Technics SB-10000

November
1 9 7 7 november 1977
1 9 8 1 1981

Huge 140kg monster which Technics often used for its live/record demos during the yearly Technics Seminars, alongwith the two versions of the later but just as rare SB-8000.

Third of the 10000 name as well, after the 1972 SU-10000 and SE-10000, but mainly shown with Technics' SE-A1 & SU-A2 which replaced the original 10000s.

The development of the SB-10000 was started and fine-tuned with a simple system : record instruments and orchestras, play them back immediately through the SB-10000, fine-tune, record again, play-back, fine-tune etc.
These live demonstrations were often received very differently : loudspeakers-wise, the british often thought them nearly risible, the french often found them very impressive... The truth must lie, as always, in the middle.


EAS-35HD04SA
Topping the tower is a 3,5cm tweeter made of Boron ; the diaphragm makes one piece, edges included, for better transient characteristics.
According to Technics, Boron has "the greatest sound velocity on Earth" and was used for the first time in this SB-10000 driver.
Although Technics' own response graphs show a sharp fall after 22Khz, frequency response is said to extend to 36Khz.

EAS-10HM03-N
The mid driver is a large 10cm rear-drive horn with large voice coil and back cavity for low distortion ; part of the dispersion throat is included in the driver's structure to increase mechanical stability ; the horn shape allows a 150° vertical angle.
A vertical phase plug partly splits the horn in two, making about a third of the exponential curve's depth.

EAS-46PL01S
The deep cone woofer is a 46cm set in a 300L vented enclosure ; said enclosure is made of 3cm thick walls with mutiple bracings inside, foam damping plus butyl rubber coating again, even on the top of the screws.


The horns are made of diecast aluminium coated with butyl rubber so as to not compose too much with vibrations and node resonances ; the visible tops and un-visible bottoms encase the horns with thick and bolted plywood plates (plywood ?).

The linear-phase filter allows tri-amping and/or filtering with connections located at the top of the enclosure, just behind the mid horn section ; low-loss coils and film capacitors.

All three drivers were apparently developed specifically for the SB-10000, and probably exclusively for it - I can't find their specifications or even their presence in the 1978 Stereo Sound "bible".

The may 1978 service manual specifies an SB-10000(M) for the North-American market only - I don't know of differences, if any.



You can see Ricardo Mondaca's own SB-10000 (with SB-M1s and SB-F1s on the side :)
Ricardo provided the service manual necessary for the details which none of the original japanese catalogs I have contains.

Another real SB-10000 at hifi-do.

Technics SB-10000, image 1 Technics SB-10000, image 2 Technics SB-10000, image 3
Technics SB-10000 specifications
Title Value
System : 3-way bass-reflex
Nominal impedance : 6 Ohm
Maximum input power : 300W
200W (DIN, RMS)
SPL : 95dB / W / 1m
Crossovers : 700Hz
6,5Khz
Dimensions : 111,5 x 120 x 70,5cm
Weight : 140kg
List price : 1,200,000¥ (1977, per pair)
page online since : august 2009
page updated : march 2010
page type : LGT / KNB
page weight : 167.07 Kb / 0 b
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