Sansui Sound Drivers
I'm in the process of upgrading my speakers, and while I've gone through a few speakers and been left cold (Bose 501 Series II, Pioneer CS77), I've happened upon two rather exceptional-looking speakers that should serve me nicely. The 501's were too placement sensitive, and frankly too harsh on anything but vintage amplification, and the CS77's were congested and limp. These would pretty much be my final upgrade in this department for a while, so I want to make a good choice.
These would be a vintage compliment to my monitors (Polk TSI's), and would be on my B switch.-Sansui SP2500: 12' 3-way with 2 mids and a horn tweeter behind some sort of lens filter.I love the way these speakers look, with the intricate handcarved grilles and real wood cabinet. Everything I've read tells me they're light on bass, but can get rather loud and maybe a bit harsh.
I personally want to hear them, at least, to settle my mind. If they'll provide There's a set 40ish miles away, in mint condition, for $100ish.-Pioneer HPM40: The baby of a fairly iconic series.
I've heard the 60s a few times (admittedly only once while sober), and found them to be quite nice, with a good high end sparkle. If these are going to be the same sort of deal, I'll be quite pleased.
They look to be in good condition. The only real issue is that these are over 80 miles away, but the seller is willing to let them go for $75, which is an absolute steal for HPM anything in my book.There's also a local thrift shop with a quad set of Sansui SP5500X and SP8000X's, for $60/pair.
Must be Sansui season in these parts. Build quality doesn't seem nearly as nice as the SP2500's, and I find them abhorrently hilarious (for a speaker) with their 4-5 way Wall-of-Sound-esque array of drivers. The drivers alone are at least 15' and barely have any sort of flex, and the cabinets were just slightly slimmer than the GameCube sitting on top. That being said, they are in nice shape and if they're still an upgrade from Fishers, I'll take a pair if these other two get snatched up.My logical side says take the HPM40's and don't look back, but there's something about those Sansuis that just speaks to me on some level. What do you listen to?How loud?What is your amp and pre-amp?The HPM-40 are poor man’s HPM-100 version.Nothing like the HPM-100. Very forward and in your face sound.The Sansui are gentleman speakers. Excellent room filling sound at easy listening levels.
Not great for loud rock. Excellent detail. Certain models are furniture grade cabinets.Personally, as a last upgrade, I would keep looking. Certain Advent, Dahlquist, ADS, Klipsch and others are vastly better speakers to my ears.After 100s of speakers and amps/receivers, I found that there are great combinations and really bad combinations of gear. It’s impossible to tell what will work for you in your place with your music and your ears. What do I listen to, now that’s a long list. A shorter list would be what I.don’t.
listen to-death metal, Christian rock, avant grade, and dubstep probably (even then, I’ve been surprised in every category). I’m personally a huge fan of rock, EDM, new wave, jazz, hip hop, and orchestral music, with guilty pleasures like 2000s poppunk. My reference monitors/“monitors”, a pair of modern Polk tsi’s, do a very admirable job of handling everything and doing a clean job of it, although they lack that engaging vintage warmth and are supremely finicky with placement (rear ported), hence my desire for a good set of vintage speaks.So far, my past experiences have been:-Fisher DS177: Excellent warmth, with a very rolled off high end, and a tendency to be a bit boomy. Not the best speaker for subtle details, as it tends to put everything out there.
Lovely and frankly underrated rock speaker. Great $10 dorm speaker, now in the loving care of a friend.-Pioneer CS-77: Too much midrange, weak bass. Period material (the Doors, Beatles, Supremes, etc) sounded very appropriate, almost magical, but anything classical or modern left them sounding confused and strained. Also I could literally pick out every driver when listening to them, mostly because the midrange driver was hilariously overpowered in comparison with the woofer and tweeter. Beautiful cabinetry, and what bass was there was warm and delicious. Sold for fat profit.-Bose 501 Series II: When paired with the right amp, these do a little bit of everything well.
