Sansui SP-200 replacement tweeters/midrange suggestions

[O. Friend]

Hi all, I acquired a pair of SP-200's that were in exceptional shape from a guy that had purchased them while he was serving in Vietnam back in the day. He had taken very good care of them, grills almost perfect and very clean, although he hadn't used them in decades.
I recapped the crossovers and used some DOT3 on the woofer surrounds to loosen them up. None of the speakers seem to be dead, but I'm not sure the horn tweeters are performing like they should (understandable) as well as the midranges.
My question is just what would be optimal replacements for this speaker system? I'm using them in a vintage setup (late 70's silver-faced component focus) so they fit in very well in a small/medium sized family room. I am putting in a Sansui G-5500 to drive them in the next week or so, so I figured newer drivers might be good to get started on.
Any tips would be appreciated, thanks!

 

[swechsler]

Welcome to AK.

If your aim is to get the best sound, IMO you'd be better off just replacing the speakers entirely with something that works properly. Replacing drivers with new, unless they are designed as drop-in replacements for the originals (certainly not for old Sansui speakers) is unlikely to yield a satisfactory sound. Plus you'll probably spend more on new drivers than what you'd pay on the used market for a good set of speakers.

There are few things that go wrong with speaker drivers apart from complete failure. You've already serviced the woofers. The midranges are probably performing as originally designed; I doubt you'd accomplish much by replacing them. The tweeters; ditto, unless they have ferrofluid, which can dry up. You'll have to do a little research to see if they used it. One thing you could try is to clean the internal contacts on the rear control with some Deoxit, and possibly also remove the circuit breaker from the crossover circuit.

If it turns out the tweeters aren't performing up to par, Parts Express sells some fairly inexpensive small dome tweeters that might fit the space. Note that you'll need to keep impedance in mind: I suspect that your speakers have dual 16Ω tweeters (hopefully marked on the back of the magnet) in parallel to create an 8Ω load for the crossover. 16Ω drivers are hard to find these days, but you could substitute a pair of 4Ω in series, or possibly just a single 8Ω tweeter and leave the other old one in the cabinet, disconnected. Unfortunately, the manual for these speakers doesn't list their sensitivity, so this could be a crapshoot as to whether the replacements will sound better (or even as well as) the originals in this application.

 

[O. Friend]

Welcome to AK.

If your aim is to get the best sound, IMO you'd be better off just replacing the speakers entirely with something that works properly. Replacing drivers with new, unless they are designed as drop-in replacements for the originals (certainly not for old Sansui speakers) is unlikely to yield a satisfactory sound. Plus you'll probably spend more on new drivers than what you'd pay on the used market for a good set of speakers.

There are few things that go wrong with speaker drivers apart from complete failure. You've already serviced the woofers. The midranges are probably performing as originally designed; I doubt you'd accomplish much by replacing them. The tweeters; ditto, unless they have ferrofluid, which can dry up. You'll have to do a little research to see if they used it. One thing you could try is to clean the internal contacts on the rear control with some Deoxit, and possibly also remove the circuit breaker from the crossover circuit.

If it turns out the tweeters aren't performing up to par, Parts Express sells some fairly inexpensive small dome tweeters that might fit the space. Note that you'll need to keep impedance in mind: I suspect that your speakers have dual 16Ω tweeters (hopefully marked on the back of the magnet) in parallel to create an 8Ω load for the crossover. 16Ω drivers are hard to find these days, but you could substitute a pair of 4Ω in series, or possibly just a single 8Ω tweeter and leave the other old one in the cabinet, disconnected. Unfortunately, the manual for these speakers doesn't list their sensitivity, so this could be a crapshoot as to whether the replacements will sound better (or even as well as) the originals in this application.

Great info, thanks! I've lurked here for years, just shy about posting until I really get stumped, haha.
I will wait and see how the Sansui receiver drives these, that might make the difference as opposed to the MCS (NEC built) I'm using right now. The 8Ω single tweeter might be good for a test. I don't remember a circuit breaker on the crossover board, so I'll look into that. I deoxed the crossover selector but did NOT do the internal contacts on the speakers themselves, that might help. BTW, what does the circuit breaker on the crossover do?

 

[swechsler]

The circuit breaker is just that, a circuit breaker. It's supposed to fire if you send too much power to the speakers, although I'm not sure if it protects just the tweeter or the entire system. If it does, you just press in the red button on the rear to reset it. It's possible yours don't have them; I just saw one pic of the SP-200s. Some people have complained about them adversely affecting the sound. You don't seem them in modern speakers.

 

[O. Friend]

It's possible yours don't have them; I just saw one pic of the SP-200s. Some people have complained about them adversely affecting the sound. You don't seem them in modern speakers.

Here is the pic I took before recapping, I don't think this version had a breaker unless I'm missing something. It's good to know that some speakers had those, though, I guess that was before speaker protection circuits?
Also in the 2nd pic, I think that cap is less than optimal... haha!

 

[swechsler]

yeah, ignore that about the circuit breaker, apparently I was looking at a different speaker.

 

[Area man]

HI - I recently scored some SP-200s and performed the same refurb that you did. I'm curious to know how they are doing with the G-5500. 60WPC seems like overkill for the SP-200, which are rated at 40 Watts max. I am powering mine with a Realistic STA-64B @ 18 WPC, and they really sing. Solid, deep bass, too, especially when they're on the floor. I put them in a fairly cozy room with good acoustics, and they sound much better than expected. Full and balanced sound, if not the clearest or most accurate. I can listen to them all night without fatigue. The cabinets are gorgeous and built like fine Danish furniture.

Anyway, I have heard some say that the old Sansui speakers actually sound better with low-watt amps. Based on my experience, I'd say I believe it! The 200s are incredibly efficient. Much louder than my HPM-60s in a side-by-side comparison, and the HPMs are rated at 92.5 dB sensitivity. I think they are a great option to get the most out of 25W and less vintage receivers, which are the only affordable ones left these days!

 

[Twinsig]

FWIW O, my main players are SP-200s.
Decent bass and the midst & highs are nice & clear.

 

[Area man]

Also wondering if anyone has experience replacing the original woofer surrounds (mids, too). I have doped the originals with DOT3 brake fluid. It seemed to work very well for a while, but they are starting to stiffen again after just a few months. I am wondering if it would be OK to just remove the old ones and replace with standard foam. Or maybe it's easier to use the AR treatment?