Technics SB-E500 (c. 1978)
The SB-E500 is a 4-way linear phase speaker system. It is a floor-standing bass reflex design that Technics finished, per period documentation, by refining the know-how it had built up in the SB-10000. It was priced at ¥350,000 per unit around 1978, which put it firmly in the company's top tier of the era.
The driver array is 4-way, 4-speaker. A 38cm cone woofer handles the low band, a 25cm cone unit handles the middle/low band, and horn-type units cover both the mid-high and high bands. The woofer uses a high-rigidity straight cone made mainly of softwood pulp. Its 75mm large-diameter voice coil has a high-hardness rubber ring to brake coil resonance, and the joint with the cone paper was reinforced to suppress peaks in the woofer's upper range. The 25cm unit was developed to connect smoothly to the horns. It has a lightweight curved cone and an edgewise voice coil, and the curve helps extend its usable high-frequency range.
The horns are the most distinctive part of the design. Both the mid-high and high-frequency drivers use tapered-flare radial horns opening at a wide 150°. The mid-high section is a cascade type: a throat section with a different cutoff frequency sits between a high-precision 5-slit equalizer and the horn section to flatten energy characteristics. The mid-high driver uses a 60mm, 30μm-thick titanium diamond wheel in a magnetic circuit rated at 19,000 Gauss flux density, with a CCAW voice coil for heat resistance. The high-frequency driver is a 25mm aluminum dome coated with a boron compound, claimed to reach beyond the range of audibility. A linear phase network controls phase characteristics across the system.
The enclosure is large at 170 liters. It is built from high-density perch boards, and the center is reinforced with bracing that connects the side, baffle, and back panels to minimize vibration modes. The exterior carries a rosewood oil finish, clearly intended to show off the wood. Each speaker weighs 80kg, so nobody bought a pair on a whim.
Known specifications:
- 4-way, 4-speaker, bass reflex, floor type
- Impedance: 8 Ω
- Allowable input: 150W (DIN RMS) / 300W (MUSIC)
- Crossover frequencies: 350 Hz / 1.5 kHz / 8.5 kHz
- Dimensions: 720 × 1030 × 560 mm (W×H×D)
- Weight: 80 kg (with net)
- Original price: ¥350,000 (c. 1978)
Beyond this, the record goes quiet. No production years, frequency response specification, or period reviews have surfaced in the sources examined — the technical description survives, but the listening impressions of the time appear to be lost.
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