Bass response is clean and shocking. They’re quite hard to place, and don’t image at all, but they make for nice basement party speakers.
Only problem is that my basement acoustics lead to the bass being almost overpowering, but that’s an issue for another time.My receiver is a late 60s/early 70s Kenwood KR-4140, fed by an LP120 with an Ortofon cartridge (a supremely warm combo), a cassette recorder, and streaming audio from a Bluetooth box or my XBox One. I eventually plan on nabbing something with more power, but so far nothing I’ve come across has made me want to displace the Kenwood.
Itl Sansui Sound Drivers
It would take an absolute unit of an amp to fully displace this thing. It was a love at first sight deal, the sound is deliciously warm, and I personally think it’s beautiful. The soft green, orange, and blue lights are much calmer and more laid-back compared to the plain white or solid blue that you normally see on these old receivers. I think I will at least go to the thrift with the 5500X and 8000X to at least get a feel for the “sound of Sansui”. I know that the SP-X line isn’t up to snuff with the earlier SP line, but it should give me an indication of what the hell these are about.
I’ve bought a few records there and the manager is always very friendly, so I’m sure that he wouldn’t mind if I hooked them in and gave them an earful. Last I checked, there was a generic Realistic casseiver and JVC tape deck I could hook them into to audition them with. That’s honestly the one leg up these things have over the others, since I’ve no idea exactly what SP2500’s sound like to my ears with my music, and I’ve only heard the HPM60s while absolutely hammered. Walked into goodwill to drop off some stuff earlier, held the door for an older gentlemen proudly carrying out a nice set of what appeared to be Advents. Just my luck!Things are looking grim with the HPM40’s, haven’t heard from the seller in a while.Haven’t been over to the thrift to audition the other Sansui’s yet (the SP-5500X and the SP-X8000s), but some light eBaying showed that they’re pulling some ludicrous money on eBay, well into the $400-500 range. Given that the set I’ve been eyeballing probably haven’t budged for weeks at $60, I want to say that’s wishful thinking, but the watcher counts are fairly high. People must be seeing something in these monsters that they’re not talking about.
Sansui Notepad Itl 1401 32 Wifi Drivers
I’m leaning against them simply on account of their size.Fate seems to be pushing me towards these SP-2500s. Couldn't go wrong I suppose.the sansui SP-2500 are really underrated speakers.
They get kabuki stereotyped, etc.but they were made very well. They do have a problem with failing capacitors at this age though and a lot of them have a burned out tweet or two in each speaker that you have to watch out for. However, the squakers/midrange speakers in the SP-2500 are absolutely incredible, especially when matched with the right amplifier. These speakers are so efficient and revealing that a lot of people don't even realize they have a tweeter not working in them because the midrange covers so much audible ground. Recap these speakers, for hardly any money (don't hae to use TOTL capacitors) and then raise them on stands 24-30 inches off the ground or put in a bookshelf, etc. And they are a treat to listen to.especially with low powered tube amplifiers. As for their lack of base due to cabinent size; that can be a non issue if you feel the need to throw a subwoofer into the mix.
The sansui SP-200 is another quality model.yea, sansui does have some low rent speakers out there.like the other ones you mentioned. But the SP-2500 is the real deal.
They do have have fabric surrounds around the subwoofer, and while that means the surrouds will last a lifetime they do have a tendency to get stiff over years of non use.but it doesn't take too much effort to loosen those up.But yeah, the key is to recap, deoxit the attenuators, and elevated these bad boys. I just bought another pair to recap as my next little project and to mate them with SET or SEP tube amp.but I will say that with my sansui AU-517 the base wasn't an issue.in comparison to the size of todays speakers people forget that these are bookshelf speakers.and for bookshelf speakers ya get enough bass.just throw in a powered sub if ya want total full range.my sansui Sp-2500s easily get down to 50 HZ.