Speakers

[thspeakerdude88]

mine still have the original caps in them, I think it is time to replace them

Yes on some 70's receivers they sound dry and bland, others make magic with them. I used them with a Conn Organ amp for a while ( PP 7868's) and they sounded gorgeous! The amp was worn out so didn't produce much power, and it has undersized OPT's as well. Hopefully I will like my ST35 build....

They sure do look beautiful at least!

[erichayes]

Slightly off topic . . .

Ed, you reminded me of the "fun" we had in the early '70s dealing with the new crop of solid state receivers and amps that were flowing to these shores from Asia via the GIs and pilots. Their common Achilles heel was their output circuitry.

The most infamous was the Pioneer SX-1000 and 1500 (same guts, different boxes). They popped output and driver transistors on an annoyingly regular basis, and most repair shops--having never dealt with these newfangled transistor radio whatevers--just kept putting in new outputs and drivers, only to see them fail again after a few days. Turns out it was the STV4 diode array that went thermally intermittent that caused all the problems, and damn near killed off Pioneer.

Kenwood had its problem child: the TK-140, AKA KR-140. Same deal--fried outputs and drivers. Their problems were manifold, but usually were caused by noisy differential amps in the front end and crappy biasing diodes.

Sansui's 5000 series, and I can't remember if the "A" version preceded the "X" model (I think it did) was an absolute meltdown disaster. No component-level fix here; Sansui sent out replacement driver boards and output transistors to its warranty stations.

Harman Kardon was the slow learner. They introduced the 330, which blew up and was essentially not repairable. Rather than retrofit it with band-aids, they introduced the 330A, which also blew up and was irreparable. Undaunted, the HK engineers debuted the 330B, which . . . promptly blew up.

Finally, in 1977, they came out with the 330C. The only thing it had in common with its ancestors was the front panel. Fantastic receiver, if only 14 WPC. If you see one for sale, negotiate and grab it. Then clean the speaker switches (a chore) and the other controls/switches with DeOxit, and enjoy one of the few SS amps that sounds good.

Sorry for going afoul.

[EWBrown]

Nice looking speaker, it looks almost in brand-new condition - and ditto for the car in he background!

(and now, for even a bit more off-topic)...

The Sansui 5000X also had tthose "thermal feedback" diodes, which were IMHO the touchy little "detonators" which fired off the transistors like the aforementioned string of firecrackers.

In those days the words "Made in Japan" still carried a stigma...

Sansui also had these weird little "mystery modules", strange little blue and plastic encapsulated circuits, which were made out of 100% pure Unobtanium, imported once every 3650 years from Zeta Reticuli (or available if one managed to cannibalize them from another dead 5000X).

Ahhh, yes, the Pioneer SX-1000, that was the second most popular PX-purchased stereo rig... IIRC, Radio Shack sold the exact same thing, just badged with their logo du jour, and house number, and a different colored metal faceplate, at about 4X the PX (PACEX) price. :o

They were also the legendary "string of firecrackers"...

Some of the old-timers over there actually had some Sansui or Kenwood tube receivers, but us "dumb kids" just used to snicker and tell them to "get withh the times"... little did we know.... Granted, those Japanese tube receivers used some of what we considered as odd tubes, IIRC, the Sansuis used 6BQ6 (small 6V6 -sized, capped TV sweep tubes) and others used 6BM8s, and several other other oddball "plinkers", I don't remember any recognizable tubes like 6BQ5, 6L6, 6V6, etc. Not until fairly recently did I leard that some of these receivers had very nice OPTs, made by Tango, lurking inside...

The most common cheap stereo "system" I saw over there, was this crummy little AM / FM / 8-Track job, with two small wooden book shelf speakers. These sold for $39 at the PX and just about EVERYBODY bought one (I confess, so did I). The running joke was that these were like (rectal openings) in that everyone had one... Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_02

These all had a built-in fatal flaw, in that the "spike" diode that was connected across the track-changer solenoid would eventually fail, in the "shorted out" mode. it wasn't a matter of "if", it was a matter of "when". We used something like an early version of a 1N4004 as a replacement, and it did the job...

We all got real good at fixing these things in the repair shop, and I got the procedure down to about 15-20 minutes for a complete "turn-around".

