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

Yeah - they are super cool - but on my dads (which he bought new) all the speaker foams were crumbled. 6 per speaker.

 

What were they thinking, there's room for a few more drivers.

 

Less is more!

 

More or less.

 

I did wonder why, historically, the Japanese hadn't stormed the speaker market in the same way they did with other hi-fi components, and left it to UK and US brands. I guess this thread explains why... or not! I kinda want to try some of them out.

 

Ruthless People : Dominator MX Speaker

 

What do you mean? They were terribly prolific earlier on but now other countries have overtaken the production on just about everything audio, not just speakers. I don't think you'll find too many Japanese made components these days.

 

That movie is so funny!

 

You can just hear the conversation over coffee at the speaker manufactuer: "Say Bill, you know what we really oughta do now? Make those guys with Trans Ams and Corvettes buy 4 speakers instead of two! I know, I know, quad's dead. But wait, I have an idea..."

BTW I carried around monster speakers with 2 mids, 2 tweeters and a 15 inch woofer loaded in for over a decade. Loved them so much I bought them twice. Cause more has to be good, Right?

 

Man those big things bring back memories of Kelly's on Barrington street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This was before it became a Sams' outlet. They had these huge Japanese speakers [all had 15" bass drivers and the boxes were stuffed with driver and lenses on the tweeters, I remember Sansui and Akai speakers. They carried a lot of Akai and Sansui along with Sony and carried a speaker line from Vancouver called pro-linear. You kinda of figured bigger is better when you don't know what to listen for. Ah, good times.

 

Sony… because caucasians are just too damn tall!

 

Linearity. Also a little bit of strain is taken off of the tweeter. Its pretty much what subwoofers were originally intended to be used for, but at the other end of the frequency range. Yes, some of these speakers can sound excellent these days if someone is into DIY/mods.

 

Well I know about that theory and know it certainly pertains to woofers and sub woofers mostly to allow the subs to reproduce the power sucking low bass notes, much like multiple amplifiers for different frequency ranges, but the super tweeters I was referring to, I think they only work in the range > 20k, where human hearing is almost non-existent (unless you actually believe you can hear that high, I never did) so unless you are trying to bother your dog, I doubt those things do much more than look impressive (to the gullible). But I always did like the big 15s on the low end even though they probably pump out more distortion from cone flexing than actual clean sound, still they move the air and for reggae music that is something to be sought after.

jb

 

I have no idea about these Kabuki speakers, but in my Pioneer CS-77a the super tweeter comes in at 10k HZ and definitely and definitely are audible. The tweeters work at around 2500-10K HZ (they do now anyway after I reworked the crossovers).

 

Great thread. Understand these are show-only, don't sound very good, and have any number of case and component problems.
So why, I am thinking, would I love to get a pair? Must be the looks. Fortunately, don't have room in the houses or the garages for any more big containers.
Sure would like to hear them, though...

 

I had a pair of Sansui SPX 7500s and those things kicked ass. I completely thrashed them over the years. They were starting to fall apart, but I still wish I had a decent pair today. I really really liked them. Paired up with a Marantz 2275, they were killer. When I blew out one of the woofers, I dropped them off at a local thrift store. RIP?

 

I believe I read that above in this thread as the specs to one particular speaker system that was like five way or something. Crossing over at 10k is reasonable, 20k is a joke. I would like to hear one of those cabinets one day with all the components disconnected except the "super" tweeters just to hear what actually comes out of them, my bet would be a light hiss if anything. And that is not counting the fact that very little source actually puts out much above 16k or so. I used to think I could hear higher frequencies, but some visits to the audiologist disabused me of that notion, and as I understand it, I had (had being the operative word here) far better hearing than the "average" person and I was hearing nothing above 15k or so at all.

And maybe I missed the point but not sure there really is a "kabuki" brand or model, probably more a generic description of a speaker as all show and very little go, aka Kabuki theater where they jump around a lot and dress up in strange costumes but precious little gets done until someone kills the villain, in a respectful manner of course. In other words all those components large and small are there for show and not really to actually produce great sound. But when one is listening to Grand Funk Railroad or Mountain, who is counting?

jb

 

Totally hilarious

 

I can't yet post pics. Not sure if these qualify. I picked up a pair of AMC XP12s from an elderly neighbor. Giving them new caps. 4 new CTS ring phenolic tweeters, new covers and some cabinet work. Has white woofers. Midranges are fine. Just two frozen tweeters on one side. I'll have to replace all four. Tweeter and midrange controls cleaned up well. Little to nothing online about these. Thought maybe someone out here knew something. They show potential. Ordering all the parts next month.

 

These kinds of speakers were marketed to young people who wanted loud rock and roll and to that effect, they delivered the goods. Everyone who ever listened to those speakers with "Sticky Fingers" on that turntable loved them. Were these people sound engineers? No! But you would never have convinced them otherwise. They were of the era for that audience who wanted to listen through them.