Sansui SP-30 recap

burgerbob

burgerbob

Well-Known Member
Hey all!

I found a pair of Sansui SP-30s in good shape the other day. The grills are a little chipped but they are in perfect working order.

However, the highs are rolled off pretty low. (Yes, the tweeters are working. Apparently the woofer runs full range, I know.) I found another thread-
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=51474
that mentions a recap. I opened mine up and found the supplied caps to be 2.2uf 25v electrolytics.

Now, I think I can desolder/solder a new capacitor on. But what should I use?? I can find plenty of 2.2uf capacitors for very little money.

Can someone point me in the right direction?
 
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Sansui speakers...

Hi Bob,
I own a pair of Sansui SP-2500X speakers for 40 years. Some AKers seem to knock Sansui speakers, but I like mine very much. I recapped mine and was thrilled with the results. The speakers sounded so different (new). You gotta figure that Electrolytic capacitors will start to go bad after 20 or 30 years! So, they can only sound better after the recap. Just make sure to order the correct caps and change them one at a time so there are no errors.
My Sansuis use Non-Polar caps for the crossovers. Mouser supply has a nice stock of Non-Polar caps in many sizes if you want to use the same caps that were originally installed. If you want to change to Polypropylenes or the like, I think Parts Express has other caps. Check some of the threads here in AK for further info. Good luck and have fun!
 
So a higher voltage cap won't make a difference? I saw those Daytons but didn't want to pull the trigger unless that was the case.

I want to like these speakers, but they don't hold a candle to my Advent /3s.
 
burgerbob said:
So a higher voltage cap won't make a difference? I saw those Daytons but didn't want to pull the trigger unless that was the case.

I want to like these speakers, but they don't hold a candle to my Advent /3s.
Click to expand...

Yep, Just keep the same MFD rating, you can go up in voltage.
 
I'm be recapping mine soon too, take pics! I think I'm gonna pick up a pair of Solen 2.2uf caps for mine.
 
Alright! Work is done, with just one minor setback on the way.

I removed the old caps, which were a little bursty-

CIMG0717_zps751adb2b.jpg


CIMG0719_zps13be8bfd.jpg


Here's the Daytons-

CIMG0718_zps988c2e07.jpg


They aren't much larger.

I mounted them as such on the front baffle, using electrical tape-

CIMG0721_zpsc7e516bb.jpg


I soldered them in inside the speaker. Dangerous? Probably, but I had no problems other than my bad soldering skills. Usually, the crossover board would be easier to remove, I didn't want to take out all of the guts just for one cap.

And here they are (on the floor) being burned in by my Sony receiver, along with a pair of JBL LX-22s I just refoamed.

CIMG0723_zps0901b831.jpg


So far, I think they've opened up the high end a little. We'll see after this weekend!

I did have one solder pop off. I did one speaker, tested it with the other, then did the other. When I tested both again, the tweeter in the first one had stopped working. My shoddy soldering had popped off, so I did it much better.
 
Cool! Glad to hear you got er done! You may want to glue those caps down good so they dont vibrate loose.Are you using good rosin core solder? Check out evvblogs solder tutorials on youtube,they are great! I learned how to solder and what materials to use from him here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5Sb21qbpEQ and these older videos are really good too..http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIT4ra6Mo0s There are more parts,i think part 2 shows you how to make a solder bridge from the tip of your iron to the work piece,one you get that down soldering is a breeze!
 
I actually taped over the caps too, I think they should stay put. Also, I don't have a hot glue gun haha. As for the solder, it's whatever the kit I got came with. It's worked well so far on my Yamaha preamp.
 
They've been burning in all of today alongside my JBL LX22s I refoamed. I don't think there are two more different speakers!

I still can't decide if I like the Sansuis. I don't like the JBLs, but they are on both ends of a spectrum... my Advents seem more like the goldilocks zone.
 
What differences do you note on the before and after. Also stuffing the cabs makes some difference on the sound as well...YMMV!
 
I think the highs are a tad bit more present and extended on the Sansuis. They have a great midrange, voices come out great.

I do want to stuff the cabs, but I don't know where to find stuffing. ACE Hardware only had insulation, and not bigger fluffy stuff.
 
Hey all,

I finally got stuffing from Wal Mart and did the deed. It wouldn't be a big deal except for the 20+ screws in the back of each cabinet...

Anyway, I think the bass is better now (as in, there is any at all) and they do just fine for background music in the living room.
 
Thanks for posting this, just ordered a couple Solen 2.2uF caps for my SP-30's I just picked up. Going to be my first recap job, nice to see these will be a good easy intro into it.
 
Rousing success on my part. Won't bother with pictures as it pretty much mimics OP's. Now that my feet are wet I'm going to look into recapping my 4 Kenwood KL-777A's.

Again, thanks for the thread and pictures. Love these little SP-30's
 
Thanks everyone for sharing ideas! I’m a newbie that’s very appreciative of all the advice posted by y’all. Been lurking for years so here goes…even though this thread is quite dated by now. Just sharing my SP-30 journey thus far:

Acquired a clean pair of SP-30 inexpensively almost two months ago not knowing much about them. Once home discovered one’s horn tweeter was blown and the other’s mid-woofer was performing poorly (leaking surrounds). Moral of the story is I don’t know how they originally sounded—then again 50-year-old speakers by now probably wouldn’t be so original sounding.

So I managed to obtain Sansui replacement drivers and recapped them with polypropylene “crossover” film caps. I was pleased that the pair sounded halfway decent but for some unexplainable reason I felt they weren’t performing up to their potential. I was surmising that Sansui engineers wouldn’t sell a product with a compressed presentation like that, even for a smallish 2-way system.

Then after reading online more AKer posts on the subject of electrolytic non-polar caps, which the SP-30s originally came with AFAIK, I made the switch from burning in the poly caps for a few weeks to now installing bipolar/non-polar Nichicon and Rubycon electrolytics. BINGO!!!

IMHO these electrolytic bipolar capacitors introduced far more pleasing SP-30 performance by noticeably opening up the soundstage and overall cohesiveness between high and low frequencies. There is appreciably more bass now to better match the show-off horn tweeters. And as many have already remarked the SP-30 really have a stellar midrange that excels with acoustic jazz and vocals. With the poly caps they struggled when playing electronic instruments (generally rock music), but with electrolytics sounds not so bad at all even though not as great as when playing recorded acoustic genres. Acoustic jazz IMHO plays great with the SP-30. YMMV.
Cheers!
 
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