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Sansui recap project.

pmsummer

pmsummer

simul justus et peccator
Started the re-cap/re-terminal project tonight on the ca. 1969 Sansui SP-300s I picked up a couple of weeks ago. The drivers are Alnico made by Coral (and possibly the speakers themselves).

p22400031tm1.jpg

Sitting next to the Cornwall, to refresh your memory of what the SP-300 looks like with its three horns.


my.php

Original XO.


p30600032so7.jpg

With new Daytons for HF and MID (I left the old 22uF cap in for the LF for the time being).


p3060007rv3.jpg

New 5-way terminals replacing the dinky little 20 ga. spring-loaded terminals.


In the process of evaluating the sound, old vs. new. The highs and mids have certainly jumped out. I'd been running the SP-300s set to "clear" to overcome the muddiness of the old caps. Now I'm experimenting with "natural" and "soft" settings.

I'll do the other speaker tomorrow night.
 
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Replaced all the caps in the second XO, as well as the bass cap in the first XO tonight.

Here's what the stock spring-loaded terminals looked like before I replaced them with 5-way binding posts.
p30700022dp5.jpg



Here's the XO with all the caps (including the piggybacked 22uF bass cap) replaced.
p30700042sr3.jpg



DON'T KID YOURSELVES, BOYS AND GIRLS:
REPLACE THE CAPS IN ANY SPEAKER OVER 25 YEARS OLD.

Dramatic sound improvement. :thmbsp:
 
FoolForARadio said:
This is an interesting thread since I just picked up some SP-100's. How did you get the old caps off?
Click to expand...
On some, I de-soldered and removed. Others, I clipped the leads at the cap body to give me enough to twist to the new cap's pigtails.

There is a "typical" recap response in sound. The "muddy" highs are gone, replaced by "clear" highs. I can now dial the highs and mids back with the tone controls to get a more balanced sound. Before the recap, I had to run the controls at "CLEAR" just to have the highs present (but certainly not "clear").

I can hear the horns as clear as a bell now. :yes:

I'm not a big fan of the "Pacific Rim" sound in speakers, but I've read that these are from the late '60s, and were voiced for tubes, and lack the "Banzai!" sound I usually associate with Nipponese speakers. YMMV when it comes to speakers.
 
DON'T KID YOURSELVES, BOYS AND GIRLS:
REPLACE THE CAPS IN ANY SPEAKER OVER 25 YEARS OLD
Click to expand...


Actually, along with replacing old caps, always replace electrolytic caps, they sound like crud.
Nice job.:thmbsp:
 
p3080001so4.jpg


OK. They've been "in system" for 24 hours. I usually listen to my Cornwalls in the den, and my AR-3as in my office (although the Frazier Black Boxes have been getting a lot of play-time lately). The AR-2axs and the Mission 700s round out my usual listening. A heavy bias towards the classic "east coast" sound, with a British and an Arkansas bent.

I've been throwing Baroque organ, sixties folk, fifties jazz, chamber music, and Scandinavian jazz trios at them. No rock. No symphonies.

These are VERY nice speakers that I could live with happily. The horns do their job on the mids and the highs, while the bass is solid and natural feeling (but not "great" in the "chest thumping" style I feared from a Nipponese box). Guitars, brass, cymbals, high-hat, tom-toms, voice, and piano all sound great.

Verdict: A re-capped Sansui SP-300 is a real "sleeper" of a speaker. It's not Kabuki, it's Noh.

:thmbsp: :thmbsp:
 
pmsummer said:
p3080001so4.jpg


OK. They've been "in system" for 24 hours. I usually listen to my Cornwalls in the den, and my AR-3as in my office (although the Frazier Black Boxes have been getting a lot of play-time lately). The AR-2axs and the Mission 700s round out my usual listening. A heavy bias towards the classic "east coast" sound, with a British and an Arkansas bent.

I've been throwing Baroque organ, sixties folk, fifties jazz, chamber music, and Scandinavian jazz trios at them. No rock. No symphonies.

These are VERY nice speakers that I could live with happily. The horns do their job on the mids and the highs, while the bass is solid and natural feeling (but not "great" in the "chest thumping" style I feared from a Nipponese box). Guitars, brass, cymbals, high-hat, tom-toms, voice, and piano all sound great.

Verdict: A re-capped Sansui SP-300 is a real "sleeper" of a speaker. It's not Kabuki, it's Noh.

:thmbsp: :thmbsp:
Click to expand...


I know that this is an old thread, but I just re-caped the mid and tweeter caps on my SP-300's. The difference is striking. The horns are very clear and ring true. I did not change out the woofer cap. My question is, what should I expect from changing it out and would it be worth the change? Thanks.
 
I know this is an old thread but reading through it has helped me decide to have my 300's done. Got them maybe three years ago and have been happy with them paired with a 35 watt per little old sansui reciever. Shame to admit I don't remember off hand which receiver as I have acquired so many sansui receivers the last cpl years. I love the sansui sound and up till maybe three years ago never owned any. Were the 300's never sold in the US? I also have a pair of sp3700a's that I've been looking for another pair so I can run four in the den or bedroom. These too seem pretty scarce. I see 2700's at times.
 
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