Today’s rage in the cage contest is the Micca RB42 and Sony SSCS5 speakers. These are two damn fine bookshelf speakers that are great if you want to kick your home audio setup a notch and add some surround sound speakers. They even work pretty darn well as main speakers for a smaller room that does not have the space for larger floor standing speakers. I have not actually looked at much from the folks at Micca so I am very excited to see how these are going to stand up against the Sony SSCS5 speakers which I have looked at a few times at this point. The Micca RB42 speakers are pretty popular in the 100 to 150 bucks price range when it comes to speakers so it is going to be pretty interesting to see how they match up against Sony…. Especially when they have a Sony fanboy looking at them! In all seriousness, I will call this right down the middle and Sony have lost before so it is not already set that they will win!
The Price
Our opening round in this Micca RB42 and Sony SSCS5 speakers battle is looking at the asking price. One of the reasons that I like both of these sets of speakers is that they are giving people very respectable and good audio quality, but they are not asking people to spend a ton of money on them.
Micca RB42:
As I write this Amazon are currently out of stock of the Micca RB42 speakers. However, they tend to go for around the $130 mark. I have seen them on there before on offer where they are closer to 100 bucks and as this is Amazon we are talking about; I have seen them on there for more as well. On eBay, the asking price for these is all over the place! So much so that I can tell you these range from 80 bucks for a used set to 200 bucks for a new set. In no way would I spend 200 dollars on these speakers. Be sure to do a fair bit of looking around as you can find these at some truly crazy prices that will save you a significant amount of money!
Sony SSCS5:
I am pretty sure that when the Sony SSCS5 speakers were first released they were closer to that 200 bucks price range. As of me writing this though, their price has dropped significantly and you can find them on Amazon right now for $128 which is a fantastic price for bookshelf speakers of this quality. These tend to fluctuate in price on Amazon and I have seen them be sold on there for even closer to that 100 bucks price tag! When it comes to eBay, these are on there in pretty large quantities. There are some used ones on there for as little as $40 and even new ones are available in the 120 to 140 bucks range so you can get some great deals on these speakers. Make sure you do not just buy them off the first site that you see!
The Verdict: The asking price for these speakers is very close. Depending on where you get these, the prices are very, very similar. I would say that you are easily looking at anywhere between 100 to 140 bucks for a new set of either of these. I do have to pick a winner and the winner of this round are the Sony SSCS5 speakers as I feel that they are a bit better value for money.
The Design
The second round in our Micca RB42 and Sony SSCS5 speakers fight to the death is now looking at the design of these things! These are two very cool looking speakers that are perfect for those low on space or who want a kickass set of speakers to give their living room or home theatre cinema like surround sound.
Micca RB42: I think that the Micca RB42 speakers have a pretty cool design about them. These are nice and compact speakers coming in at 8.7 x 4.9 x 7.9 inches and weighing around 15 pounds. These do not take up much space at all and are great if you have a smaller room or want a cool looking set of rear speakers for your surround sound system. These have a bit more of a curvier look to them than the Sony SSCS5 speakers. Their rounded edges give them a softer and more “modern” kind of look in my opinion. They have a pretty solid grille on the front that does feature the Micca logo on the bottom of it.
I think with the grille on though, these do have more of a computer speaker look. I much prefer these without the grille as the dark wood they have used really does give these an elegant kind of style. I can hand on heart say that if I had these speakers no matter if they were being used as rear speakers or as main speakers next to my turntable, I would have them with the grille off. On the back of the speaker, we have that same kind of dark wood style where our binging posts are. Overall, these have a pretty solid feel about them and with that grille off, I really do like the way that they look.
Sony SSCS5: Before I had the pleasure to check out the Sony SSCS5 speakers for myself, I watched many videos like this Unboxing Sony SS-CS5 – Totally worth it!! video to see what other people thought. These are awesome and they have that classic Sony vibe that all their music equipment in the 80s had. I swear that no one does black speakers and stereo equipment like Sony do! These are just a real blast from the past to look at. The dimensions of these are 7 1/8″ x 13 1/4″ x 8 3/4″ and they weigh 9 pounds so they are quite compact and lightweight. However, they do not feel “cheap” they actually have a real quality feel to them and when I took them out of the box, I was kind of surprised that they had a more premium feel than I was actually expecting. These do not take up much space on a shelf and they are nice and light so they are perfect for hanging on the wall too.
On the front, we have a classic looking fabric grille protecting the drivers. There are two things that I really like about this grille. First of all, is the retro looking Sony logo at the bottom. However, instead of being the exact same shape as the front of the speaker, they are angled a tad at the top and this gives them way more style and personality. With the grille off these look cool too! Once again you have that Sony logo on the bottom and the towered look of the drivers gives these a kind of music studio vibe. If I had these as my speakers, I would probably have a tough time deciding if I wanted them with or without the grille! Around the back, you have a solid quality set of binding posts to hook these up to your receiver with. In all, these look really cool and are something that I would happily have out on display in my home.
