Fantastic - I cant find a single review of thousand dollar+ Chinese speakers I've been looking at, but your $50 Sonys have an online review ....
http://hometheaterreview.com/sony-ss-b1000-bookshelf-loudspeaker-reviewed/
Sound
The SS-B1000 presents a nominal 8 ohm load with an 87dB efficiency. The speaker needed better quality power to perform its best, but squeezed out enough good sound to represent a more than good enough match with entry-level receivers and amplifiers.
The SS-B1000 sounded lively and crisp, but needed warmth and heft. The soundstage had a surprising amount of depth and width, but imaged a bit fuzzy overall. The top end veered towards a little edginess on rock and electronic tracks, but presented classical and jazz with a more neutral balance. This quality also moved into the midrange, with an overall lightweight and shallow tonal balance that needed warmth and body on most material. The SS-B1000 sounded like its size in these areas. The bass didn't warm things up enough, and the 1000 moved away from the 3000 in this area. The bigger model tended to sound big but flabby, whereas the smaller model lacked fullness and weight. But, like the 3000, the 1000 held together wonderfully throughout, presenting a solid coherence and musicality that masked its flaws rather than exposing them. The lightweight tonal balance made things tighter, minimizing the lack of weight and instead exposing the quick pacing and peppery bass. The SS-B1000 also didn't like playing loudly as much as did the 3000. Against a wall, things remained status quo, with the balance remaining lightweight overall (the front porting probably didn't help matters here). In individual areas, the SS-B1000's performance comes up short in varying degrees. But the speaker still sounds good overall, and, of course, when factoring in its absurb price (which you must do), the decision is made.
