[jonbee]

I'd been reading breathless reviews of the ~$100 Sony SSCS5 speakers for a while. In my 55 years in this hobby, I've seen many, many reputed giant killers, tried quite a few, and found only 1 that I thought merited the name, the Spica TC-50 from the early '70s. A very good speaker then, and still a respectable performer.
When Danny Ritchie of GR did his review of the Sony, I really took notice. Danny is a true pro and I respect his opinions.
I bought a pair for $118 on Amazon, gave them 100 hours play time, and gave them a listen, using streaming sources and dvds or cds ripped on my NAS system, played on my 10x12 foot office system using a Yamaha AS-801 integrated amp (a real sleeper, btw). Later on, I modded them and replaced the crossovers.
In stock form:
Pluses:
Upfront, live sounding. Open, well integrated soundstage in general. Midbass quite realistic.
Very extended, airy top end.
Ridiculous low price for what it offers.

Minuses:
Limited maximum volume. Sound hardens a lot over 90db
Emphasis in the upper midrange makes piano a bit clangy and emphasizes upper harmonics in female voices
A bit of emphasis and blurring in the lower midrange.
Top end emphasis with a bit of grit. Avoid over bright sources.
No deep bass

Net, this is a very listenable small speaker in stock form. Lively, dynamic, with an open, well integrated soundstage.  Certainly, well worth 2-3 times the outlay, The negatives prevent it from being truly audiophile quality, imo, but still fun to listen to.
Mostly a small room system due to power handling limits.
BTW, my direct comparison in this system were my lightly modded Revel M105s, a $1500 list similar size speaker which I like quite a bit.
At this point, the Revels were much superior, imo. While a bit bright, they otherwise have excellent balance and very good transparency, and play much louder.

I then dismantled them, did some simple mods, and after much thought bought plans from Neal Blanchard Designs for a new series crossover and bought parts. I felt Danny's crossover design was certainly superior, but I decided to keep the crossover budget at $200 rather than $4-500 and see where I ended up.
I'll write up a report in my next post.

[snaimpally]

I bought a pair of the Sonys because of all the buzz and because they were on sale. Good imaging but a little too bright. The GR Research mod is a bit too expensive for me so I am interested to know what you think of the NB crossover mod.

[jonbee]

I first did some basic mods. I damped the stamped steel woofer baskets with rope caulk, damped the rear of the tweeter plates with caulk also. Lined the cabinet sides with 1" thick foam, and replaced the woofer and crossover lead wires with Alphacore M1 and the tweeter wires with 20 guage 4-nines teflon/silver. I've used this combination in the past, although 20 ga. occ on the tweeters might sound easier on the top end than silver.
These changes tightened up the sound notably at low cost.
Blanchard offers 3 crossover designs for this speaker, 2 parallel and one series. He seems to prefer the series version, and it is also the lowest cost to build. I've often liked the coherence series xovers seem to offer, so I used the series option.
Blanchard does not offer kits, just plans and instructions for $20, while Danny's kits include all the parts, wires, boards, etc,, so the assembly of the Blanchard designs is considerably more involved, involving choosing and ordering parts and wires, cutting and drilling boards. I used Audyn caps and Janszen inductors. Pretty good parts, a big step up from the cheap stock parts. Parts cost was $180.
Preparation and assembly took about 10 hours. I'm not sure I would recommend this for a novice builder due to the number of large parts squeezed onto the 4x6" boards and getting them positioned and wired properly.
How do they sound? Much improved. The emphasis in the upper mids and the upper range is still there, but the overall sound is smoother, more open, and less gritty. More open and defined. The sound is still upfront and dynamic, like live music. On well recorded hard rock, they have great punch within their still relatively modest output limit.
On classical music, strings are still a bit forward, but the instrumental spread is good and clear.
Bass is still limited, of course, but in my 10x12 room they have decent weight, due to very good midbass definition.
Vocal, piano, small group jazz is very nice, clear, open and dynamic.
Overall, very coherent sounding, pretty good transparency, wide, open soundstage.
As is, still not as good as the Revel M105 for linearity and output level, but much closer, and for the price difference of  over $1000 at list the Sonys are a great buy if you're handy and they fit your needs.
I may switch out the silver tweeter wires for good copper at some point to soften the top, but they are a good listen as is.
As I mentioned, the GR Research kits, while pricier, offer more complete adjustment to frequency irregularities, have better quality parts options (and are easier to put together), and I have little doubt his version might well equal or better the very good Revels in most ways (maybe not in output limits) and still be far less $.
A fun project for me, with a happy ending! At $320 total, very cheap and cheerful quality music.

[snaimpally]

Thanks. I can read a schematic and have built electronic kits before, though it was a long time ago. I may just sell the SSCS5 speakers to someone who wants to do the mod - I already have some excellent speakers at that price point when the modifications are included. I put together the last iteration of Dennis Murphy's Affordable Accuarcy speaker which used 2 off-the-shelf Dayton (Parts Express brand) speakers and enclosure along with his custom crossover. Total cost was under $400 and they sound quite good.

[jonbee]

I had a pair of AAs with the Morel tweeters. Incredible for the $.