It’s been a little while since I’ve gone on my rounds through the salvage and recycling centers in Seattle, so I went out for an hour this afternoon to see what I could find. There wasn’t much out there today, but I did find a very good condition pair of Sansui SP1500 speakers. I already own a pair of Sansui SP2500s and a pair of Sansui SP7500Xs, maybe I’ll find the whole set one day. These were made between 1960 and 1974, widely regarded as the best years of Sansui speakers.
I found a thumbnail, but no full size, of the original spec sheet.
This particular set is a 3-way design with 5 drivers (the midrange stage uses two different sizes), 8 Ohm impedance accepting 50W of power with an efficiency of 97 dB (1W*1m) and frequency response from 40Hz-20KHz. They’re quite heavy weighing in at 47 lbs. each, give a good “thud” when rapped with their walnut and pressed board construction.
They’re in great shape, for having been found at a recycler. I noticed them in the back of the loading dock in an area that’s normally off-limits, and convinced the worker to bring them out front for me. Normally they won’t sell out of the back room, but it didn’t take much convincing. With rated power handling of 60W into 5 drivers, these should be solid performers in my system.
RETROVOLTAGE 
I FOUND A SET OF SANSUI SP1500’S IN A JUNK SHOP HERE IN S.C. AND PAYED ONLY 35 DOLLARS FOR THEM AND WAS WANTING TO KNOW WHEN THEY CAME OUT AND WHAT WAS THE PRICE OF THEM BACK THEN?THEY ARE IN GREAT SHAPE TOO.
Really good questions, I wish I had an answer! The resource I used to reference for most of those type questions, ClassicSansui.net, went offline a little while ago and unfortunately nobody seems to have saved the info. I believe they were from ’76, but can’t say for sure! Sorry I can’t offer more information about these…but I can tell you, that price is a steal!
I own two of those, purchased while stationed in Viet Nam in 1970. Use them for rear speakers with Denon AVR-S510BT and am ordering Dali-Zensor -1 and Dali-Zensor Volkal center. They still work well, albeit one broken speaker wire connector.
Yeah, I hear similar stories about these Sansui speakers, it seems quite a few people picked them up while in the service! Sounds like you’ve got a pretty great system there!
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