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Sansui SP-1500 Restoration Rebuild

Grbluen

Grbluen

Super Member
I think it's my first post in this forum. My apologies for the long post, but I've picked up a pair of Sansuis and they should sound nicer than they do. I've got some money burning a hole in my pocket. Anyone here interested in helping me create a super speaker out of these? My main speakers are modified Klipsch KLF-20s. I like the bottom end of the Sansuis and the midrange is awesome, but there is something wrong with the high end. Let's start with money is no object and work our way down to reality. I have excellent electronic skills, but know next to nothing about speakers! Anyone?
I'd really appreciate the help!
Don
 
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Hey Don!

I recently drug home a pair, I got them back up and going in very little time. I really think they sound a lot better than people give them credit for, especially for 50's & 60's Jazz, blues, bluegrass, vocals, you get the idea.

First off, make sure the tweeters are actually working. Use a paper towel cardboard tube or similar and check each driver. Then? Replace the capacitors. You can take off the backs and make your way inside. I generally buy Solen caps from Madisound, that's just my preference. You can buy anything your heart desires. I suggest you don't use electrolytic caps, and don't use the caps that cost as much as a high end dinner across town.

Remove the grills by taking out the 4 super tiny, black screws located in each corner of the grill. Check the surrounds to make sure they're not peeling away from the cone, it does happen.

Once you get new caps in there, the difference in the midrange and highs should be quite remarkable.

SP1500008.jpg


Biggles
 
SP 1500 production 1979 to 1981. Re-cap time. Open em up and jumper the cap for the tweeter to see if it still works. Also De-ox the tweeter level pot first to be sure you got signal making it to tweeter. While you got em open you can takenote of the values of the capacitors
 
Ok, I listened with the "tubes" and I thought I could hear a little sizzle from the tweeters, but I wasn't sure. So I jumpered the cap for the tweeter. 1456605334642-1635093468.jpg

With the jumper in place, I don't hear anything. Did I do this correctly?
 
I'm on my way to the electronics store. Does anyone know the value of the tweeter cap? I can't read it.
 
Go man go! I would also suggest testing the resistors, or maybe just go ahead and replace them. They cheap.

Biggles
 
Hey,
I got a pair of those. I agree they don't suck as bad as everyone let's on (after re-cap). I don't get to listen to them as much as I once did . Their hooked up to a sansui 7000 receiver I mainly play records of the 70/80's so lots of southern rock and country.
They do pretty good for a bargain speaker. Eric
 
Hey Eric,

Try some early bluegrass through 'em or some Johnny Cash, will leave you with some goosebumps. Tasteeeee.

Biggles
 
I recently got these from a in law. They work perfectly, but.... I feel like a big problem with these speakers is the grill. With all the square edges they have to cause diffraction. The sound stage has to be affected. Plus there seems to be a bit of resonance but I'm not sure why. The cabinets are heavy. The cabinets seem dense. I'd like to hear thoughts on this.

I've read that the low end isn't good, but they seem to go low enough to fool the ear if they don't measure low. It does seem silly to have all of those speakers in there though. Cheesy.

Technics slq300
Marantz 4220
Sansui 1500
 
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