opinion on the Sansui SP-3200 speakers

leftwinger57

I saw the ad in C/L going for $150 and of course way to much for me at ,well any time. If you notice some staining on the cones and other mars here and there. Any of you guys like, use or have in the past used these 3200s. Oh, they are also listed for the same no shipping in Jersey E-BAY on e-bay. Again I certainly don't need them but if in the same town and a really good price is presented,are they a buy or just look at em.


http://cnj.craigslist.org/ele/5438973092.html


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Pair-Sansui-Model-SP-3200-Speakers-Wood-Cabinets-/231839911187?hash=item35fabc4d13:g:jVgAAOSwPc9WuNQQ

aprazer402

Search Kabuki speakers. 1970's Japanese, low quality. Avoid if possible, many better choices. Those look very overpriced. Just my two cents.

leftwinger57

I agree I already told him his asking price was politely way over priced. Since I never heard them and are mile or 2 from my house I want to at least hear them. No sound he gets nothing. Good sound If it can reproduce it and w/ all those stains we'll see. More opinions. Not seeing them till later in the week. Vets coming home from Nam loved them, but then again anything is better than a x-mtter radio ina pup tent.

Jimbo18

I was in the service in the early '70's and remember everyone coming back from overseas with Sansui equipment because it was cheap in the PX over there.

Never owned any myself, but I kind of remember their speakers as being "party" speakers. They would play them loud and not worry too much about SQ.

cnh

I haven't heard that particular model but have auditioned some of the larger Kabuki Suzuki lines and done some tone sweeps on them with a tablet. They rarely get much below 50-60/70 hz, if that, clean, and usually roll off by at least 15Khz if not lower (12-13K). The best you can say about them is that they sound like an FM stereo radio, but LOUDER. And most of that loudness are mid-frequencies. The boxes are too small to produce much low bass. I have some Realistic Mach IIs in the basement of late which have similar characteristics but sound much better than "any" Suzuki I've heard, at least they have HIGHS and can image-and they do play loud mid-bass.

They're really more of a "collector's" speaker, IMO. I'm sure others will chime in?

mhardy6647

Remember Lurch on the Addams family?

He commented quite eloquently on the qualities of virtually every loudspeaker sold by Sansui in the US over the years.

https://youtu.be/k-oqgIZGhbU

(that's the best I could find -- here's a better audio file:
http://www.addamsfamily.com/addams/groan.wav

leftwinger57

It's been like this all around. The Kabuki Speakers w/ a giant 12/15'' driver, multiple mids and these have lenses for the tweeters but most have multiple and suck. I knda liked the array of speakers kinda like the JBL-Century 100s only extremely lame sounding. 50 lb a speaker w/ the lattice work and bad reviews ALL OVER.

Lurch looks a bit peaked there.... I guess thy are close to dead anyway.....

mhardy6647

I really did try to find a better clip. Really.

I actually had one(!) of these SP-3200, courtesy of my erstwhile favorite local emporium (the Harvard, MA town dump) -- it actually didn't sound grotesque (many of the Sansui "Kabukis" do) with a good low-powered vacuum tube amplifier... but it wasn't good enough in any way, shape or form (relative to my taste) to make it worth searching out a mate for it, so back it went.

Sansui did actually make a few very decent loudspeakers in the mid-size JBL studio monitor mold, and the tiny and very unassuming SP-30 two-way was actually quite pleasant (aluminum foil woofer dustcap notwithstanding), but the rule of thumb for Sansui loudspeakers, "just say 'no'".

pumpkinman

I had 2 diff. models of this type of Sansui's years ago. To me they sucked big time and I couldn't get rid of them fast enough.

As always YMMV

Conradicles

Pass.

tonyb

Every brand has their niche so to speak, and Sansui's wasn't speakers. Now, pick up any of their AU products or CA 2000 and above pre amps, different story. Even their receivers back in the day were built well and sounded good. Vintage speakers though, Sansui doesn't even enter my brain.

mhardy6647

It is a truism or generalization*, but, to a first approximation, the loudspeaker offerings -- at least those sold on the US market -- by the big name massmarket Japanese brands are best avoided.

There absolutely were exceptions, and it's clear from some of their home-market offerings that it wasn't because the big Japanese names couldn't build good loudspeakers -- but they apparently had it in their collective heads that what Amurricans wanted in their monkey coffins was something like a cross between the worst attributes of JBL monitors and Radio Shack designer speakers for the home.

As an aside, especially during the darkest days of the inflation and increasing value of the Yen vs. the US dollar in the late 1970s, many of the Japanese brand name loudspeakers were US made. I think the manufacturers figured out that shipping essentially large volumes of air encased in plywood boxes halfway around the world ate into the gross margins considerably.

---

*and, of course, "all generalizations are false, including this one." :- )

Locobreth

There are good and bad sansui speakers. Unfortunately sansui made the kabuki stuff because its what the "general" population wanted. Speakers that looked impressive to the regular guy. These kabuki speakers overshadowed some very good speakers that sansui did make. I have the model spoke of here and there very good speakers. Very rare. I think tbese were japanese economy only. Some came back with our service people.

BMF35

I'd click on your browser 'back' icon and never think of them again.