One of the last ones I fixed, belonged to a 2nd Lieutenant who brought it into the shop. I had it back to him in about 15 minutes, and then he told me that he worked in personnell records, and asked for my name and "return to CONUS" date.

Well, I dunno if he had anything to do with it, or not, but I got my "freedom bird" papers about six weeks ahead of my scheduled date ! Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_06 Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_02 So did a couple other guys who arrived in-country the same time I did.

/ed B in NH

[EWBrown]

I often see these vintage Japanese speakers at local flea markets and yard sales, I should pay more attention and check them out... Might be some bargains lurking out there.



In that TV show "That '70s Show" there are a pair of large (Japanese) speakers, with white-paper woofer cones, (the grilles have been removed) down in the basement rec-room. THe speakers have the large white cone woofer, probably 12", and a small black paper cone tweeter and a thin-wall cardboard tube port. These look like el-cheapo "specials"...
I get a laugh out of how the speakers are set up with the woofer on top and the tweeter and mid on the bottom - the dummies have them upside down... Oh, well...


D'Oh!!!!!!! Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_09 Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_05

Last time I saw it on TV, one speaker was upside down, and the other right side up. D'Oh!!!!!!!!!!! Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_09 At least they're 50% right.


/ed B in NH

[thspeakerdude88]

sansui sp-200's had white cones- and all alnico drivers too! I believe the sp-2000's did too..


you know I came across my SPL chart last night and it says that with 95db speakers and about 15 watts of input you will get over 110db spl. Thats pretty darned loud for most people. People are amazed when they hear my stereo- they think my big old 15w/ch onkyo is 200 watts or something! Of cource most of my friends dont know a tube from a *insert female anatomy here* Yellow_Light_Colorz_PDT_09

[mesherm]

Some speakers I regret giving away:

Pioneer HPM 100 (they had white cones also)
Polk 10B Monitors (back when Polk meant something)
Infinity SM 150 (15 inch woofers 108db/1W/1M)

I don't know about the Polks but I know the present owners of the other two are still happily listening to them.

[EWBrown]

These 60s and early 70s vintage Japanese speakers had to be very efficient, as most amps Japanese of the day, be they tube or SS, weren't all that powerful. The Sansuis which claimed 60WPC were probably closer to half of that, at a "real" 60 watts, they'd be distorting and screaming like Jimi Hendrix' guitar in full overdrive, and that would be mere seconds before the transistors went "pyrotechnic".

The American-made tightly-sealed acoustic suspension jobs (like Acoustic Research) needed a lot more power to play properly. A pair of AR-2s or AR-3As didn't begin to sound "right" with anything with less power than an ST70. The smaller 8", 2-way AR-4s would "almost" sound OK with an ST35 or SCA-35.

I also liked the artful craftsmanship that the Japanese speakers had, good wood work quality and those fancy ornate wooden grille covers. Given the costs of US manufacturing, even back 30 years ago, that would have big-time expensive...

The "consumer" grade tube amps from over there were also relatively low power, 15-25WPC max. The listening preferences over there were (and still are) more towards good, rather than loud, music. Comes from having a "polite" society, who also often live in rather close proximity to each other.

/ed B in NH

[K-MAN]

Does anyone here have any experience with Akai speakers? My uncle recently rebuild a pair of Akai reel to reels and the quality is astounding so I wondered what the rest of there stuff is like.

[Ty_Bower]

...but MAKE SURE they are the original series. These can be identified in several ways. First, the terminal board will be stamped "Made in Denmark". Second, the grill, if it hasn't already been removed, is held on with some of the nastiest, possessive black adhesive I've ever encountered--it's still sticky after 35 years. If you slowly and patiently worry the grill off the cabinet, you should see a woofer held in with 6 screws and a 1.5" soft dome tweeter held in with 4 screws. The tweeter should be NNW of the woofer, not due north.

I see lots of A25 on eBay with the tweeter NNE of the woofer. They otherwise seem to fit the description (6 woofer screws, 4 tweeter screws, "Made in Denmark", etc.) Any comments on this version?

[EWBrown]

Either the photo was reversed left-right , or perhaps they made "left" and "right" mirror image versions of the speakers, which is a fairly common practice.

Just a SWAG...

/ed B in NH

[WA4SWJ]

Hi Guys,

They did indeed make left-right versions. They also made some (early on I think) with the port at the top versus the bottom.