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Sansui Itch needs Scratching

Dipped my toes ..with an Au-101

£25 i didn't know if it worked or not,wired it into my test speakers and had a little sound from the left channel then the loudest distortion i've ever had from the right channel!
Thought that's my test speakers done for,luckily they survived their ordeal.

A few hours cleaning the pots etc a transistor swap from the phono stage and i'm enjoying a taster of the sansui sound, i must say i'm impressed! Especially considering that this is entry level.

I'm pretty convinced this amp has been stored for upwards of 4/5ths of its life!

Nice vocals which i was kind of expecting what i wasn't expecting was the bass!!!

I fear the worst
 
I love the wee Sansui integrated amps. I currently have an AU-217 from '77-'80, the middle of three same chassis models, with the AU-117 essentially being the period successor to your AU-101.

What I find interesting about AU-101 is that there are reports of there having been an early example with no VR pots for bias adjust; later examples with VR pots but no emitter resistors (need to remove the fuses to check/set bias); and versions with both pots and emitter resistors.

From what I've read, this model is a capacitor coupled design so precise bias adjustment may not be so critical(?). Regardless, it seems odd that the service manual makes no mention of checking/setting bias.

Service manual here...

Audiokarma discussion on the subject of checking/setting AU-101 bias here...
 
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I love the wee Sansui integrated amps. I currently have an AU-217 from '77-'80, the middle of three same chassis models, with the AU-117 essentially being the period successor to your AU-101.

What I find interesting about AU-101 is that there are reports of there having been an early example with no VR pots for bias adjust; later examples with VR pots but no emitter resistors (need to remove the fuses to check/set bias); and versions with both pots and emitter resistors.

From what I've read, this model is a capacitor coupled design so precise bias adjustment may not be so critical(?).
Regardless, it seems odd that the service manual makes no mention of checking/setting bias.

Service manual here...

Audiokarma discussion on the subject of checking/setting AU-101 bias here...

It makes no difference.

These are about the crudest hi fi amp I've ever seen which makes it all the more strange that they have such a following..... Loads of amps from around 1963 to 1970 ish used a virtually identical power amp design in fact, including the Leak Stereo 30 Plus. The generic design was used till a while later in countless different bottom of the range music centres etc.
 
I love the wee Sansui integrated amps. I currently have an AU-217 from '77-'80, the middle of three same chassis models, with the AU-117 essentially being the period successor to your AU-101.

What I find interesting about AU-101 is that there are reports of there having been an early example with no VR pots for bias adjust; later examples with VR pots but no emitter resistors (need to remove the fuses to check/set bias); and versions with both pots and emitter resistors.

From what I've read, this model is a capacitor coupled design so precise bias adjustment may not be so critical(?). Regardless, it seems odd that the service manual makes no mention of checking/setting bias.

Service manual here...

Audiokarma discussion on the subject of checking/setting AU-101 bias here...

Yes this is the version with no bias adjustment which i assume is the earliest version.

I've had more amps than i care to remember (still have) and not many if any grab me like this has!

Time will tell as i'm fussy lol

I've had it running through test speakers for a couple of days and it sounded superb i was kinda dreading hooking it up to my main speakers fearing disappointment, i literally hooked it up to my A25's 5 minutes ago.

15wpc that won't touch the 10" drivers...assume nothing!
 
I sold a Kenwood KR4140 a while back. Very similar design to the Sansui.
As Jez sez, there were loads of amps using this topology back in the 70's.

It had a nice tone! Very warm and rich. Proper pipe and slippers amp.
If you like this, then most modern amps will sound "vape and Nikes" in comparison :D
 
My theory, borne out of having lived through the period, is that these cheap and cheerful designs were the Methadone of those of us coming off from the tube amp era. Not quite the same buzz as proper valves, mind, but a whole lot easier to drag to and from uni/alternate crash pads than was Dad's old console stereo.
 
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I sold a Kenwood KR4140 a while back. Very similar design to the Sansui.
As Jez sez, there were loads of amps using this topology back in the 70's.

It had a nice tone! Very warm and rich. Proper pipe and slippers amp.
If you like this, then most modern amps will sound "vape and Nikes" in comparison :D

I don't know about that..Billie Eillish has never sounded so good to my ears..that said i think the youngest amp i have is Circa 1985
I genuinely feel the further back i go the better it gets.
 
It makes no difference.

These are about the crudest hi fi amp I've ever seen which makes it all the more strange that they have such a following..... Loads of amps from around 1963 to 1970 ish used a virtually identical power amp design in fact, including the Leak Stereo 30 Plus. The generic design was used till a while later in countless different bottom of the range music centres etc.

