Why Do Vintage Sunn Cabs Sell so Cheap?

[Fair Warning]

I am somewhat of an equipment Ho, you know, buying, trying, trading, selling etc.. I have yet to try out some of the Sunn cabs that I see coming across CL. Lot of them for under $300 in good shape. Now I have a shot at trading a combo worth $250 for a Sunn 402 4x12 with new cones.

I also see a Sunn 2x15 for under $300.....so whats up? Anything I should know about?

[PunkRocker33133]

They're awesome, but beyond heavy. So nobody wants heavy gear anymore.

[rpsands]

Super heavy and relatively limited compared to modern cabs.

[lbanks]

Yep, very heavy. But, if you're in shape and love the sound, two Sunn 2x15s and a Bass Coliseum 300 can be had for less than a grand.

[jimbilly]

Almost all older, or even just used speaker cabinets are hard to sell these days, not just Sunn. Probably a mix of: the economy, weight and design of newer cabinets, better PAs so you don't need multiple 215s anymore.

[craig.p]

The 402 weighed 70 pounds and really couldn't take much power before keeling over. If the one you're looking at has new OEM drivers (or reconed OEMs), you're still going to be power-limited. And who knows how good the bass response was on those things. I don't recall any decent 12" bass drivers from that era. If your plan is to upgrade to better drivers in the future, it'd be best to know beforehand whether any current drivers will work well in that particular cab with that particular porting. That means measuring tape and WinISD. But... if you simply like to trade, you can always buy the thing and then sell it for what you paid for it if you wind up not liking it. There's a guy up this way who does the same with Peavey cabs. He's always got something on CL.

As for the 2x15, Sunn made many, so it depends on which one you've got your eye on. Some are better than others, some are Same Old Same Old. There are threads on this board about the various Sunn 2x15 cabs. Again, though, nothing really spectacular using today's benchmarks, and some were heavy as hell, depending how much lumber was required to pull off the design. My favorite, sound-wise, was the 215BH but I wouldn't give you a nickel for one today because I simply wouldn't be able to move it up and down stairs on my own. Even when I was younger and much stronger I needed help doing it. You chop that boy up and you'd have enough firewood to heat a North Dakota farm house in January for a week. But some guy here had or has one with K140s in it and in another thread he says "it kills." I believe it, 'cause mine did pretty well even with the stock/junk drivers.

On my final preview for this, I see others have already given the "heavy" caution. I'll leave mine in anyway.

[Broiler]

Heavy? Compared to what? A rack of PA amps? PA cabs? A B3? They have wheels on 'em! A 2000s cab is not heavy in my opinion. Large yes, heavy no. 2000s cabs create a glorious thick sweet sound. Coupled with a matching head it is very HI FI. An SVT cab is much heavier, but still worth it for a full sounding tone. All IMHO.

[nashvillebill]

The old 215 cab was indeed heavy. I loaded mine with JBL 2226 drivers and it rocked, those speakers really matched the cab well but it was quite heavy.