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

I didn't know they were still doing these in 1986, but here's a Pioneer brochure (with military exchange into) proving me!



(have a look at the depth of the speakers)

Kabuki: all show and flash, the dumb GI model as large as they were allowed to ship back, a bunch of speakers jammed in a box. This one even has LED power meters in the speaker! And 99dB sensitivity + 400W power handling? Theater.

 

Not Kabuki, but Sony did a pair of speakers in Bongo drums.
(I had a friend back then who collected Sony, went to work for Sony and thereafter consulted Sony).
The stuff some of the guys in 'Nam brought back from the PX were sometimes like what you were calling Kabuki-- big boxes with lots of drivers. I didn't have the heart to criticize.

 

Some Kabukis sound pretty darn good. AlNiCo magnets.

 

I know nothing about Kabuki speakers but those look kinda cool, that's an awful lot of tweeter though.

 

The only problem with Kabukies is the restoration of the Crossovers! Those big caps just don't want to 'fit' on the boards. But it's not impossible.

 

Well the woofers are "extra-large."

I've wondered whether the Japanese manufacturers had any concerns about damaging their brands with that sort of garbage. Apparently not.

 

Early in this hobby when one could pick up these aberrations for pocket change I brought home several pair of kabukis. They were beautiful looking vintage pieces of furniture but their sound was pretty bad if not terrible. I recapped one pair (sansui sp3500's) which helped a small amount but not enough to actually want to listen to them even for background noise.

 

It’s a shame. They look so badass. You can practically hear your misspent youth just looking at the pictures of them.

 

Indeed; I brought home a pair of Coral bx1500's one time based mostly on that line of thinking. In spite of their bad ass looks they truly were terrible sounding speakers.

 

Speaking of speakers of all sorts thrown together (non-Japanese)...

Here's the Wilson WAMM circa early 1980s:



Apparently audiophiles still loved these anyways. Would love to see what kind of frequency response speakers like these achieved in-room and also the likely wild dispersion patterns!

 

I heard a pair, with a fleet of Jadis tube amps that gave you that warm sweaty feeling. The speakers did not sound good, maybe it was set-up (they were in a shop in Westchester, NY), but the heat was what drove me from the room. At the time, I was using a pair of Quad Loudspeakers (aka the '57-electrostat) and supplementing with subwoofer and ribbon tweets, so I didn't reject the concept but it was hard to get those pieces to cohere.

 

The king of Kabuki had to be Sansui.

 

Yea, in that 1980 time frame, hard to think of anyone more deserving the title than Sansui ...

 

Ahem..I actually bought a new pair of Sansui SP-X7700 back in the day. My first new loudspeaker purchase back in 1979. As mentioned upthread..signs of a misspent youth.

 

This advertising is why customers would come into our store and ask, “how many watts are them speakers?”

 

Ah the age of 'more is better.'
Sometimes it's more important to just look good!
"Dudes, check out how loud these mofos are!"
Guilty.

 

I like they are described as "bookshelf speaker system". Then again the cabinets are probably only 9" deep and each box probably weigh less that 25lb.

 

They would have suited me, can't you see the frequency response graph at the top? But I like more the design on the Sansui and Kenwood of the 80's .

Those are very shallow but I still can't really picture them as bookshelf's.

 

I want a pair of these Kenwood for my collection, someday, someday...

 

Never in a million years would I put those in my home. I'd seriously take the Pioneers over these just on aesthetics alone.

 

A few years ago my nephew was looking for a pair of speakers. He was considering Tannoy - since his father had owned a great big pair of them at one time.

I happened to be doing a tour of thrift stores and came across a pair of Sansui SP-1700. Drivers looked to be in very good condition; cabinets and grilles were maybe 5/10. I bought the pair for less than $20CDN.

Took them home and cleaned things up; hooked them up in my garage and they sounded ok - actually better than ok.

Gave them to my nephew and he liked them - and is still using them.

(Plus, their mid century modern style can be appealing to some folks. Place them at opposite ends of a walnut sideboard and they fit right in!)

Jeff

 

Daedalus speakers are 96-97 db efficient, and I believe can handle 400w (or 20w). Not saying the Kabukis can do it, but…

 

I rather think that The worst Japanese atrocities of the 20th century occurred on the Burma railway

 

I can't say which came first but I'd put my money on the Sansui. Check this out for startling resemblances. No affiliation.

Very Rare Sansui SP X11000

 

I've just wanted to post those because they are quite excessive but I agree, I think if Sansui were the first. If not, they were at least the most prolific selling that type of speakers. I remember a few Kenwood and Pioneer but also JVC made a couple earlier on, I am not sure but Technics might have made some too. I didn't think they were all that terrible but they were what was in vogue in those days.