Bostonsbest

Saw this post and felt compelled to comment. SP-1s were massive and I was shocked to learn that they were only rated at 100w peak. My high school band used to rent these regularly for gigs in or outside and somehow they projected well beyond their power rating. I suspect the actual cabinet serves as an acoustic amplifier (like old movie theater sound systems of the 1940-70s) that may add to the efficacy of the speaker performance. We typically ran our PA through a Peavey KB400 head (or similar) at 300w and it was generally ample for most settings. I cannot attest to their sonic accuracy but they definitely packed a punch. We even used them on some outdoor venues and they performed reasonably well. Having performed since then extensively with all sorts of sound systems and arrays, I have become more accustomed to powered speakers (currently using QSC). Clearly SP-1s were phased out for myriad reasons (weight, dimensions, efficiency, accuracy, power, etc.) but at the time (late 1980s), they were workhorse speakers and were reliable with pretty wide dispersion.