Technics SB-R200

Bar Pioneer and its 1980 S-F1 monster, Technics is the only brand which went for coaxial flat loudspeakers.

Kenwood thought about it (the unreleased LX series), Diatone and Onkyo did too, but this was finally too expensive to develop efficiently : the market still was high in '79 but looking for drastic rationalization by 1982 - exit the sci-fi super monsters.

That's where the SB-R200 and SB-R100 came in : well-balanced, clean sound coming from high-tech but discrete, flat, hangable, 'speakers.

The R100 and R200 are two way systems with a passive radiator surrounding the woofer so a sort of 2-way-and-a-half.
The radiator of the R200 is 32cm in diameter ; that of the R100 is 25cm. The R200 adds a tweeter level pot and said tweeter is of the MICA film kind, as in the SB-M1 series.

Both can hang from a wall or rest on slanted stands ; the hanger option naturally helps bass output, by about 6dB. If efficiency isn't near that of a Klipsch La Scala, depth allows the R100 to remain a bit more discreet : only 6,5cm ! The R200 cheats a little by adding 2cm.

The enclosure is made of Technics' BMC moulded composite material (Bulk Mould Compound - as pioneered by Sony in 1974 under the SBMC name).
The SB-R100 was also available in silver color but that is an x-rare object, even more than the black R100 and the black R200 which are all very seldom seen.

Both were custom-designed for the SA-R100 vertical compact.

Upper in the range were the slightly later and cute as can be SB-RX70 and SB-RX50 which remained available outside Japan until the early 1990s. Without selling much either.