Is Sansui still around?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by coopmv, Apr 25, 2006.

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  1. bangsezmax

    bangsezmax Forum Resident

    Location:
    Durham, NC, USA
    My collection:

    G-9000DB receiver
    5000A receiver
    5000X receiver
    AU-999 integrated

    Love the Sansui stuff from that era!
     
  2. riverrat

    riverrat Senior Member

    Location:
    Oregon
    I'm currently running an Sansui AU-719 as my main amp, along with a TU-719 tuner.

    I have an AU-819 getting recapped and cleaned. That will serve as the heart of my system.

    I'm currently shopping for speakers- looking at Totem Sttaf or perhaps Neat Acoustics Motive 1. I also considered Spendors.

    Due to WAF issues, I'm looking at small floorstanders to go in a fairly large room. The acoustics are pretty bright at this point, its a new house with wood floors. We will be getting more rugs and wall art up.

    Are the any other speakers I should be considering?
     
  3. boead

    boead New Member

    Here is my AU-9900 - 1974/75
    It sounds like a tube amp


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  4. That's because Sansui always used kick-butt iron in their amps--after all, aren't the transformers truly the heart of a tube amp?

    I had a Sansui Solid State 4000 for years and it sounded sweet! I wish I still had it sometimes . . . although I'll have to make due with my C-J . . . ;)
     
  5. I'm sure those huge power supply caps don't hurt, either . . .
     
  6. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    This thread has been a real trip down memory lane. My very first component amplifier, purchased while I was in college (late 1980) was a black face Sansui AU-117. As I'm recalling things, having no car, I browbeat a buddy into driving me far across town to one of the less upscale Houston audio emporia--I'm pretty sure it was Custom Hi Fi--at something like 2 AM to avail myself of some "late night madness" promotion and paid $50 for the thing. Now that I think back on it, I think a goodly crew of my friends went along, although I don't remember whether any of them bought anything that night. Anyhow, a couple of weeks earlier, in a fit of excitement over finding a really good, modern 78 RPM capable turntable (remember, I was a college kid and had next to no background in or knowledge of audio!), I'd bought a much-used Dual 1218 at Recycled Stereo, the used equipment annex of the Pacific Stereo store near campus, only to discover to my dismay that I couldn't pipe its signal through the "auxiliary input" of the Panasonic all-in-one compact that I was now in the process of "upgrading" into oblivion (although I didn't recognize what was happening yet!). A friend explained the basics of magnetic cartridiges (need preamp!) vs. ceramic (don't!) like on the Panasonic, and I knew I'd need a new amp. Little did I know I was taking the first fateful steps on the road to two decades of equipment churning!

    I was not 100% pleased with the Sansui, and it didn't last long. Sounded fine, but I wanted radio capability, and it had an annoying quirk: some little pin that connected the volume knob to the shaft it turned kept popping out, forcing me to open the thing up and reinstall it periodically. After a couple of months, I took it and a dysfunctional Realistic tuner, which I'd picked up from another friend in hopes of addressing the first shortcoming, to Recylcled Stereo and traded them for an elderly Kenwood receiver, a KR 77. The KR 77, of course, is now long gone, as is a whole parade of gear that followed, but I still have that Dual 1218 that started the whole thing, and I even put into service for a while last year when one of my other turntables went buggy on me.
     
  7. AudiophilePhil

    AudiophilePhil Senior Member

    Location:
    San Diego, CA
    My dad used to have a Sansui receiver he bought in the early 70's. Sonically, it's superior to any receiver being manufactured nowadays. The phono section produces a very dynamic and rich sound from the signal being fed from our old Dual turntable/Shure V15Type V-MR combination. It's a first class receiver in every way with a heavy duty chassis, heavy power transformer and lots of discrete components.
     
  8. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I had my share of Pioneer receivers and Kenwood amp in the early days of this serious hobby. While in grad school, I first went separate with the Kenwood KA-9100 integrated, which I gave away to the Salvation Army in the early 90's and have never considered another receiver since. Nowadays, most of my amps in active duty are CJ's.
     
  9. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Very impressive, do you still use your Sansui AU-9900?
     
  10. crooner

    crooner Tube Marantzed

    Sansui was pretty much the first serious Japanese contender. The AU-111 tube integrated and 1000A tube receiver put them on the map so to speak.

    I used to own the G-9000 and it was incredible. Beautiful piece of gear.

    I presently own a SR-838 turntable from around 1978 and it's the finest I've heard. It clearly bested a Music Hall MMF-5, which it replaced.

    I am currently restoring a mint 1000A receiver I bought off the 'Bay. Another extraordinary piece.
     

