Sansui SP-1500 Speakers

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.