With two bookshelf-sized speakers, each with a separate tweeter and bass driver, the Sony MX550i hi-fi and iPod dock looks like it can take on a bargain basement separates system. But can it? Find out in our Sony MX550i sound quality review.
Read the rest of our Sony MX550i review
Sony MX550i review
Sony MX550i review – iPod docking skills
The Sony MX550i’s speakers look the part, but get your mitts on one and you might be surprised at how light they are. Next to most separates speakers, and even some surround sound satellites, these speakers feel slight and not all that robust.
They may be light, but they’re also fairly powerful. The Sony MX550i is a system that will be able to fill most large living rooms thanks to its mix of big, forthright bass and bright treble. Only the top iPod docks would be able to compete with the Sony MX550i’s scale of sound – and they’ll usually set you back more than the MX550i costs too.
Is big beautiful though? The Sony MX550i knows how to fill a space with sound, but the quality is less praiseworthy than its size.
Our biggest qualm with the noise the Sony MX550i’s makes is that, thanks to a lack of mid-range warmth, it seems hollow. The mid range of the frequency spectrum tends to take a back seat to bass and treble when people talk about sound, but it’s very important. It brings weight and tonal fidelity to vocals, and much-needed maturity to even out the more attention-grabbing bass and trebly tricks.
Without enough mids to weave together the high- and low-end bits, the Sony MX550i ends up sounding unsophisticated and lacking in body. For cheap thrills and beat-based music, the Sony MX550i performs just fine, but if you consider yourself an audio enthusiast, you’ll want to spend a few quid more unless you’re looking for a casual or second (or fifth) system.
The big-bottomed bass is less than perfect too. Its ADHD approach to kicking out the jams means that the low-end often booms away, too slow and uncontrolled to deal with the level of grunt it’s trying to produce. Match this hi-fi with some bassy tunes and you’ll quickly hear the Sony MX550i start to splodge along like a kid jumping and splashing through gloopy muddy puddles.
This would be a game-ender if the Sony MX550i’s sound was muddy too, but when the hyperactive bass is matched with a bright high-end, the bass doesn’t ever dominate entirely. The Sony MX550i knows how to have fun, but without a measured approach to its bottom end, or enough mids to lend the sound much tonal richness, hi-fi nuts won’t find themselves in sonic nirvana.
Still, we need to take the Sony MX550i’s price point into consideration. £200 may get you a fairly high-end iPod dock, but this hi-fi’s much more than just that, packing-in a DAB radio and CD player to boot. However, with a legion of rival micro systems out there, and separate iPod audio docks available for around a tenner if you shop around, our socks remain resolutely un-blown off – in spite of the bass.
Read the rest of our Sony MX550i review
Sony MX550i review
Sony MX550i review – iPod docking skills
