Calling all SonicS Speaker owners!

I picked these up at the side of the road about 6 months ago. Decided to work on them this evening. A little solder to some of the connections and they are up and running. AS-210's "Truly the worlds finest" or so its says on the back. Sonics do not sound half bad to me. Listened to some Jazz and I like them.
 

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Cabinets and grills all done..
speakers and crossovers ready to be wired in.
shame there are a few too many dinks on the cabinets (well made units braced and mainstay strut with additional woofer ply-board).. otherwise the veneer has come up well.
I still can't find any history on the company... would love to know more.
 

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All done.
Interestingly the rewire ended uncovering a three way 5 speaker setup and not a true 4 way crossover (tweeters in parallel and horn/bullet tweeter in series), unlike the AS337a I have.

Great sounding highs (the horn/bullet tweeter great sounding), both bass and mids are likely to open up as the speakers are used and broken in again.... pretty sure these speakers had little.
It always amazes me what a difference replacing the capacitors and wiring makes.
 

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Hello, mines are AS 450. I attached the corresponding brochure. They are driven by a Pioneer QX 949 in 2 channel mode. Usually, I love their sound, but on occasions I don´t like them that much. They use to sound amazing with a QRX8001 in 4 channel mode.
 

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Hi guys, new to the forum but I joined because I wanted to contribute to the Sonics stories being shared and I had a known history for my set that I still use daily. These Sonics AS-377 speakers are my zone 2 (upstairs bedroom) down the hall from some 10-year-old Ikons in the ensuite. Downstairs I've got Mirage i895s BiPolar loudspeakers - not the most high-end setup by any means but interesting enough to compare 42-year-old Sonics speakers to the others. These are all connected to a upper-mid level Denon AVR but I use a USB and wall-powered DAC to clean up the MP3s I use and I go direct from computer to DAC to AVR - no other compression or upscaling or any BS. The tone knob you can see in the picture causes some static if I mess with it so I leave it on "clear" since that's where Dad had it. I find the sound to be crisp and accurate for the more acoustic stuff I listen to but then these puppies can actually hang with some metal and more complex breadth of instruments without getting boomy or losing accuracy, unlike the Mirages downstairs that get a little overwhelming at times with some styles. Bass heavy rock like the Chili Peppers might be my favourite thing to listen to since Flea gets lots of room to do his thing without getting muddy and the highs still stand out...maybe a little thin on the mids but it depends so much on the quality of the mp3 or style of music it seems. The detail is incredible at lower volumes and even turning it up, they don't seem to have a ceiling before the amp stops trying (likely struggling to drive four speakers out of a zone 2 with all homerun - wiring).

I read the forums and it seems everyone bought theirs at a yard sale or second-hand store of some kind but these were handed down to me by my Dad - we're the original owners! He bought them from a guy who owned a TV/Stereo store here in Eastern Canada and since he worked with the owner's son, he got access to a wholesale deal, literally fresh off the boat (maybe from Japan). Dad met the guy who drove the truck for the store at the shipyard and bought them off the tailgate in April '76. They were $199 and he paired them with some kind of Sansui amp - Mom records all those purchases (likely for bargaining purposes for more sensible purchases). Dad used them as his only speakers right up until about 10 years ago. Anyway, not a lot of info out there on these but I feel fortunate to have them in such mint condition - they've only ever been in three rooms and moved three times their entire life.
 

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i have these at home for my brother stefdaughter !! i'm the guy ho make speakers so ??
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SonicS AS-447
Found on the curb (probably due to vaneer delaminating)
Sound very similar to if not better than the Pioneer CS-99’s I used to own.
I’m stoked on em
 

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Picking up a pair of AS-250a tomorro with a sansui 555a and turntable . Can’t wait to test em out and see what can be done with them . One owner since new and he passed away so his son inherited the system and is selling on. Mainly purchased for the 555a then found this thread looking for info on the Sonics . So now I’m interested .....
 
Oh the memories, I still own 8 Sonics speakers, the 447 pair, 2 pairs of 441s, and the pair of 207s. Never did much with the 207s as one was very damaged in shipping (ended up getting them free), all cosmetic, but pretty severe. Not sure that I even listened to them, but they were very light and seemed to be much less of a quality speaker, but I guess I would have to listen to know for sure. I still have great respect for these vintage speakers and still plan on getting them out again, but they are in storage and buried under a mountain of Paradigm speakers. I am fully converted to Paradigm. I really love the Studio and Signature series speakers from the late 90s to the early 10s. I also upgrade Studio series with Signature drivers. I think it has been over 2 years since I even heard the Sonics, but now I want to fire them up again and see what I think of them now that I have heard much higher end speakers.
 
Figured I will throw mine in for good measure. I have a pair of AS-447A's.
Type: 5 way, 6 driver loudspeaker system
Frequency Response: 22Hz to 22kHz
Power Handling: 120W
Impedance: 8Ω
Bass: 1 x 16" cone
Midbass: 1 x 5-1/4" cone
Midrange: 1 x dome
Tweeter: 2 x 3" cone
Super Tweeter: 1 x dome
Finish: open pore, oiled walnut
Dimensions: 17-9/16 x 25-5/8 x 11-5/8 inches
Weight: 60.5lbs

A friend gifted them to me because I really didn't have anything worthwhile to listen through. I don't know much about much, but after doing a little reading, and being a tube amp tinkerer, I knew they needed caps. After a recap they really came alive. They seem pretty sensitive...I run them with a 2x10w Silvertone tube amp that's been completely restored and "loud" isn't a problem in the size room that I have. I wish I had more experience with other higher end speakers for reference, but they sound pretty damn good to me. Instruments sounds like instruments. There's definition with everything. I dunno. For my meager setup...I'd be hard pressed to really improve upon things without a huge wallet dump.
sonics1.jpg sonics2.jpg sonics3.jpg sonics4.jpg sonics5.jpg
 
I picked up a pair of Sonics today. I bought an Akai M8 reel time reel and akai x-150d which was installed in a huge wood cabinet. There were two large cabinet speakers. I took the cabinet and speakers so I could get the reel to reels. Basically I paid them to haul their extremely heavy cabinet off...

Based on paperwork I found with them I think they are model AS-400-A if that helps. Added a picture of the diagram I found. Maybe the owner built custom cabinets?

The speakers are Sonics in very heavy solid wood cabinet. I decided to hook them up on the patio and I’m really surprised how good they sound. They are probably 75+ lbs each.

Anyone know anything about these?

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I'm still listening to this most evenings out on the back patio. Still can't beleive how good they sound!
After viewing your post, I thought I would share some thoughts about the SONICS AS-331 Loudspeakers.

I've been dealing in HiFi Vintage Audio Trade for over a decade and picked up a pair of the AS-331 a few years ago for $20 (in very good condition) and was blown back. There isn't a lot of information that could find - but some of the members from an antique/vintage radio audio club I belong to have mentioned that the cabinets could have been built by Sansui and the drivers could be Sansui or Pioneer.
 
I'm still listening to this most evenings out on the back patio. Still can't beleive how good they sound!
Now, my previous statement is mostly based on speculation b/c I just have not had time to really do much research. However, from a logical standpoint, we have had a large military base in Japan - this would lead me to believe that the Japanese Manufactures wanted to price products according to means available to our military members. So if you have demand, but don't want to avoid degrading upper tier brands, the Japanese could have easily constructed similar products with the name SONICS. Again, it's only a theory of mine, and I can't say this is what really happened.
 
Lastly, I own a pair of Sansui SP-100 Loudspeakers, and I can tell you that those drivers look almost identical, besides the stamp of model.
 
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