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  11. Russ

    Russ Outlaw

    Location:
    Anglesea, NJ
    I recently got a hold of one and making it my primary...it's pretty remarkable what this thing can do.
     

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  12. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I bet this receiver probably has a 20" width.
     
  13. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Aren't most Music Hall gears made in China today? What about its turntables?
     
  14. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I bet this amp tips the scale at 50 lbs!
     
  15. There's a LOT of interesting stuff out there, it's just not sold at places like Best Buy and Circuit City. It seems you can't even get plain old DVD players at those chains--it's all either DVD recorders or HITB units. Cookie-cutter indeed.

    Check out the pages of Stereophile or The Absolute Sound to see what "interesting" stuff is out there . . .

    Of course you know this bit of information. However, even some moderately priced gear can be well built and great sounding. There's good stuff going on even regarding HT gear: witness NAD and Rotel for stuff on the warmer, slightly dark and laid back "musical" side, and Adcom, Outlaw, and B&K for a more upfront, brighter, "accurate" sound. There's many, many more manufacturers making intersting stuff out there . . .
     
  16. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    That is unless you shell out the bigger bucks!
     
  17. Check out my edited post--NAD, Rotel, and Adcom won't cost you any more than Sony, Yamaha, Onkyo, and all the other cookie-cutter brands . . .
     
  18. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I do have quite a few NAD components sprinkled across my multiple systems. I have the NAD 118 (rated B by Stereophile a few years ago), the digital preamp, matched to my CJ Sonographe SA-400. I have the NAD 218, 116 and S500i in another system with Tandberg TD20A and Revox B760, which also yield very satisfory sound. I probably bought my last NAD equipment when I got the S500i two years ago since I want to stick with American-made equipments.
     
  19. crooner

    crooner Tube Marantzed

    The original tables were made at the same factory that Project uses in the Czech Republic.

    I know my former MMF-5 was made there. Given the economics involved today, I wouldn't be surprised they are Chinese now.

    In any case, the level of craftmanship Sansui attained for its higher priced models in the late 1970s would cost at least 2K to duplicate today. The SR-838 weighs nearly 30 lbs and it retailed for $400 back in '77-'78.
     
  20. Uncle Ants

    Uncle Ants New Member

    Their website startes the Czech Republic,

    They don't sell Music Hall decks in the UK, but from the looks of them they share a lot of parts (tonearms, motor pods, clamps) that look common with the Pro-Ject range, which suggests that its true.

    Big fan here of Sansui stuff. An A317 MkII was my first serious amp and I currently have (on loan to a friend until he gets his own) a minty AU6500, which sounds fantastic still.
     
  21. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    I knew the Project TTs were made in the Czech Republic, which by the way has the tradition of making some precision-engineered firearms going back to pre-WWII, a manufacturing tradition that the Chinese never had. To be honest, I really do not have any idea if any TTs are actually made in China. It is fairly easy for a Chinese factory to put together cheap DVD or CD players because the drives came from either Japan or South Korea and there are only simple assembly and electrical connections to be made. Assembly of TT's can be a bit trickier. The Japanese quality has remained very high over the years. According to many of my friends, they will not buy Samsung products because the quality is not there. The only Asian-made equipments I would buy have to be made in Japan. The Nakamichi DR8 and DR10 were garbage made in Malaysia. I have the real things, the Dragon, CR-7A, 700ZXE and ZX-7, all made in Japan.
     
  22. Sansui even made some decent speakers in the 70's.

    A buddy of mine owned a pair of high end Sansui speakers that had beautiful cabinets with wooden speaker grills that looked great but probably cut off one third of the air motion. Still with his Yamaha CA-1000 amp powering them they thrummed, majestically.

    A friend of mine lived in Tokyo in the early 1980's. He said that on garbage day he would quite regularily see lots of the bigger and older Japanese gear out beside the trash free for the taking. No room to store it, no market for used. Cripes!

    Larry
     
  23. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    The only Japanese-made speaker I have ever owned was a Yamaha subwoofer, which I gave away to my brother-in-law a few years back. I have heard many people complaining about Japanese speakers not sounding right for western music, is it still true?
     
  24. drh

    drh Talking Machine

    Obviously, this forum is going to be very bad for my character. After all this Sansui reminiscing, at a thrift store today, for $15, I couldn't help myself and bought a Sansui RA 500 reverb amp. It works, but, to be honest, I'm not sure what I'll do with it; probably integrate it into the home theater setup rather than the music system....
     

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  25. coopmv

    coopmv Newton 1/30/2001 - 8/31/2011 Thread Starter

    Location:
    CT, USA
    Pioneer used to make a similar product in the 70s or 80s. That was before the HT era and there is no doubt such equipment was used to enhance music listening. Isn't this supposed to be connected to the tape loop of your preamp?
     
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