Way back in 1937 Pioneer made its first loudspeaker. That's a good 24 years before legendary British brand KEF began making enclosures, yet you still probably consider Pioneer as a Japanese electronics firebrand, solely responsible for in-car audio and flatscreen TVs (deceased). But the truth is, it knows a thing or two about speaker craftsmanship, and it has stepped up to the mark again with the latest EX series.

It has at times created speakers of such sonic beauty and covetous appeal that they are raised to the level of art themselves. The brand even has a word for it, in which craftsmanship is treated almost as a religious tenet – taqumi. And that's exactly what these latest EX Series speakers are all about.

These models are actually derived from TAD's Reference One cabinets. TAD is an outfit that became a part of Pioneer in the mid-1970s. Since then it has carved itself a slice of the high-end of the professional market, based on breathtaking compression drivers for near-field monitoring in studios. It makes a mean mid-bass too…

A few years ago, Pioneer's UK-born speaker guru Andrew Jones was given the brief of melding some of the technology from theTAD side of the business into a speaker with Pioneer's name on the front. The result was the mighty S1-EX speaker system. Now Pioneer is back with the 'smaller' S3-EX.

Still huge

Not that they're small. I still had to travel to Pioneer's home counties-based campus to wrap my ears around a full EX Series 5.1 system, because it demands a certain ideal placement and my own listening room is simply too small.

These EX speakers use the same 'Precision Curve' time alignment system as their bigger brethren; mounting the drivers on a curved baffle. This allows for the creation of the circular ITU speaker placement recommendation, thereby ensuring accurate arrival times of all the sonic detail.

The result is a soundstage that hangs in the space between the speakers, zooming around the soundfield as the director's whim takes. And the sound quality is scintillating.

The same CST (Coherent Source Transducer) is used as in the £50,000 TAD Reference One speakers, but instead of being made of Unobtainium (well, Beryllium actually), for the EX models Pioneer uses Ceramic Graphite for the domes and Magnesium metal for the midbass drivers.

Meaty stands are required to hold the S-4EX rears up – I'd love to see the books you'd keep on the 'bookshelf' these are described as being for! A centre stand is also needed to align the identically-equipped central S-8EX enclosure in the same virtual sphere as the S-3EX fronts.

For bass, Pioneer offers the S-W250 subwoofer, with a quarter kilowatt amp and a 12in driver, plus a passive radiator diaphragm to give the best of both ported and sealed low-frequency performance.

Sonic integrity

Central to my listening evaluation was Ratatouille and its accompanying short, Lifted. Both have a level of sonic integrity and design that defies belief. I cranked up Pioneer's Susano amp (what else would I use to drive these monsters?) and felt a bit like Jeremy Clarkson burning tyres on a Bentley.

I found it difficult not to compare this set to the vastly more expensive KEF reference system. While the KEF system can hurt your bones, this system offers a more sane scale that feels more realistic for it. As real as a race of rats having an exodus down a river on tiny little boats can be, anyway.