Vintage Akai SW-130 speakers with AA5510 Amp

pathakajit

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I have been a lurker on this forum for a while now. This is my first post.
 

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These are 2 way speakers from the late 60s/early 70s with 12" drivers. They sound warm and amazingly clear. The lows are very good. However, the upper lows and mids are lacking. Bass does not deliver a punch.

The clarity is simply superb and speakers are good fit for listening to tracks with vocals. Classic rock is my staple diet and playing it on these speakers is a trip!

I also listen to a lot of psy trance genres (not played extensively on this amp/speakers set yet). The little that i did play, i was quite surprised by the clarity of the tracks. The atmospheres in the tracks came alive swirling. They certainly lack the bass punch and Mids are missed. However, I found myself smiling with the new details that I discovered in the tracks :eek:hyeah:
 
Would suggest you try a tube amplifier. From the scattered info I could find on the web specs suggest a sensitivity of 100.
I have the SW 175 and they sound wonderful.
 
These are 2 way speakers from the late 60s/early 70s with 12" drivers. They sound warm and amazingly clear. The lows are very good. However, the upper lows and mids are lacking. Bass does not deliver a punch.

The clarity is simply superb and speakers are good fit for listening to tracks with vocals. Classic rock is my staple diet and playing it on these speakers is a trip!

I also listen to a lot of psy trance genres (not played extensively on this amp/speakers set yet). The little that i did play, i was quite surprised by the clarity of the tracks. The atmospheres in the tracks came alive swirling. They certainly lack the bass punch and Mids are missed. However, I found myself smiling with the new details that I discovered in the tracks :eek:hyeah:

You have these speakers on the floor and that too right next to the equipment rack. This will excite the bass modes and you will get peaks n dips. You would get low end boost because its near the floor but it can also overpower the mids. Try elevating those speakers to ear level. It will reduce the low end, but will make the response smoother and mid bass won't be overshadowed so much.
 
Yes, the speakers have sensitivity of 100db.

I am not very tube amp savvy (yet). They seem to be fairly expensive.

What amp do you drive your speakers with?
 
You have these speakers on the floor and that too right next to the equipment rack. This will excite the bass modes and you will get peaks n dips. You would get low end boost because its near the floor but it can also overpower the mids. Try elevating those speakers to ear level. It will reduce the low end, but will make the response smoother and mid bass won't be overshadowed so much.

Thanks. I am toying with the idea of putting them up on a Heavy wooden stands. These could be about a foot high max though. The cabinets are fairly large and elevation to ear level may not be possible while maintaining overall aesthetics of the room.
 
Thanks. I am toying with the idea of putting them up on a Heavy wooden stands. These could be about a foot high max though. The cabinets are fairly large and elevation to ear level may not be possible while maintaining overall aesthetics of the room.

For the best sound, you need to have the tweeter/High frequency driver at ear level. Other wise, you would be off-axis vertically. Not many speakers are designed to have wide dispersion vertically. Try your best to get those speakers set up correctly.
 
Nice setup.

I will just add here that, you should check up the box's cross-over components. The capacitors must have gone dry.

There will not be much to deal with inside the box, as Japanese speakers of this period believed in the minimalistic approach (not a bad idea), and mostly used 6db/oct designs. In many cases even the woofer's (particularly 12 inch and above) natural roll off was used avoiding an inductor. Even in some models the mid-drivers were used in a similar manner. So you may only find some capacitors and resistors.

The capacitors will be mostly the small bi-polar electrolytics types. You should if possible replace them with some good quality ones. Also check the resistors for value changes, and change them with higher wattage types.

You may be surprised with the sound quality that will jump at you when you connect them the next time:)

Aditya
 
Why don't you use PC-DAC-AKi amp-Speaker......
The sound would be very very good.

Last week, I took my DAC (Wolfson 8741) and Laptop to my friend house,
and connected these stuffs to his vintage system.
The sound was fantastic.
He was surprised with the sound.
 
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These are 2 way speakers from the late 60s/early 70s with 12" drivers. They sound warm and amazingly clear. The lows are very good. However, the upper lows and mids are lacking. Bass does not deliver a punch.

The clarity is simply superb and speakers are good fit for listening to tracks with vocals. Classic rock is my staple diet and playing it on these speakers is a trip!

I also listen to a lot of psy trance genres (not played extensively on this amp/speakers set yet). The little that i did play, i was quite surprised by the clarity of the tracks. The atmospheres in the tracks came alive swirling. They certainly lack the bass punch and Mids are missed. However, I found myself smiling with the new details that I discovered in the tracks :eek:hyeah:

Thanks a ton pathakajit.
There was a guy in pune,yerwada area with similar speakers for sale about a month back. Was wondering if you bought these from him.
 
Thanks a ton pathakajit.
There was a guy in pune,yerwada area with similar speakers for sale about a month back. Was wondering if you bought these from him.

Yes, i got them from the same guy. He also had a beautiful AA6600 amp which i wanted to pick up. He still had it when I called him and I agreed to meet him same day. He sold the amp off to someone else who had seen it earlier, about an hour after we spoke..

He said someone from Mumbai wanted to come over and see the amp/speakers.. guess that would be you? ;)
 
Yes, i got them from the same guy. He also had a beautiful AA6600 amp which i wanted to pick up. He still had it when I called him and I agreed to meet him same day. He sold the amp off to someone else who had seen it earlier, about an hour after we spoke..

He said someone from Mumbai wanted to come over and see the amp/speakers.. guess that would be you? ;)


haha i dont know which dates you are talking about. I did audition them with the 66600 amp on the 6th of april when i was in pune so maybe it was someone else he was talking about.Anyways, hope you enjoy lots of good music on your new speakers.
 
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