Scoring!

dogn4u

Active Member
Hello AKrs. I'm seriously into thrift stores for as many of my wants and needs as possible. Most of my furnishings (except mattress and bedclothes), clothing (except underwear and jeans), kitchen (including German cutlery and a nice set of Revere copper-bottom pots and pans), and artwork. The best way to score is to go often...and to remember that junk is junk, even if it's dirt cheap. Don't let a jaw-dropping low price alone convince you to buy things you won't use or want - no point in dragging stuff home only to throw it away there.

Music related items are harder to come by. Sometimes some decent records. A ton of cheap junk - computer speakers and cheap all-in-one systems. A couple of months ago, though, I scored a Bose wave radio for $6, cleaned it up, gave to my ex.

I had some interesting finds in the last couple weeks: first, at $1.99 a piece, these Sony floor standing speaker cabs. I normally wouldn't give Japanese speakers a second glance, but these cabs are extremely solidly built - and most curiously are marked "Made in USA". Really? Speakers from Sony? WTF? So I coughed up the $4.28 and hauled them home. At first I thought they had two 12" woofers a piece, but they turned out to have one woofer and one passive radiator.

So what the hell. For $20, I ordered four foam surround repair pieces. Been reading up on speaker design and believe I will eventually build a pair of acoustic suspension speakers, perhaps bookshelf sized. I currently had no way to drive any speakers at home. I have a pretty nice home recording studio, and while I love my 8" KRK monitors, they are self-powered and fed by a line level signal from my board. So I needed an amp, and having no interest in 5.1 or 7.1 systems, began to search for a stereo amp or receiver, used or new. They are not easy to find new; most everything is A/V surround oriented, so I was watching eBay and CL for a used integrated SS amp. Holy cow, but "vintage" stuff has jumped in price.

I wanted a minimum of 60-80 wpc (RMS), bearing in mind I'd need some power if I ended up building (or buying) a pair of acoustic suspension speaks. I was watching for the usual: Pioneer, Sansui, Kenwood, Sony, Denon, Yamaha. Anything Japanese from the 70's or very early eighties.

I was getting discouraged and thinking about just dropping 150 on a new Yamaha R-S201BL stereo receiver as a temporary solution. Then, the Batman fictional characters, Analogus Maximii and Transisto, my invisible friends, intervened and directed me to look one last time at the Animal Shelter thrift store before driving to Spokane Best Buy. And there it was, squatting on a shelf, large and menacing: a 1981 Sansui 7900z stereo receiver.

Consensus is that this unit is one of the last high quality Sansui pieces before the decline of Japanese stereo equipment. Faceplates soon after turned black, the Japanese manufacturers began to outsource to China, Taiwan, etc, and internal components took a dive in quality. Bells, whistles, and especially lights, meters and "digital" readouts soon became more important than solid, good sound, a trend that sadly has continued, culminating in today's dirt cheap (but lots of flashing lights!) stuff from Pyle, etc. Might as well buy your equipment from some skeevy looking junkies in a battered white windowless van on the street.

So anyway, I paid for the Sansui and brought it home. I'm have too much respect for my brothers and sisters at AK to tell you what I paid for it...let's just say that I'm still in shock...and that it was between 14 and 16 dollars. Popped the hood and cleaned up the guts with compressed air and DeOxIt and it runs just fine. I need some better speakers than the testers I'm using, but the parts are on the way and if the Sonys don't happen for me, it will be a pair of 12" CVs. I notice a lot of people ragging on Cerwin Vega...and frankly that's the least of my worries. I've never heard ballsier sounding speakers for rock and roll in that price range and I think for sub-$1000 speakers, they are untouchable.


Anyway...that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. I wish you all a relaxing Sunday evening.

Rudi
 

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Meant to say - I could find next to nothing about these speakers on line. The model is Sony's SS-U501; they say 270 watts maximum input. One 12" Woofer, one 12" passive radiator. Anybody know anything about these? Thanks!
 
Depends on the amp, and what you're doing, along with your tastes as to whether you'd like CV speakers. I tried a set on a tube amp and thought they sounded like cat scat. I gave them to a friend who runs them on a late 1970s Fisher solid state unit and they sound very good. Different room, different amp, etc. They are very efficient, and quite loud, but to my ears they sound tubby and bloated on a tube amp. Not all speakers work with all amplifiers.
 
Honestly, you wouldn't want dual 12" woofers in a cabinet like that. The passive radiator is essentially "another way" of implementing a bass port.
 
Thanks guys. So, in terms of efficiency, given the same amp and drivers, would you say a cab using a radiator is closer to an acoustic suspension or ported design? Why would the design of a speaker use a passive radiator over a port (or vice versa)? What are advantages and disadvantages to ported, passive radiator, and sealed box?
 
Passive radiator speakers are essentially the same principle as ported. Sealed box is a whole different animal. Ported or passive radiator designs will go deeper in bass but can get flabby if not well designed. Sealed cabinets have a "faster" response because as the woofer moves it pressurizes the cabinet and "assists" the spider in returning the cone to neutral, but there are many factors in speaker design, so this type of generalization is just that--a generalization. I own both types and a pair of planar speakers, so listen for what you like.
 
You ask, what is best..?

I would think the difference is "designer preference", audio engineering for quality of sound, and in some cases cost..:scratch2:

Passive radiators do "function" to assist with the overall sound.. but basically they are a speaker cone without the voice coil. In some cases I have heard the sound to be "smoother" but I won't say its better:no:.

Vented are just that, open enclosure whereas the tuning is usually done via a port with a tube. In this design, the air dynamics are manipulated to give you that added bass delivery.. I have heard some designs that really master this. And there are speakers that provide real PUNCH as a result.

My preference is the vented as I use this principle for my cabinets:thmbsp:.

A good sealed cabinet with quality drivers is probably "hallmark". As far back as I can remember this was the standard. However... I do recall hearing some amazing "floor console", three-in-one, cabinet designed systems... and they were not sealed? Hmmmm... ?

So.. given you ask, what is best..?

I believe your ear will be the best judge of this...:yes:!
 
It really doesn't make a lot of difference which cabinet loading the designer chose. Passive radiator, vented or acoustic suspension can all be equally effective. It's the implementation that matters not the type.
 
Congratulations on your scores, enjoy! I have a brother that lives relatively near Spokane, but that is too far for me to score anything large or heavy when visiting.
 
This goes to show that speakers, with cone tweaters, which are assumed to be crap. are not necessarily so. They can sometimes provide just the right balance in the design of a speaker.
 
Ohhh.. this is about some broken GWill cast offs?
I assumed it was all about Disco, Leisure Suits, tacky jewelry and dim Wimmin.
My Bad.
 
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