A 4 way speaker consisting of 6 drivers per side. 12" bass with alnico magnet system, all other drivers are alnico as well. 2 mid-range, 2 tweeters, a super tweeter and a massive bass port.
Made in Japan by Sansui 1968
30hz - 20Khz test chamber
25hz - 20Khz normal room
max power 70watts
8 ohm impedance
spl 101db
cross over points 1500hz, 5000hz, 10000hz
653mm H x 380mm W x 323mm D
Teak veneer
20kg each
These should have been everything I was looking for but sadly, a major disappointment. To be fair, I think the cross overs were way past their best. All I could hear was mid-range, loads of it, not good mid-range either. By adjusting the tone controls on the back I could just get them bearable. Shame, I think in a bigger room I may have seen their magic but in my setup, they had to go. Back came the IMFs, more on those later.
Everything you described is exactly the way I feel. I don't understand why they sound so poor.
ReplyDeleteHi Anthony, I will never forget that moment I first heard them and thought "oh crap" Im sure a new crossover would help them no end but I was so disappointed I couldn't even look at them. Sorry for that late reply and stay tuned for the new articles coming soon!
DeleteDid you try these with a vintage Sansui receiver? It can make the world of difference. I'm powering mine with a QRX-5500. And I love them.
ReplyDeleteHi there, I tried them with the Sansui CA/BA-2000 combo, no feelings of love for me Im afraid, glad you've had more success with yours!
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ReplyDeleteA little update. I took the burlap speaker covers off mine and replaced them with actual speaker cloth from joann fabrics. It took less than a yard for both and spare to redo another if needed. The factory grills were missing and the sound improvement from this was night and day. I also played around with the switches in back as I'm sure they hadn't been used in years and could here the volume swelling just by adding pressure to side of crossover. Seemed to improve after playing with them and then I put the speakers on 12" stands and set my amplifier settings to Large. Now I think they sound pretty fantastic and much more powerful than originally thought. I can't believe I get no distortion winding my Denon 1708 all the way up. I expected distortion and a speaker to pop. It is almost as if they were meant for this receiver at 75 watt rms 100w peak. I believe crossovers need rebuilding and would still like to upgrade the speakers. These have been patched over the years and if like something cosmetically viewable with covers off. I'm quite impressed with the clean bass now that I've had time to play with them and they really help accentuate my subwoofer. Not muddy at all like I've heard others say.
DeleteI love them
ReplyDeleteI picked up a couple of Sp2000's at a thrift store recently. After replacing the cross-over capacitors with audiophile grade caps, the sound was much better. In fact, after a few listening sessions and tinkering, I fell in love. Very natural with acoustic music,and sensational with 60's rock.
ReplyDeleteSame story here. See my re-cap below!
Deletei have 4 sp7500x only use 2 at a time with a au9500 amp
ReplyDeleteIf im already using a sansui reciever, would a pre amp make any difference to the s p 2000s?
ReplyDeleteThey may sound poor for a reason. I have an experience.
ReplyDeletePut simple, the cross-over circuitry board is becoming broken electrically, and users need to replace all the electrolytic non-polar capacitors by using modern teflon or polyester ones, no more electrolytic.
On my recently bought SP-200, a 3-way 5-spkr unit, both spkrs had dead tweeters when I received them. This pair sounded awful with muddled sound like there was no mids no highs.
But I opened the back baffle and found easily, one non-polar 4 ufd Rubycon axial grey cap exploded on one side, giving an open circuit to the tweeter, and all the other 3 caps were all too far off stated capacitances, like the other 4 ufd changed to 1.2ufd, an 8 ufd to 2.8, and a 24 ufd to 8 ufd. Yikesssssssssssssssssss!
Again long story short, I ordered some new mkp caps and voila!
The cap update and de-oxit clean job made the SP-200 sound very very very crystal clear with rich mid bass arnd 200Hz, and a very lucent mids probably thanks to the two 5" squawkers serving up to 5KHz. Some internet sources say it's 100dB SPL efficient, while the original pamphlet says 95dB. I mate them to my JBL4320 quad stacks using active cross-over at 200Hz, tri-amping to the quad JBL and the SP-200. WOW!!!!!!!!
Can you believe me if I tell you the SP-200, with the highs switched to "Clear" on its back panel, actually sounds more airy than my trusted Celestion SL-700 on the same setup?
Believe me in this. Get to the caps immediately. Actually, on all vintage spkrs! They used cheap electrolytic non-polar caps as against modern makers using long lasting teflon ones!
I have a pair of SP2000s I picked up for $100.00, they sound like crap for listening to the radio...
ReplyDeleteOr any modern electronica music, but for 1970s Sabbath, Zappa,Rush, The Clash.. they sound Good!
Especially with a subwoofer, they image quite well.
I use a Yamaha natural sound reciever, and I did replace all of the swollen capacitors.