Kabuki Speakers! (The worst Japanese atroicities of the 20th century)

Wow!

There must be a significant Sansui Cult to command such a high asking price for them! And "Lowballers will be ignored."

This is an observation, not a criticism, but they look like they're two of the same mirror-image speakers stacked together sideways.

Jeff

 

The golden rule- more is always better!

 

Sansui SP5500x. I owned a pair for a few years i bought at Goodwill. I would get them out for fun on long cold winter days. They were surprisingly good! Worked well with 50's-60's mono Golden Goodies records and older Elvis. I traded them about 10 years ago for a Dynaco 70.

 

We called them barracks blasters in the service

 

‘ Kabuki’?

isn’t that some kind of porn?

wait ….no I think I mixed that up

 

I think it's some kind of speakers that were made for various stereo manufacturers. Just a guess. I've seen the ones that the op showed. In Army barracks.

 

I've seen those. 1987

 

Here's the originator of the term: what are "kabuki speakers"???

"Makes Led Zeppelin sound like kabuki music"

Before the days of container ships and worldwide commerce on the web, the market these were designed for, and popular exposure was via, US servicemen stationed overseas.

 

I believe that. I said that I saw them in 1987. At a stateside post. After more memory searching, I remember the guy who had them was in Germany previously.

 

These were hand-me-downs from my dad, AAFES buy back in the 70's.
Listed on Craigslist Friday night and sold Saturday morning back in March 2019.
Pioneer CS-88A

 

Back in 85 or 86 I purchased a pair of JBL 4312 speakers a gentleman had purchased while stationed in Germany.

$200 for the pair, wish I had kept them. They were far from perfect, but they were fun.

 

Some of my friends brought back some atrocious speakers from Nam. One good thing about them though, you could remove those humungous woofers and stuff a whole lot of good weed in the cabinets, replace the woofers and no one was the wiser. I partook in the benefits of that little scheme more than once, believe me.

jb

 

Bataan ... Nanking ...

 

I've had a few pair including the big Kenwoods and Sansuis.Yeah they are hardly audiophile but you push them with high powered receivers or amps and they will flat out pound some rock music.Paired with a good amount of alcohol and it's all good.

 

On the plus side lots of these Japanese woofers from the 80's used a hardwearing slightly sticky tar-like substance for the surround of the driver which has remarkable longevity (and unlike most European drivers from that era that used foam surrounds) still mostly all look and work perfectly.

 

That's a good idea. Reminds me of an old George Carlin FM bit about bringing back weed from Cambodia in a guitar.

 

Each and any one of those Kabukis performs much and a lot better than those minuscule LS3/5a on any kind of real music in an average room. So, respect and kudos to them.

 

thats quite true and truth be told some of them could sound pretty darn good. Just too much interference with all the mids and tweeters and "super" tweeters (why?) that kind of muddles the sound to me, but still quality components when you really look at them. They are what the then-emerging Japanese electronic empire were built on.

jb

 

I don't see these selling at that price anytime soon but there's a customer born every minute. Regarding the mirror image cabinets, yes you are correct. A pair consists of 4 boxes and each side is interconnected by an odd 8 or 10 pin tube socket. Darndest thing.

 

A jackhammer is a better implement for working on a street resurfacing than a set of jeweler's tools.

 

Yes, exactly!

 

These don't really fit the definition and are pretty good speakers. The 99a does fit the definition though. The 77a can be great speakers when properly restored and with careful cabinet bracing/filling/tuning. With a 12"woofer, Alnico drivers a sealed cabinet, film caps, over 55lb each. and 95db efficiency the 77a is magic when teamed with a vintage tube amp.

 

My dad's Marantz Imperial 9's were always super cool - tons of speakers - I thought they were the biggest speakers ever then I found my Klipsch are larger.

These sure are beauties - kabuki in a good way.

 

First time I've seen those.