They have such a following because they work so well, sound great and are dead easy to fix. Plus the low cost.

I have a Pioneer SA500A from the era which shares topology with some Sansui and Trio units. Total transistor count per channel is around 7, capacitor coupled, 13wpc and sublime into ESL 57s.

There is much to admire about sensible, frugal design.
 
They have such a following because they work so well, sound great and are dead easy to fix. Plus the low cost.

I have a Pioneer SA500A from the era which shares topology with some Sansui and Trio units. Total transistor count per channel is around 7, capacitor coupled, 13wpc and sublime into ESL 57s.

There is much to admire about sensible, frugal design.

Too crude. 0.8% THD and loads of crossover distortion.
As it happens though I have just designed a capacitor coupled amp using modern devices etc and class A. It even happens to be 13WPC as I have suitable transformers with single secondaries which I've been looking for a use for...
0.001% THD expected.... Xmas is the worst time of the year so the 5-6 days of complete solitary confinement I have coming up may well be livened up by prototyping the design as I have all the parts in stock:)
 
Xmas is the worst time of the year so the 5-6 days of complete solitary confinement I have coming up may well be livened up by prototyping the design as I have all the parts in stock:)
For some reason, I'm having this vision of the Grinch, with a big sinister grin on his face, holding a temperature controlled soldering iron with smoke coming off the tip.

Happy solitary confinement, Jez! :)
 
As a layabout in my late teens...I had a sansui a60 amp and t80 tuner ...I had a mate who had friends on the nearby American airbase (he sold them "difficult to get" consumables)
The American catalogue (that they bought everything from) only seemed to have the top end Japanese models in it ...that were either completely unobtainable...on completely unaffordable in this country at the time...but worked out very cheap in dollars
My mate had the top marantz tuneramp ... cannot remember the model but it was an enormous, wonderous thing to behold ... glowing away in his bedsit thought the haze ...driving celestion ditton 44s ...from another of his mates at the local celestion works in Ipswich
If I hadn't spent as much time listening to his setup as he did ..I might have been jealous!
 
Just spotted a Sansui 661 reciever on FB marketplace......Watford
Lovely things. A mate's Dad had one with Pioneer PL-12D and a pair of KLH acoustic suspension 'speakers (ISTR a top loading piano key cassette deck too). Although the tuning knob is the same size as the volume and source selector ones, there is the usual big flywheel behind that gives that smooth, weighty spin across the dial, as only a classic Jap tuner does.

sansui_661_display.jpg
 
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Dipped my toes ..with an Au-101

£25 i didn't know if it worked or not,wired it into my test speakers and had a little sound from the left channel then the loudest distortion i've ever had from the right channel!
Thought that's my test speakers done for,luckily they survived their ordeal.

A few hours cleaning the pots etc a transistor swap from the phono stage and i'm enjoying a taster of the sansui sound, i must say i'm impressed! Especially considering that this is entry level.

I'm pretty convinced this amp has been stored for upwards of 4/5ths of its life!

Nice vocals which i was kind of expecting what i wasn't expecting was the bass!!!

I fear the worst

Mario of AN once, when asked about Sansui, advised me to taste the 101 first - for a reason. then came my Sansui years :)
 
Lovely things. A mate's Dad had one with Pioneer PL-12D and a pair of KLH acoustic suspension 'speakers (ISTR a top loading piano key cassette deck too). Although the tuning knob is the same size as the volume and source selector ones, there is the usual big flywheel behind that gives that smooth, weighty spin across the dial, as only a classic Jap tuner does.

sansui_661_display.jpg

Ah that's modern Jap gear:D I have a Trio TK-500 "Transistor Automatic FM Stereo Tuner" which is actually hybrid. 3 valves in front end (one of these a Nuvistor no less!). Transistors are germanium. 1965-66. It's in mint condition as well and I have reason to believe it was virtually NOS when I got it.

Also have Trio and Pioneer valved receivers. About a dozen valves in each IIRC. Completely point to point hand wired and the under chassis of either is a sight to behold! Unfortunately both of these are the bottom of the range models and have only about 7-8WPC from ECL82 output valve pairs. It's not a quality 7-8W either sadly.... tiny output transformers and no ultra linear taps etc so no doubt 1% THD by 7W and prob transformer saturation effects if high outputs attempted below 50 Hz or so. Best regarded as more like 4WPC really...

Both use a feature which simultaneously strikes me as ingenious and cheap skatery.... the cathode current of the output stage is smoothed and used as a DC heater supply for the MM phono stage valves!
 


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