Sansui Monitor 2115 (circa 1974)
The Sansui Monitor 2115 is a hybrid: a Japanese-made enclosure built by Sansui around an American JBL professional driver. The system pairs the JBL Model 2115, a 20 cm cone-type full-range unit, with an enclosure Sansui engineered specifically for that driver. It was listed at ¥80,000 per unit around 1974, so it wasn't a casual purchase. It comes from a time when Japanese manufacturers were eager to work with JBL's pro heritage.
The driver is serious engineering. It uses an Alnico V magnet in a cast-iron return circuit to minimize magnetic flux leakage, and the center pole piece is coated with pure silver, which works as an impedance control ring. The voice coil is 50 mm in diameter and uses JBL's edge-wound aluminum ribbon construction, with a Duralumin dome attached directly to the coil bobbin. The frame is aluminum die-cast to resist deformation at high output. The system is rated at 8 ohms with a maximum allowable input of 40W. It produces 92.5 dB (NewJIS) and covers 36 Hz to 18 kHz.
Sansui put real care into the cabinet. The baffle is Scandinavian birch plywood with mortise-and-tenon joinery. The other panels are acoustic particle board reinforced with splines and corner blocks, with American pine bracing. The exterior is finished with walnut oil. The front grill uses handmade shippo kumiko made of natural cypress, a traditional Japanese lattice pattern. One listing described the result as "American drivers and Japanese design."
The 2115 has an upgrade path. It was sold as a 1-way system, but the enclosure was built with blank plates fitted to accommodate JBL tweeters, the 075 or 2405. That lets owners convert it to a 2-way setup using JBL's Model 3105 network. The Yahoo! Chiebukuro Q&A exchange shows enthusiasts doing exactly that, wanting to hear "the JBL sound" in a 2-way configuration. The intended audience was people who knew JBL drivers and wanted to build around them.
Documentation on this model is thin. There are no independent professional reviews or measurements in the record, and details on production years, total units made, and common failure points are undocumented. What survives are the spec sheets and the design notes.
Known specifications:
- Type: 1-way, 1-speaker, bass-reflex bookshelf system
- Driver: 20 cm cone-type full-range (JBL Model 2115)
- Impedance: 8 Ω
- Maximum allowable input: 40W
- Frequency response: 36 Hz – 18 kHz
- Output sound pressure level: 92.5 dB (NewJIS)
- Dimensions: 350 × 630 × 355 mm (W×H×D)
- Weight: 19.4 kg
- Original price: ¥80,000 per unit (circa 1974)
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