Chris -
Going to throw out a suggestion that may surprise you.
Sansui SP-5500.
Now, before you laugh and immediately dismiss with something along the lines of "Is this a joke? Everyone says Sansui speakers suck!" allow me to provide some information to the contrary:
First, I need to be clear that I am referring to that EXACT model. SP-5500. Not SP-5500A, or SP-5500X, or any of the late 70s / early 80s junk that was passed off by Sansui under very similar model #s..
SP-5500 were manufactured between 1970 and 1974 (I believe). They were a Japan - only offering and were the absolute top of the line product during the years sold. (The way they got into the US was through military officers who purchased overseas then shipped them home when their tours ended. I say "officers" because these retailed at $700 USD each when new in 1970, and only brass could afford that; plus only brass had high enough freight weight limits assigned to be able to get these shipped back home by the military gratis)
They feature the following design items:
- 15" woofer with a 9.7 lb. magnet and a sold brass bobbin. The woofer itself weighs 17 pounds;
- A 17" (yes, you read that correctly) by 6" tig-welded aluminum midrange horn that is simply magnificent for presence and clarity / detail;
- (2) 5"midrange cones (more about them later);
- (2) 2" horn tweeters that were designed by JBL;
- A cabinet made of 1" thick true MDF covering a 1/2" plywood bracing frame to hold the drivers. The cabinets are fully dampened on all internal sides except the front, and are finished in real maple veneer and the front grilles are hand-carved rosewood (high WAF - my late wife thought these were ’beautiful pieces of furniture’);
- Listed specs are frequency response 38Hz - 20,000 kHz / 120 watts max input power. These will hit that 38 Hz without muddiness or distortion and have no problem with the 20 kHz top end either. I believe that the power rating was purposely underrated as I run my pair with MacIntosh 2100s mono blocked @ 210 wpc with zero distortion even at higher volumes. I have seen other enthusiasts report pushing 300 wpc into these without issue. Rated sensitivity is 98dB so these can do a lot with lesser wattage. Generally speaking, for normal listening, 1 watt is sufficient in my listening environment and 10 would be considered ’loud’ by most people (Personally, I have hit 100 watts on these just to see the outcome, but it’s borderline deafening and not anywhere near enjoyable listening, IMO)
- Each speaker is 31" T X 21" W X 17" D and weighs 109 pounds.
We appear to have some similar characteristics as I am 62 and my music leans more towards classic rock / pop as well; I like horn speakers and have owned Klipsch in the past; I am using Mac amps and am partial to their sound. So I think these are definitely worth consideration - IF you can find a pair first.
These became my ’end-game’ speakers when they beat out 11 pairs of everything from Vandersteen 2CE’s to EPIs to Dahlquist and even (gasp!) JBL Jubal’s... and they beat out a pair of fully restored 1971 Klipsch Cornwalls (it was close but the Sui’s were more musically detailed and nuanced, with less 'harshness' in the upper-midst than the Cornwalls) so - while preferences are of course highly subjective - I do speak from a position of some personal experience.
For full disclosure I do need to state that I made some minor modifications to my SP-5500s in that I removed the (2) 5" mid cones from the signal path (simply unplugged them from the crossover so they do not produce sound and added their wiring to the wiring for the horn) so that 17" horn now handles all the mid frequencies alone. I also removed the padding from the bass ports in the cabinet (yes the ports were stuffed - I was told by an individual more familiar with Sansui history that they stuffed them because Japanese consumers thought there was too much low bass for their classical Japanese music tastes). Those are the only mods to my speakers (of course I recapped the crossovers, but that’s not a mod, just common sense on 50+ year old speakers).
My system is "vintage - based" and I ![]()
run all the different media players through a Dynaco PAS-3X tube preamp and then through the MC2100 solid state amps. My listening room is carpeted and fairly large at 15’ X 30’ with standard 8 foot ceilings. Speakers are approx. 10 feet apart, slightly toed in, and about 8" from the nearest wall. My seating is about 8 - 9 feet from the speakers.
Here’s my setup showing speakers with grilles off:
