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Sansui AU-101 - mixed opinions.

Amstrad really were shockingly bad and shouldn’t ever be mentioned on an audio forum, let alone on a Sansui thread!
i will stand up for Amstrads ability to hum along to the music, wether any music was playing or not.

they were unrivalled in that regard...at least they lasted a term or two.... unlike the Sinclair 2000 i started with
 
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Does it really matter what any of us think of it? If you like it....

It matters in the sense that I like to know peoples history and experience so I have an idea of the amps capabilities and what to expect.

Never mind the naysayers, back in 1973-74, along with the other Japanese majors, Sansui began designing for and publishing to the then new IHF music output power ratings. With the lowly AU-101, Sansui claimed IHF music power of 44wpc into 8Ohms, and 50wpc into 4Ohms(!) from an amplifier that was rated 15wpc continuous into 8Ohms (18wpc continuous @ 4Ohms).

Keep in mind, this was some years before NAD came along with similar claims combined with comparatively shit build.

Throw it on your Concertos and prepare to be amazed!

P.S. If you are not amazed, then it obviously needs a recap.

OK, so now a positive point among the negatives. I told you this amp had mixed reviews! I value all your opinions good or bad - I will have a proper flirtation with it soon hooked up to the Concertos (or anything else that takes my fancy).

I've never heard the Sansui sound before, so this could be a gentle introduction to a great Japanese brand (or not). It's all part of the high fidelity experience.

Where I feel I do have a gaping hole in experience is Quad - I would like to listen to a Quad 405 with Quad ESL at some point in time. Letting the British take over from the Japanese here.
 
I never knew that. It was the three pronged platter and arm that made me think it was based on the Planet - I assumed it was Amstrad ripping them off.

Rega

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Amstrad
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Wrongly labelled
 
I've just upped the ante on the speakers and results are certainly not crude! Very listenable with good highs, mid-range and lows. OK quite obviously the system is not setup optimally (see pic) but a lot of goodness can be heard nevertheless (Aries Mini >>> Sansui AU-101 >>> Mordaunt Short Pageant).

 
It matters in the sense that I like to know peoples history and experience so I have an idea of the amps capabilities and what to expect.



OK, so now a positive point among the negatives. I told you this amp had mixed reviews! I value all your opinions good or bad - I will have a proper flirtation with it soon hooked up to the Concertos (or anything else that takes my fancy).

I've never heard the Sansui sound before, so this could be a gentle introduction to a great Japanese brand (or not). It's all part of the high fidelity experience.

Where I feel I do have a gaping hole in experience is Quad - I would like to listen to a Quad 405 with Quad ESL at some point in time. Letting the British take over from the Japanese here.

Erm... that's not a positive point! It's an example of how once upon a time makers got away with huge porkys in specifying the power of amplifiers. Worst was the craze during the 90's for specifying tiny speakers with built in amps for desk top PC use as "300W!" etc when the tiny wall wart PSU said "9V 500mA" on it... and the actual speakers were the sort of thing found in pocket radios.

It will be the sound of this generic textbook "make it as simple and cheap as you can" amp circuit which was used with minor changes by loads of companies back then... typical of the circuitry found in "unit audio" and "music centres" around the time and later..... and also cheap amps from the likes of Teleton, Alba etc.

I hugely reject the idea of their being a "Sansui sound" or any other make for that matter! One keeps reading this misnomer but I can assure you that identical or near identical amps don't take on a specific sound depending on the name above the factory door!

Sometimes an identical circuit will be used for a range of amps or the same pre amp circuitry used from the 30 to the 100W model and there can be a family resemblance, but one reads bollox about say a "Marantz sound" (insert brand of choice) for amps designed decades apart, by different design teams, using completely different circuitry and parts and sometimes built in a different factorys! This just does not happen and there is as much chance of the Marantz sounding like the then current Pioneer or whatever as to another Marantz from 10 years before...
 
I was misfortunate enough to own an Amstrad TP12D as a callow youth.... I find it hard to believe that Rega had anything to do with it... it was utter shite! Ran at the wrong speed, obvious wow and flutter, rumble, about 2mm play in the arm.... Mind you IIRC it was only about £25 new! An SP25 completely thrashed it in every way...
 
re post 28 that first paragraph is a joy Arkless thanks.

Sansui at least early on and then later Yamaha built amps that also had a hi waf factor and whatever the figures and marketing said only eejits believed the musicpower figs. I had a Ravensbourne amp which had a union jack on it and little else to commend it - reading this thread does partly explain why

I doubt anyone on PF was taken by daft musicpower figs and so I think purchasers kind of got what they expected
 
re post 28 that first paragraph is a joy Arkless thanks.

Sansui at least early on and then later Yamaha built amps that also had a hi waf factor and whatever the figures and marketing said only eejits believed the musicpower figs. I had a Ravensbourne amp which had a union jack on it and little else to commend it - reading this thread does partly explain why

I doubt anyone on PF was taken by daft musicpower figs and so I think purchasers kind of got what they expected

I once had a basically NOS Rogers Ravensbourne and really rated it! The Ravensbrook was the cheaper model, about 15WPC whereas the 'bourne was about 35WPC and a rival to the Leak Stereo 70. I preferred the Rogers to the Leak but both were expensive kit at the time (about £65 in '71 = apparently £900 today and AU101 was £45 in '74 = £460! VFM has come on a long way!)
Completely different topology to the Sansui, both 'bourne and 'brook had a transformer phase splitter/driver, 2N3055 output transistors, fibreglass PCB's and were quite well made.
I used my Ravensbourne in a second system in a bedroom with Celestion UL6 speakers and a Philips CD104 and I must admit I was expecting it to be crap but it was clean, open and "fast" sounding in this system...
 
I was misfortunate enough to own an Amstrad TP12D as a callow youth.... I find it hard to believe that Rega had anything to do with it... it was utter shite! Ran at the wrong speed, obvious wow and flutter, rumble, about 2mm play in the arm.... Mind you IIRC it was only about £25 new! An SP25 completely thrashed it in every way...
I suspect Amstrad 'squeezed' Rega on the cost and your experience was the result. I don't think the relationship lasted long and was in Rega's early days so maybe the deal was worth it to Rega because it gave them some regular income when they needed it.
 
I suspect Amstrad 'squeezed' Rega on the cost and your experience was the result. I don't think the relationship lasted long and was in Rega's early days so maybe the deal was worth it to Rega because it gave them some regular income when they needed it.

So is it verified fact that Rega made them or speculation based on the resemblance to the Planet TT's? The drive belt appeared to be a black elastic band FFS!
Rega would have had to hand build them (small specialist company.. much smaller still then) and no matter how cheap the materials were it beggars belief that they, Amstrad and Comet (who sold most of them) could have made a profit from a £25 TT!

Update: just done some research... What Hi Fi 1978 has them at £46.... recommended retail of £67 but all suppliers at £46 but by Feb 1980, again in What Hi Fi, they were selling at £25.90 at Comet...
 
The AU 101 was the first amp I ever owned. Sounded pretty good to me back in the day, but then I didn't really have anything to compare against. An immaculately restored example came up for sale a couple of years ago, I was sorely tempted, but common sense overrode nostalgia.
Ditto. Bought mine in 1972 and used it for years, first with some home-made kit speakers, then with LS3/5as. To me, it was completely up to the job, it provided many happy hours of enjoyment and I only passed it on when I got a Quad 33/303.
 
So is it verified fact that Rega made them or speculation based on the resemblance to the Planet TT's?

The power switch is in the same position, and looks to be identical on both. The motor is in the same position too. I'd not heard the story about Rega making them, but they look more similar than I remember.

At the risk of being banned from the forum I have to say I think the Amstrad is the better _looker_ of the two - obviously construction and engineering is another matter.

In my personal turntable odyssey, the SP25 wasn't replaced by one of these, I eventually bought a Rotel RP1500 - one of only 4 'hifi' turntables I've ever bought (and that includes the SP25).
 
The power switch is in the same position, and looks to be identical on both. The motor is in the same position too. I'd not heard the story about Rega making them, but they look more similar than I remember.

At the risk of being banned from the forum I have to say I think the Amstrad is the better _looker_ of the two - obviously construction and engineering is another matter.

In my personal turntable odyssey, the SP25 wasn't replaced by one of these, I eventually bought a Rotel RP1500 - one of only 4 'hifi' turntables I've ever bought (and that includes the SP25).

Yeah the degree of similarities hadn't escaped me but the economic logistics make it seem implausible.... stranger things have been known to be true though:)
 
Two salient points from all this (to me anyway!).

1/ So long as the source is good quality and so are the speakers it's amazing how poor an amplifier we can go down to before it obviously sounds "not hi fi". At the other extreme I'm a firm believer that a very good amplifier can "make" a top quality hi fi. I know from experience that when used under the above conditions even the 5WPC amp made with an IC from a car stereo or the 8WPC crude amp from a cheap music centre etc sound remarkably good, ie it goes right down in the bass and right up in the treble and has no obvious distortion.. if it was hidden, but an expensive amp was on view, and the levels were of the background type, I reckon not many would even doubt the amp in use was the Audiolab 8000/Rega Brio/whatever they could see.

2/ VFM in hi fi, and I guess all electronic products, has increased exponentially over time! If prices in the hi fi yearbook and the bank of Englands inflation calculator can both be trusted, then the cheapest entry level amp back in the early '70's, less good than a NAD 3020, was like £450 in today's money!! (OK there were cheaper things than even the AU-101, from Teleton etc, but even these, considered "joke" hi fi, must have been say £250 in today's terms)
I well remember my shock at noting that the cheapest set top digital boxes and also DVD players in Asda about 10 years ago were less than the price of a decent sized joint of meat!! and for laser, digital, microprocessor and digital signal processing technology undreamed of when we put man on the moon!
Those older than my 54 years will be able to put things in better perspective but it seems likely that even the cheapest car stereo or early mono "ghetto blasters" could have been a weeks wages for a 20 year old back then!
 
It needs pointing out that today’s market is skewed due to the Chinese ultra-low-wage economy. Many things are unrealistically cheap as they are made by something disturbingly close to slave labour. My bet is even the entry-level Sansui was made in Japan, and given how many of them still seem to be around and working getting on for 50 years later, it was rather nicely and solidly made too! It may be a simple design, as one would expect from an entry-level product, but it was clearly done right as they survived.

PS With imported goods a simple £ inflations calculator doesn’t tell the whole story as for certain periods we had spiraling inflation, poor exchange rates etc. There were certainly times where Japanese and American kit looked very exensive compared to the local stuff.
 
The AU-101 was launched when Japan was still a low wage economy. During the products lifetime Japan became much more expensive, as China has become in the last five years.
 


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