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Vintage Sansui

per flemming

Registered User
I found a pair Sansui SPX8000 speakers at a garage sale.
Also, I heard some good things about Sansui's 1970'ies amplifiers.

I'd fancy the AU20000, would that make the party ?

Per
 
Hi - you should check the guys over on "Exclusively Sansui" at Audiokarma.org and they'll help you. I've got a BA2000/CA2000 combo that has been serviced and it outperforms all the modern gear that I owned (and then sold). You sometimes see the AU20000 on German eBay if you are serious about finding one - prices are rising.
 
an old Sansui integrated firing up a pair of JBL4343's is about as good as it gets TBH.
 
My first amp was a little 15wpc Sansui AU-101, bought in 1972. Great gadget. I sold it to a friend in Oz and it still runs his office system.
 
You want to look at anything from the Definition Series from the later 70's. These amps were all built to a spec not a price. Also the bigger AU719 and 919 are worth checking out.
 
The Sansui's to avoid* are the ones from early to mid eighties onwards when quality and design took a bad stumble. The other problem with Sansui is sadly that for all intents and purposes it no longer exists, so servicing may be problematic.
There was a brief renaissance in the nineties when they resurrected the AU111 and put out some marvellous OTT stuff (OTT by their standards, quite sober in contrast to what was happening elsewhere).
The Sansui brand now belongs to the same holding company that owns Nakamichi and Akai (I know this because the head office/showroom is down the road from my office).

*avoid is the wrong word; "be careful with" is better. They put out some stonking good stuff during this period, too.
 
during the mid 1980s I seem to recall the AU-G30X winning lots of recomendations from the magazines (not that that is a sign of anything)

anyway, over 15 years ago I bought an AU-G50X in a sale when I was in my teens as it was cheap, and being a bit naive I figured if the 30 was any good then the 50 would be even better!

I've still got it now, in the study playing into some little rogers speakers and it doesn't sound at all bad.

It seems pretty well built, and looking through the ventilation grills in the top reveals some very chunky heatsink.




cheers
Matt
 
…if any one needs a Sansui servicing then I know just the man. He resoldered all the dry joints in my Sansui Power and now it sounds like new. These amps were built to last a lifetime - not to be thrown away after a few years!
 


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