The Verdict: I like the design of both the Micca RB42 and the Sony SSCS5 speakers, but there is a clear winner here for me and that is the Sony SSCS5 speakers. I just love the overall design of these things and I legit mean it when I said I would have these as part of my home theatre setup any day. The Micca RB42 look good, but when next to the Sony speakers, I do feel that they have a bit more of a budget look about them.
The Sound
If the design round of this Micca RB42 and Sony SSCS5 contest was for the Intercontinental Championship, the sound round is for the World Heavyweight Championship! If you are a wrestling fan, that was a cool reference, if you are not, you are probably wondering what the hell I am talking about! Anyway, back on track, let’s check out how these things sound!
Micca RB42: I did come across this The Bargain Bookshelf | Micca RB-42 Review which I watched before I got these to check out for myself so I would recommend that you give the video a watch as the guy shows them off really well. I will tell you right off the bat that the Micca RB42 speakers are not as powerful as the Sony SSCS5 speakers. That though does not mean they are bad! They just lack a bit of that extra kick and I found this to be really evident when the wife and I were watching the first X-Men movie from the X-Men Trilogy 4K boxset. We were using these as the rear speakers and while they got the job done, we did notice that they were not as impactful as the Sony speakers. I even tried these out as the main front speakers while watching Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle and I must say that I was more impressed here. Again, these do not rock the room, but the clarity and overall balance of the sound resulted in some pretty good stereo quality sound. I am sure for a smaller living room; these would be more than fine.
As far as using these for music goes, we actually had a pretty lazy afternoon playing around with these so we did end up listening to a lot of music. I have an original first pressing of Purple Rain by Prince and it sounded great when pumped through these. It was nice and clear and even when we turned the volume up, it never sounded weird or anything like that. One album that did make me realize that these were way better than I thought they would be was Rocky Balboa: The Best of Rocky which is a really fun album. Also is there a song that gets you more pumped up than Hearts on Fire? I would say it even trumps, Eye of the Tiger! As far as music goes, again, for a smaller room, I think that you would be very happy with the sound quality that these provide.
Sony SSCS5: The Sony SSCS5 speakers are actually part of a great series of products from Sony and I have liked all of the parts that make up this epic home theatre surround sound system. To start off, I want to talk about my experience using these to watch movies with. I tested these out as rear surround sound speakers when watching Spider-Man: No Way Home which I am pretty sure I have watched at least five times since it was released a few months back! These really did their job as rear speakers and hit all the notes perfectly and really did a wonderful job. I also wanted to see how these would be if they were the only speakers handling the sound. I connected them to my receiver at the front and put on 30 Days of Night which is a fun vampire horror movie. Here I really got to see what these could do! I was impressed with the balanced sound I was getting; the action scenes were loud and dialogue was nice and clear. Plus, these had way more kick and bass than I thought they would which was a nice surprise.
Of course, I had to see what these were like when it came to music! I am a huge music collector so I connected these to my receiver and tried out a few of my favorite records. First up I wanted to see what this could do with live music so I put on Iron Maiden, Live After Death. The sound quality was pretty damn good! I have listened to this album a ton of times and it sounded great. I will say that in a larger room, I do think these may struggle, but in a normal or smaller room, these will rock and fill the room with sound. I also tested out Poison: Open Up And Say Ahh! which is one of the greatest 80s hair metal albums of all time and I am more than happy to report that I was having a very good time (get it?) and I was overall impressed with the sound that these speakers were producing.
The Verdict: I have to say that this is a pretty easy win for Sony. The Micca RB42 are fantastic little speakers and if you can get them for under 100 bucks, the sound quality is great. However, in a side-by-side comparison, there is no way that they are as good as the Sony SSCS5 speakers. I felt that the SSCS5’s offered a more balanced and powerful sound overall.
Which Is The Better Speaker?
Thanks for joining me on this epic journey as we put together this Micca RB42 and Sony SSCS5 speakers article. Look, the Micca RB42 speakers are fine and I am sure that people who have them will be more than happy with them. However, I have to say that this is actually a pretty easy win for Sony SSCS5 speakers. They look better, have a better build quality, and most importantly of all, they sound better. I know that sound is subjective and we all hear things in different ways, however, this is one time where I just do not see anyone saying that they think the Micca RB42 speakers sound better. However, I am sure if you could get the Micca speakers for a good price, you would be more than happy with them.
I also want to say that the Sony SSCS5 speakers are part of this epic series from Sony where you can get a home theatre surround sound setup for around the 700 to 800 bucks price range. To pull this off in addition to the SSCS5 speakers you would need the Sony SSCS3 3-Way Floor-Standing Speaker (Single) – Black & STRDH190 2-ch Home Stereo Receiver, another Sony SSCS3 3-Way Floor-Standing Speaker, the Sony SSCSE Dolby Atmos Enabled Speakers and the Sony SSCS8 2-Way 3-Driver Center Channel Speaker. You get all this stuff and you have an epic Dolby Atmos surround sound setup for well under a thousand bucks!