Sansui SP-100

[Guest sealy]

I picked up a pair these for 5 bucks from a thrift shop yesterday. They were being used to support a heavy tabletop, and were covered in cobwebs and dust. As soon as I saw they were vintage Sansui's, I grabbed them. While testing them, I discovered one tweeter non-functional, the rest of the drivers working ok. I took the grilles off and removed the grille cloth which was somewhat the worse for wear. From the outside the drivers looked good. Removing the back of the speaker with the dead tweeter, I discovered that the quality of the components was high indeed. Huge alnico magnet on the woofer, very nice crossovers, solid 3/4 in. mdf box. I sure wish they built budget speakers like that nowadays. The tweeters are quite small T-100 horns. The source of the problem was simply a gummed-up contact on the tweeter control pot. Now both speakers work fine. I put on my Eva Cassidy: Songbird cd, and couldn't believe the quality of the sound. No harsh highs like one might expect from a horn tweeter. Eva's voice was beautifully reproduced, floating freely above the speakers! The clarity was not the equal of my Elac towers in the background, but was darn close. One thing that puzzles me is the size of the ports. They seem disproportionately huge. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

This is my first exposure to Sansui speakers. These speakers were made in 1966, I believe, and are the least expensive of that particular line. Amazing. I can see why there are so many devoted Sansui fans out there. Once I have them cleaned up a bit, they will make a fine addition to my growing collection of speakers.

[dynaco_dan]

I picked up a pair these for 5 bucks from a thrift shop yesterday. They were being used to support a heavy tabletop, and were covered in cobwebs and dust.

Once I have them cleaned up a bit, they will make a fine addition to my growing collection of speakers.

Hi there;

Was that $5.00 for the pair and did it include taxes? LOL

This is just the price paid for 2 cups of coffee.

Good buy.

Vern

[Guest Mike]

I picked up a pair these for 5 bucks from a thrift shop yesterday. They were being used to support a heavy tabletop, and were covered in cobwebs and dust. As soon as I saw they were vintage Sansui's, I grabbed them. While testing them, I discovered one tweeter non-functional, the rest of the drivers working ok. I took the grilles off and removed the grille cloth which was somewhat the worse for wear. From the outside the drivers looked good. Removing the back of the speaker with the dead tweeter, I discovered that the quality of the components was high indeed. Huge alnico magnet on the woofer, very nice crossovers, solid 3/4 in. mdf box. I sure wish they built budget speakers like that nowadays. The tweeters are quite small T-100 horns. The source of the problem was simply a gummed-up contact on the tweeter control pot. Now both speakers work fine. I put on my Eva Cassidy: Songbird cd, and couldn't believe the quality of the sound. No harsh highs like one might expect from a horn tweeter. Eva's voice was beautifully reproduced, floating freely above the speakers! The clarity was not the equal of my Elac towers in the background, but was darn close. One thing that puzzles me is the size of the ports. They seem disproportionately huge. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

This is my first exposure to Sansui speakers. These speakers were made in 1966, I believe, and are the least expensive of that particular line. Amazing. I can see why there are so many devoted Sansui fans out there. Once I have them cleaned up a bit, they will make a fine addition to my growing collection of speakers.

[Guest Mike]

One thing that puzzles me is the size of the ports. They seem disproportionately huge. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Port sizing is a very technical application but is also a bit subjective as the speaker maker can tune the cabinet to the aesthetic frequency that they like/prefer. It is usually tuned according to Theile/Small which gives the speaker cabinet the lowest possible resonance before a significant loss in being able to hear the lowest frequency possible, usually -3db.

As I recall, this speaker was sold at the PX in Vietnam during that period. It was popular with GIs, as they could easily access the port by unscrewing the grill and "stuff" desirable items in the speaker.

[Guest sealy]

One thing that puzzles me is the size of the ports. They seem disproportionately huge. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Port sizing is a very technical application but is also a bit subjective as the speaker maker can tune the cabinet to the aesthetic frequency that they like/prefer. It is usually tuned according to Theile/Small which gives the speaker cabinet the lowest possible resonance before a significant loss in being able to hear the lowest frequency possible, usually -3db.

As I recall, this speaker was sold at the PX in Vietnam during that period. It was popular with GIs, as they could easily access the port by unscrewing the grill and "stuff" desirable items in the speaker.

I see. Yes, those ports could be used hide a lot of contraband, couldn't they?

[Smoothlounger]

These are only 25 watts max , how do I make them 120 watt , can changing the woofer (say like dual coil , high sensitivity ) do the job, will  any audio engineer out there enlighten me if this is possible , thanks

[JKent]

You can safely use these with a 120 watt amp if you are not driving them to stadium levels