Onkyo Scepter 500 Loudspeakers

I´ll start with, in my opinion, the second (next to the room acoustics) most important part of every stereo systems - loudspeakers. And the legendary Onkyo Scepter 500 from 1978 is one of the all time greatest.

First of all, there is relatively small amount of information about the whole Scepter Series speakers, at least in english. Most information you can find about it are in Japanese but even those are quite theoretical or just some links to ended japanese yahoo auctions. I think these speakers were too rare and too expensive, I mean they cost almost 600.000 yen in 1978, this was a huge amount of money back than, even by today´s standards it´s almost 6.000$ so considering the inflation, we talking about big buck$.

Within last two years I gathered a lot on information about these speakers, I literally bought most of drivers, horns, crossovers and speakers, everything that had the ONKYO/SCEPTER name in it, everything I could find on eBay and others platforms. I bought books, catalogues, downloaded pictures and other information.

I became a real Onkyo Scepter addict and this knowledge I want to share with you.

I will, step by step, introduce you these spectacular products made by masterminds more than 40 years ago in Japan.

Onkyo Company started making audio products shortly after the WW2 ended. The company had quite a huge number of competitors, both domestic and from overseas. Japanese brands like Pioneer/TAD, Sony, Victor/JVC, Technics and Yamaha, american corporations like Altec Lansing, JBL, Electro Voice, Bozak, Klipsch and lots of others.

Japanese audio scene belongs to the biggest worldwide. I mean here the serious audio freaks who don´t tolerate nothing but horn speakers and DHT tube amplifiers, the most crazy and for my ears sophisticated part of the audio industry. Japanese audiophiles discovered the outstanding quality of vintage U.S brands like Western Electric or Altec long before we Europeans could even dream about it. Huge cinema speakers like Altec Lansing Voice Of The Theater was the best example. Low powered triode amplifiers delivering no more than 8 watts per channel were more than sufficient for these 102db/1w monster horns that were produced for western theaters. Japanese audiophiles were probably the first to use these speakers in their tiny rooms. Shortly after, also Americans, French and German followed and so was the hifi horn scene born.

I can only imagine that ambitious Onkyo had to prove their knowledge and intelectual potential. Remember that japanese industry wasn´t always a synonyme of good quality, at least not back in the 60s and 70s.

Scepter Series entered the scene at the end of the 60s offering multiple components like bass speakers, compression drivers, horns, acoustic lenses and crossovers. The quality, both technical and musical, was outstanding. The first horn driver I got was the HM300a from 1972, direct competition to 1" Altec drivers and 511B horns. I compared the HM300a directly to Altec 808A/511b combo and it wasn´t even in the same league, Onkyo being much better in every aspect. It solid cast build made Altec look and feel like a cheap toy that rings like a bell. Soundwise, Onkyo is much more sophisticated and musical, you would hear it from the first note. I never came back to neither 808A nor 511b...

Onkyo Scepter 500 speaker was a flagship model from 1978, basically top of the line components Onkyo offered (more about it later), mixed up together, connected through a very advanced crossover, a 4 way system without any compromise.

98 kg each, 130cm high, frequency response 25hz-35Khz, SPL 96db/1w. :O

Let´s talk about the entire Scepter Series a little bit. It consisted multiple components that one could mixed up together depending from budget, needs or room acoustics. You could have started with a simple two way system, than add a tweeter for a 3 way system and end up with a 4 way speaker with a super tweeter.

There were 3 different bass speakers (10", 12" and 15"), two midrange drivers, three tweeters and one super tweeter.

As you can see, these are rather good looking ones :) I dreamed about them for almost two years. Luckily as we all know, dreams come true and I gathered all components except of enclosures and crossovers, which isn´t that bad since I also have this book:

It´s in japanese only but thankfully Google Translate makes the job better than I thought. This yellow tome is almost 300 sites thick and covers such mysteries like crossover and enclosure plans.

Let the cloning begin...