Sansui SP-1500's and unknown enlcosures - Today's Free Haul

Okay, so not "really" free, but I didn't pay anything for any of it. I traded the Bose 901's I had for it, which were also free. Not pictured are 2 inexpensive new/unopened FM antennae and 4 new/unopened 7" reels of blank recording tape.

I even got to demo the Sansui's at the guy's house, not bad huh? The bass response made me say, "OH". Warm and full, I wasn't expecting that. The midrange was there, but the highs were pretty much nonexistent. These do not have horns. So, they'll bypass a place in the living room for today and and will go straight out to the garage so I can make a list of caps I'm going to need.

The plan today is to bring them back in the living room and jack them into the Scott 222c. To see how they may be placed, see image below. These will surely do fine until I can get the Wharfedale Super 12 project back on schedule. See image below for size comparison to the SP-3500's.

I also drug home a pair of empty enclosures. He told me what they were, but I can't remember now. I even got to see the woofers. They were highly badass and were edgeless, no foam or cloth or rubber surrounds holding them to the baskets. Perched high on top were electrostatic panels, but those got sold off and he's attempting to sell the woofers. These enclosures are built better than most of our furniture in our homes. Solid as concrete and I like the design. I got both grill frames too. They're for the woofers only, so they're going to need some modification to do anything with them. Not ported, sealed.

All in all it was a great day! I'm going to drag the 1500's into the garage now and tear one apart to see the goodies.

xo, Biggles

Those empty's look quite nice!

mike j said:

Those empty's look quite nice!

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Very, very, very nice. I recognize the smell of the wood, from the interior. But I can't place it. I remember that smell from Cost Plus Imports of 30+ years ago, a very fragrant wood. Sanding, oiling and filling the holes on top with fancy hardwood dowels and that should take care of that!

I'd put the Super 12's in there and run them full range, but they're only 2.1 cubic feet.

Biggles

Are those some kind of badges above the empty woofer hole?

Anything printed or stamped inside? Nothing on the rear terminals either?

Hard to tell the wood from here, it's so light, perhaps maple? Post a closeup of the grain and maybe we can help identify it.

I thought at first those were the bottom of some Altecs but they would not have ribbons on top - they'd be horns.

Guts n Crossover

Caps for these and the second pair of 3500's are on their way.






Biggles

drbiggles said:

Guts n Crossover

Caps for these and the second pair of 3500's are on their way.

Biggles

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Guy see how similar these are to my SP-5000 same vintage:thmbsp:

toxcrusadr said:

Are those some kind of badges above the empty woofer hole?

Anything printed or stamped inside? Nothing on the rear terminals either?

Hard to tell the wood from here, it's so light, perhaps maple? Post a closeup of the grain and maybe we can help identify it.

I thought at first those were the bottom of some Altecs but they would not have ribbons on top - they'd be horns.

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No stamping, badge leavenings or binding post help anywheres. I was supposed to have brought home the upper frames for the electrostatics home. I had the frames right there! I could probably go back for them. In fact, I will. I have NO idea what I will do with them, but I think I should. They're about the width of the enclosure and maybe 1.5 feet tall, or so.







Biggles

4-2-7 said:

Guy see how similar these are to my SP-5000 same vintage:thmbsp:

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I'm really quite impressed with the quality of the build and the drivers look more than adequate. Even without the high end, they sounded really great.

But the lacquer has gotten old, yellowed and hinders one's ability to see the grain of the wood. These will be stripped and finished before the second pair of 3500's.

Biggles

Beautiful 2.1 cu ft sealed boxes? Solid as concrete? Sounds like homebrew stereo subs to me. Cut out for plate amps or just add jacks and run from some smallish stereo PA amp.

drbiggles said:

I'm really quite impressed with the quality of the build and the drivers look more than adequate. Even without the high end, they sounded really great.

But the lacquer has gotten old, yellowed and hinders one's ability to see the grain of the wood. These will be stripped and finished before the second pair of 3500's.

Biggles

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They look to have been built with 1" board.

The woofer boxes look like teak and the botom half of an electrostatic ?

markshan said:

Beautiful 2.1 cu ft sealed boxes? Solid as concrete? Sounds like homebrew stereo subs to me. Cut out for plate amps or just add jacks and run from some smallish stereo PA amp.

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OH HECK yeah. I've never had or run subwoofers before. Dual 12 subs? Egads man.

4-2-7 said:

They look to have been built with 1" board.

The woofer boxes look like teak and the botom half of an electrostatic ?

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Yeah, bass portion half, bottom. 1" MDF on front and back AND they glued thick MDF to the sides on the inside of the enclosure. SOLID.

Biggles

drbiggles said:

OH HECK yeah. I've never had or run subwoofers before. Dual 12 subs? Egads man.



Yeah, bass portion half, bottom. 1" MDF on front and back AND they glued thick MDF to the sides on the inside of the enclosure. SOLID.

Biggles

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No the 1500s are built with 1" partical board?

4-2-7 said:

No the 1500s are built with 1" partical board?

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Oh, right, of course. Uh, looks like 5/8" and the back is 3/4". Sturdy little f-ers.

Biggles

Maybe some JBL tweeters could be put in these. I would do the caps first thou and then judge them.

4-2-7 said:

Maybe some JBL tweeters could be put in these. I would do the caps first thou and then judge them.

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That's cool. These little rigs have 2 tweeters and 2 squawkers. I've already ordered the caps and I'll bet these things come right to life. If not, yeah I will see if I can find some nice tweeters to pop in there. They're most certainly worth keeping. They were very, warm and nice sounding with very little power.

They be about an inch taller than the 3500's, not as wide. A really nice size.

Biggles

The Unknown Enclosures were Fostex rp 2001 ribbon planar speakers. Google images had one on the first hit. Very rare, apparently. The guy had them together and working, wasn't able to sell them. So, he parted them out and was able to sell the bits easily enough, I got the enclosures.

Solen capacitors for 3500's and the 1500's are in the mail today!

Biggles

Too bad a rare set of working speakers got parted out. Anyway that could be teak. Most of the teak I see has a darker stain (more like walnut) so I didn't recognize it at first, thought maybe it was a very light cherry. But it does look like teak. Teak is more stripey and bold than cherry.

toxcrusadr said:

Too bad a rare set of working speakers got parted out. Anyway that could be teak. Most of the teak I see has a darker stain (more like walnut) so I didn't recognize it at first, thought maybe it was a very light cherry. But it does look like teak. Teak is more stripey and bold than cherry.

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I'm going to go with teak. Between the smell and the interior shot, that's it. Yeah, not sure why they went so light with the stain, interesting.

It is a shame they got parted out. The guy is one of "us", but he's also a Dealer. He does what he can to save the old stuff, but at the end of the day he needs to bring home money. In his defense, his pool table is completely covered with Fisher, Scott, and McIntosh tube amplifiers. Some stunning, some needing some love. His stash covers several rooms, GREAT fun to rifle through.

Biggles

the empties conjured up thoughts of crowns, cant verify that though, very nice looking boxes biggles.

born2tech said:

the empties conjured up thoughts of crowns, cant verify that though, very nice looking boxes biggles.

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They're beautiful! I'm going back to get the frames that held the tweeter/midrange panel thingies. I should be able to do something fun with them. I like the dual 12" subwoofer option. I can't afford that at the moment. I got time.

Turns out they're Fostex rp 2001 ribbon planar speakers.

Biggles