It's nice to see someone speaking positively of Sansui speakers for a change. I had a pair of 3500's myself for several years, and enjoyed the way they sounded. The only reason I sold them is that I had a surplus of other speakers that I enjoyed even more.
At any rate, the typical sentiment seen online regarding this line of speakers is not generally favorable. So, it's nice to hear someone compliment their sound. Do you find the low end response adequate, since treating the surrounds on the woofer? The lack of low bass
response seems to be the chief complaint about the sp-3500, and related models
I can see a lot of weird stuff going on with these. There's a fairly large piece of cabinet wood glued inside the rear cover behind the woofer, with factory dampening material stapled over that. Fixing a cabinet volume issue?
There's also a round recess drilled into the inside rear cover to make clearance for the high mid horn. Bit of a whoops but not a big deal.
To top it off though, the labels on the x-over board going to mids and tweets are completely wrong. Maybe that's a case of them using a board design from a previous model and just making the minimum changes for it to work.
There was also factory dampening material glued into those tiny ports in the bottom corners. So to port or not to port dear Hamlet?
Before I did any work to them, I put them on their backs and tap tested the low end. Pretty dismal and very papery sounding almost like a snare drum. After one fairly thick application of brake fluid (let them sit on the backs for a while) and pulling the port plugs, they have a good bass presence. Not so much kick drum bashing your chest, but good extension. Lyle Lovett's Large Band and Joni Mitchell's Travelogue agree.
I have a tech lined up to do the surrounds soon. That will improve response even more.
These 3500s are on my second system, which has a pretty nice Onkyo Integra A8017 and a little digital audio player that has a decent DAC in it. Nothing crazy though. My friend just stopped by to hear them and was shocked. He's got a dual mono Marantz and nice B&Ws as his only system.
After the surrounds are done I'll have a bit over $400 in snow pesos into them, and they look so cool. For more serious stuff it's downstairs to the 517 and Linns, but these are great at what they do. I've read that you shouldn't judge them based on what looks right or wrong sonically, and that's valid. The weird tweeter horns look like they would focus the high end, but the opposite happens and they are prettty even.
