakers (rated at 70w) and being small, it takes a load to really power them. Not sensitive at all at 83db at a watt. So, they require an amp stable at 4Ohms and powerful enough to bring them to life. I’m powering mine with a Sonance Sonamp 275x3 which is stable to 2 Ohms for running 3 pair of speakers at once. It’s also fairly juicy at about 125 wpc at 4Ohms.

The other thing is that these speakers definitely require a subwoofer in my opinion. They do produce bass, but the extension is very limited and frankly weak unless they’re literally in your face. But, with an appropriate amp, and a small sub, these things sound amazing. The detail and clarity rival my APM speakers and the sound is sterile and articulate without being fatiguing. And when you play HiRes material it gets scary how good they sound. It’s as if they know that there’s a DSD source and they wake up. Maybe it’s the super high frequency range creating psychoacoustic effects, but DSD sounds really impressive on these tiny speakers. I’m using a small 8” Definitive Technology sub with them and it’s a great and well balanced trio. A cleaner sealed box sub would be great, maybe I’ll start looking for one to match with them.

If you like the APM sound, the HA speakers might be a good option, especially the bigger ones than I got. They must sound really nice with some size.