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Here is a pair of vintage Akai SW-T30’s that have passed through my collection. I haven’t been able to pin down these 2-way bookshelf speakers from Akai to a precise year, but from available catalogs and guessing by the style of the speaker I would place these bang in the middle of 1970s circa 1974/75.
I am a big fan of Akai gear and these speakers were a sweet surprise! They are rated at a very usable 60 Watts max input at 8 ohms and provide a great range of sound for their size and class and featured a 10 inch woofer and 1 3/4 inch tweeter in a sealed cabinet. As you can see the tweeter voice-coil domes on both speakers have been depressed – unfortunate cosmetically but this in no way impairs the sound.
I test drove these out on a 100 Watt RMS Sansui amplifier keeping the volume within the limits of the speakers and was pleasantly surprised at the range and performance. I was especially impressed at their bass response which I was not expecting with their sealed cabinets. While I stress again these are not for the high-end audiophile, they were very enjoyable to listen to and quite musical. Also the drivers look great in action and give a lovely ‘pull’ on firing up.
If your looking for a pair of 2-Way bookshelf speakers for your vintage setup that are not going to cost you a terrible lot, and you like listening to pop and rock, then you won’t go to far wrong with a pair of these. I think they would be very suitable candidates for a lot of mid-range 1970s Receivers and Amplifiers. IMHO these are very attractive speakers with or without the semi-transparent grilles.
While these are no longer in my collection they did peak my interest and I have recently acquired a slightly higher end version of them in a 3-Way I am going to get around to trying out soon!
Posted In: Speakers
Hadi
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Hi
Thanks for the information. Would it be a good match for Akai AA 5000 amp?
admin Author
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Hi Hadi,
Sorry for the delay, I’ve been working on the farm out in the sticks 🙂
Those speakers were released about 9 years after your AA-5000 which is rated 55 WPC in an IHF rating. What it will come down to is a question of how efficient those speakers are.
Unfortunately I don’t have this pair any more to test on my AA-5000 with, but the good news is I traded up to the Akai SW-137 which is virtually an identical speaker but in a 3-way. I’ll set em up and let you know my thoughts!
admin Author
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Ok so I hooked up my 3-way SW-137 to the AA-5000 and…..not bad! They are indeed efficient enough to pair well with this amp! I didn’t have time to place them in a proper listening environment (my garage with its brick walls and concrete floors is not so good) but from my short audition these speakers produced decent bass and well defined mid-range while the high’s were a little bright but I put that down to the environment. Hope this helps!