Sansui SP-1500 Speakers

Hey I own a pair of these! Its nice to see that others love them as much as I do. I sanded the --REAL-- wood vaneer cabs down and gave them 5 coats of poly. They are absolutly stunning looking. I ended up replacing most of my drivers, save one woofer. The mids were pushed in when I got them and had one blown woofer, I replaced all drivers with originals that I found on ebay. I found an owners manual on audiokarma a while back that said these were rated at 97db 1w/1m. I believe that rating too, as I am only running a vintage 15wpch amp into them and they will flat out crank! They are a tad under rated I think, as I have run 90+ watts through them with no problems. It takes some ultra deep high wattage bass to bottom these out, but I would be careful with them as the woofers are only rated at 20 watts each ( its printed on the back of the mags, unless you have the earlier version that uses a sticker). The woofers have aproximatly 6 inch magnets on the backs, and 2 inch voice coils. ( I tore down the one bad woofer to see). I will have to agree with the others as far as sound stage, the midranges are what these speakers are known for-WHICH by the way, if you remove the metal cans from the backs of them you will find AlNiCo magnets on all four mids!! This probably explains why they sound so smooth and are so efficient. The sp-1500's used huge ceramic magnets for the woofers, but the older sp-2000's ( 70 watts) and sp-200's ( 40 watts) used AlNiCo magnets on the woofers. Might be interesting to replace the woofers with a set from a pair of sp2000's, as they look identicle as far as cone/dustcap/surround goes, are cheap and frequent on ebay, and have alnico magnets.

sorry, i mistakenly posted the sansui speaker link twice, instead of the link to my blurb on the sp2500:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93549&highlight=sp2500

doug s.

this is an interesting website, tho it doesn't specifically list your speakers:

http://www.classicsansui.net/Speakers.htm

besed upon the drivers in yours, & the 60w max power rating (from sp1500's i have seen on ebay), i would suspect your speakers have somewhere in the low to mid 90db/1w/1m efficiency. my sp2500's, which i paid $25 for, are rated at 98db/1w/1m. i wrote a li'l blurb about 'em here:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=93549&highlight=sansui

re: mods, i would suspect that rebuilding the x-overs w/newer quality parts would result in a big improvement. i am considering doing so w/mine, even tho it will at least quadruple my investment in them. ;~)

doug s.

I am not familiar with your speakers, but there seems to be a few vintage speakers that continue to make for very enjoyable listening. My speakers were made in 1975 and I dig the hell out of them and they are still 100% original, though I have considered crossover changes. But until they don't excite me and draw me into the music, I remain satisfied.

After listening for a while, you will know if they will work for you and what you wish you want to improve on. So for now, I suggest you just kick back, listen and enjoy.

It sounds like you run on a tight budget like I do.

I have had mine playing continuosly since I began the post. They really are starting to open up. ( who would have though this with such an old pair of speakers? ) At first they were very scratchy sounding in the mids and highs, now they are smoothing out quite nicely. I think I might let it play out before going further. And actually this is an upgrade for this system, I was running a pair of cheap Sony's I got for free at a garage sale when I bought an old receiver sometime back.

interesting thread on the crossover rework. I remember being in a small boutique in N California and they had a pair of these that I assume were the SP1600's or 1700's ( a little larger than the 1500's). They really sounded nice - which made it more disappointing when I got home and played mine. That's when I decided to rework them. In my case I already had the parts for a complete replacement so I didn't give it any second thoughts.

good luck with your mod's. They're a classic looking speaker and MO worth keeping.

Bdgregory,

Thanks for the reply. I did a bit more research and found that the SP-1700's were rated at 70 watts. It seems to me that I saw a pair of SP-1600's on ebay one time so I assume that mine would be rated at 50 watts. I picked mine up from a Salvation Amry store for $6.00 each so I'm not out any serious change for these. I just hooked them up tonight and find them to be similar to old JBL. But then if i recall the old Sansui speakers were refered to as " The JBL of Japan.

I did find this post on audio asylum if you want to follow the link. http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/vintage/messages/126191.html

I don't know the answer to your first question. But, I picked up a pair of these free some time ago. I like the cabinets (good contruction, that classic 70's look) but they sounded flat. I gutted them, cut a new baffle board and installed an 8" Rega woofer, a planar tweeter, and a DIY 2 way 1st order crossover. They sound fantastic. I think I have all of $150 into them.

I still plan to refinish the cabinets - something I'm putting off