Sansui Speakers
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Moby Dick
Active Member
I had a pair of sansui sp3500 and they were beautiful and very well made.
I wanted to like them but they were so bright sounding I just couldn’t.
I ended-up selling them to someone who was putting together an all sansui system.
I love the way old-school lattice-grille speakers look and for me to sell them means I really did not like how they sounded.
I thought briefly on installing different drivers and crossovers but I couldn’t find any forum posts of people who have successfully done this so I figured they were a lost cause.
But they were pretty.
I wanted to like them but they were so bright sounding I just couldn’t.
I ended-up selling them to someone who was putting together an all sansui system.
I love the way old-school lattice-grille speakers look and for me to sell them means I really did not like how they sounded.
I thought briefly on installing different drivers and crossovers but I couldn’t find any forum posts of people who have successfully done this so I figured they were a lost cause.
But they were pretty.
I've honestly never been a fan of the lattice-grilles. Absolutely beautiful from a woodworking perspective, but I always regarded them as just a bit too quaint for my tastes. That, and they tend to mess with dispersion, as if the multitude of drivers underneath wasn't enough. I'm sure that with some good restoration and some good power, these things can provide some genuinely good sound, although I'm also not surprised that Bodyblue's SP70 2-ways sounded better than the 4/5/6-way design.
Call it misplaced nostalgia or bile-fascination, but I would like to hunt down, or at least know, what those 4-connector'd monstrosities were. I texted my brother about it last night, and he swore up and down they were Kenwood or Pioneer, but I definitely recall them starting with an S. Neither of us could remember what all the connectors were for, and he installs professional sound systems for a living now. I can only guess at quadruple amping, but that seems almost comically excessive. Then again, excess really seems to be the name of the game with these firing squads, I guess.
Call it misplaced nostalgia or bile-fascination, but I would like to hunt down, or at least know, what those 4-connector'd monstrosities were. I texted my brother about it last night, and he swore up and down they were Kenwood or Pioneer, but I definitely recall them starting with an S. Neither of us could remember what all the connectors were for, and he installs professional sound systems for a living now. I can only guess at quadruple amping, but that seems almost comically excessive. Then again, excess really seems to be the name of the game with these firing squads, I guess.
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My Sansui SP-3005 speakers can be tri-amplified, there's a speaker connector for the woofer, tweeter, mid, and another one for using it full-range! At the time, Sansui also marketed active crossovers and lots of amps.. I'm curious how they'd sound triamplified!
I wonder if yours suffered from the hardened woofer surrounds, which are making many of the old Sansui speakers lose bass extension and excursion.
Someone on youtube cut them out and replaced with foam. I don't have any with this issue, but I'd probably try using acetone to remove the coating, and then re-coat with something else. That's experimental though, you better find someone who has actually done it - I think starting a thread in the sansui forum might find the answer.
jberger
Super Member
Hmmm...I have some of the vintage-ar cloth surround sealant that has been satisfactory for the re-coat on other speakers (I believe it's butyl rubber dissolved in toluene, but I'm not certain). I think that my first step will be some vigorous exercising, once I can find floor space to set them up.
May be time to get out the lab coat and practice my maniacal laugh...
May be time to get out the lab coat and practice my maniacal laugh...
RTally
Speaker addict
I have SP-100 speakers that I am planning on rebuilding. The surrounds are stiff. I was going to use some Xylene to loosen them up. Xylene is similar to toluene, which is the solvent in the vintage-ar/RoyC stuff. The surrounds do not need to be redoped because they are in vented cabinets, no air-tight seal needed. I will report back after I see what happens.
Just don't concentrate and inhale it
That stuff is quite smelly. I'm curious what the results will be (to the speaker!)
chip18sw
Well-Known Member
Holly Crap!!
That looks about right, although after some googling, I do believe they actually might have been Kenwood KL 4/5/7080's, most likely the 7080s. Exact same design ethos-biiiig woofer with a wide array of horns and drivers hidden behind a lattice grille, with provisions for multiamping. Been about a decade exactly since I last heard 'em, and my ear was hardly discerning, but I do remember the bass being pretty forceful, running off a tanky '80s-era Sony AVR pushing 110 watts under the control of some rambunctious kids. I definitely remember "Hypnotize" by Biggie Smalls causing the woofers to buckle in and out entertainingly, and they met their maker about 10 years ago when my brother found my dad's CD of Telarc's 1812 Overture and pegged the volume. I was outside at the time, but heard the Tambora-esque BANG, followed by my rather bemused-looking brother walking out of the garage and saying "well, they're dead". They were soon replaced with some yard sale Bose 501's and then immediately by some brand-new Cerwin-Vega's (mom would absolutely NOT let my brother keep those "hideous Bose things" in her house), both of which put the big Kenny's to shame in the bass department at a fraction of the size.
What tipped me off is that the Kenwoods have a metal lattice grille, which I remember rattling and eventually disappearing. Seems like they were made around 1970, and I do have a similar vintage 25wpc Kenwood receiver that would have made good use of that 102dB efficiency-I'd need about 300wpc to get the same max SPL out of some regular 90dB efficient speakers!! It has pre in/outs that the manual descibes as being for a "multi-channel" system, and shows it being connected to some sort of crossover amplifier. I never paid much attention to it until now, and just assumed it was a mistranslation about a quad adaptor. Looking at the supplied frequency response chart, they probably sound like absolute hell, but I wonder what could be wrung out of 'em with an entirely customizable crossover, perhaps even eliminating some excess drivers.
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/kenwood/kl-7080.shtml
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The 3005s have a modest 12" woofer in a large cabinet. I think they predate the full blown kabuki craze, being from 1971. I really enjoy their sound.
f0427ea
Super Member
D.O.T.3 brake fluid , put the speakers on their backs , paint a coat of brake fluid on the dope that's in the middle of the surround , run some bass heavy music , 30Hz tone or whatever , let them play like that for the night , that will loosen those woofers right up , have done that on more than a couple stiff old doped-cloth surrounds with good results , haven't had to re-treat them either , so far . don't get the break fluid on the cone or frame just on the dope in the middle of the surround.
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jberger
Super Member
If I were to get semi-scientific on this, and just do one at a time to compare before and after, what should I test and how?
Tone generator, see what frequency gives maximum output, and see if it changes before and after?
Measure output level from a specific power output, and see if they've become more efficient?
Other ideas?
Tone generator, see what frequency gives maximum output, and see if it changes before and after?
Measure output level from a specific power output, and see if they've become more efficient?
Other ideas?
