Why Vintage Sansui Amps are Superb

Ha! It was stuck on 45! Should have known the (looks original) 45 spacer was on the spindle.

 

You realize you're making me shop...for another...
Those are very nice amps. Jeez they all are.

 

What is wrong with you??? Glad you found it.
Don't get like me...

 

Very glad, and glad its now 331/3 . It can play 45 also just need to move the belt into the proper place. And whats wrong with being like you? a fella could do a lot worse! Ha Ha...

 

I guess you're right. I've had trouble getting out of my own way lately is all. It's sometimes a comfort to see I'm not alone.

 

Nope, you are here with us!

 

I feel so much better.

 

Sansui spoken fluently here. I own two Sansui receivers, a 4000 and a QRX 7500. Love their sound, reliable operation, and impeccable build quality.

 

My little Classique 250 probably makes all of 18x2 watts yet it runs right over lesser receivers. It has heart!

 

I actually went on the bay tonight to see what was out there. I don't know squat about the QRX stuff and it does intrigue me. Seems I remember from way back in the seventies (oh yeah) they synthesized the two extra channels somehow. The sound is less discrete but more fluid around the room. Could be yet another "Doh" moment for me not sure, Ntotrar might know.

I would love a nice 4900 integrated or something similar. I like the look I'm sure the sound would be great. The 5000's worry me as there is one that has a problem. When I was in the Navy back in the early 70's everyone was buying these and the 555 integrateds. Of course the speakers too.

 

I was in the Air Force in the 80's and Yamaha whas the leading brand as I remember. Some Pioneer as well.

 

I never saw much Yamaha gear. We had Sansui, Fisher, Dual, Akai, Teac and Garrard everywhere. I bought a Zero 100 back in 72 I think. I used it with my AR-1500. The Navy exchange was big on Sansui. My brothers were in the Air Force. They had no stereo gear at all just rank.

 

That's right we had Pioneer too.

 

The first affordable CD players were half chassis Pioneers. I bought one for about $500.

 

I bought my first stereo at the Navy Exchange in Yokosuka in 1974 and Sansui was the big seller along with Pioneer. I ended up with aSansui 2000x , Pioneer cs66A's , pioneer Pl-12D turntable and a Teac A-450 cassette deck. I am still using the receiver and the speakers and have not done anything to them yet.
I sure would like to go back in time to those Navy years and go on a buying spree for those old Sansui receivers!

 

I'd be a kid in a candy store. And would buy a Revox A77 while I was there.

I'm looking at a Sansui 2000 right now. How do you like yours?

 

Never saw one ever but the price sounds right.

 

Owned a few pieces of Sansui over the years, but I now proudly own a CA-3000 preamp that was completely rebuilt to get rid of the chronic failure points....feed-thru connectors on the circuit boards. This piece was part of their Definition series and it's a work of art. I use a shot of the meters on the top of my YouTube channel.

 

Yamaha gear was uncommon in the USA until the middle 1970's.

 

The exchange also had Bose and Klipsch. I wish I had spent a few paychecks on the Klipsch offerings!

 

You are bringing back memories by far. I heard my first pair of 901's back in 71. They were powered by a Sansui integrated. The sound was amazing. Extremely powerful lifelike sound.

I don't remember any Klipsch gear though. A lot of people bought the 901's.

 

I remember I did not see it much. Hard for me to remember something I don't remember. I do recall seeing Yamaha on pianos and wondering what was up.

 

Sansui made particularly good transformers, and that was the appeal of their tube equipment. I parted out more than one Sansui receiver or integrated for the output transformers and stuck them in guitar amps in the 70s, when you could not get replacements from Fender, and the owners were invariably pleased as punch.

Their stereo equipment started coming over en masse through military base/post exchanges in the Vietnam era and the solid state units were well thought of, but I can't believe as good as what is easily built today, because the transistors weren't nearly as consistent.

Hashimoto now builds and sells the Sansui transformers and they are good. They are also heinously expensive.

http://www.tube-amps.net/Sansui_Tube_Era_Products.htm

 

I bought a 2000X a couple of years ago off ebay for $250. Cosmetically near perfect but after a short while it needed service. This is what was done;

Cost me another $325 for the work but I don't regret it for one minute. This receiver is worth every penny.