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Akai SW-155 Any good

62sunbeam

62sunbeam

Raconteur
I saw a pair of Akai SW-155s at a local thrift but they were pretty spendy.

Are they any good? The cabinets, while a little knackered, seemed pretty robust and they had a high and mid pots on the back.

No idea of the condition of the drivers as they where seeled.

Thanks

Eric
 
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I'd be dubious if they are expensive, as you say they are. Seventies japanese speakers aren't highly sought after, for the most part -- certainly there were plenty of excellent models, but many were only sold in Japan, and those that you are likely to see, like the Yamaha NS 1000s, were a lot more expensive -- Akai is known for tape recorders, not speakers, and the 155s (at 350 a pair according to Orion Blue Book) were in the middle of their offerings, so I'm inclined to think they are more or less Kabuki speakers, which you can find for less than large sums of money.
But really the only way you can tell is to hear them -- only you can say what you think sounds good, but its also true that there are a lot of products out there that none of us pontificators has actually heard -- only a small portion of components ever get reviewed, and though a much larger portion gets word of mouth, there are still many that are essentially terra incognita.
But I'd be willing to be that if no one pipes up to say these are the greatest thing since sliced bread, that, in fact, they are pretty average.
 
As if to demonstrate my point, about twenty posts down, I found a thread about homebrew speaker testing, with a Yamaha, a JBL and an Akai SW130 as the winners in a ten speaker shootout. No idea if the methodology of the test was impeccable, but apparently in one system, Akais can play with some pretty big boys...
 
I have a set I found for $10 at a local thrift. Cabinets are a bit rough. It has a horn tweet, a mid and a 12" woofer IIRC. I use them on my test bench. They actually sound very good to me. I do find if I get further away from them(let the room help them breath) they sound really good. They do best in room corners as the bass is a little shy compared to some, but in this manner they are very good. I wouldn't hesitate to pick up another pair if I found them. I'd likely even give $40-$50 for them if they were in vg++ or better condition - but that is me.
Some people are really picky about their speakers, others not so much. I have tried MANY speakers, including a couple of the holy grails. NO, these won't compare, but for an office, garage, game room, or part of a nice vintage Akai system they would be great.

My $0.02 worth
 
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They were asking $70 so I think I'll pass.

Considering I picked up a pair of JBL L-17s for almost free and a pair of Dahlquist M905s for $50 and that was a stretch for a pretty darn nice pair.

I even got a pair of CV D-5s for $.50.

So I think $70 for a pair of akais is just too much.

Thanks guys.

Eric
 
I have 4 of the SW-155's....2 were free...paid $29.95 at VV for the second pair. They don't sound too bad...but not as good as Sansui's of the same size! I'll flip all 4 of them down the road, for about a Hundred later......We are up to over a hundred pair of odds and sods in the house!
 
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Based on your location, you must be talking about the pair at the St. Vincent De Paul's near downtown.

I've seen them there for several weeks now. Even the vultures that shop there haven't picked them up so they'll probably be the staple of their dwindling speaker section.
 
I have a pair that I bought two summers that were bundled with a Pioneer SX-626. I recapped the the speakers with what seem to be decent Taiwanese film caps from the auction site. They sound real good to me and I don't find the bass lacking.
 
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