tourmax
Super Member
(Edit: Dang, missed and "R" in resurrection!)
Hello all.
Been getting back into HIFI over the last while and have developed an affinity for Sansui ever since getting my Sansui 350. Sounds great and looks just right to me. Paired up with a Technics SL2000 and some AR-4x's it sounds fantastic. Snuck a pioneer CT-F750 in there for my old cassettes just because (and there may be a modern 5 cd carousel Sony CD player hidden in the room somewhere too). Toss in a set of Sansui SS-35's and Pioneer Monitor 10 headphones and I'm just about set up for any listening I want to do.
If you haven't guessed yet; I prefer "vintage" for audio stuff.
But I've been keeping my eyes out for one of the bigger Sansui units. something 880/9090-ish. But that stuff is near impossible to come by around here and if you do, they want the moon for them. The other option was buy one online, but you'd pay more in shipping than you pay for the unit!
Then, one day on a whim, I tossed a "wanted" on the local facebook audio page to the effect of wanting one of the larger sansui's, working or not; 8080, 9090, etc. A guy about an hour or so away replies that he's got am 8080DB that has been popping fuses and a QR-1500. I get there and he leads me down into the basement "rec room".
He's got a hodgepodge of audio stuff: reel to reel, pioneer, akai, and some less common brands. 70's and 80's stuff. Some working, some not. Some hooked up, some not. He's a pretty heavy smoker and everything has that "brown" layer on it. Meh, to each their own, but it sure isn't helping his gear any....and the longer I'm in there, the sicker I get....two days afterways I still feel sick to my stomache....
I try to get some of it working for him, but can't do much without my tools handy other than look for burnt or obvious things.
Then we pull out the 8080DB and he pulled the case off. It's in pretty hard shape. I'm not sure how long he's had it, but it's covered in cig smoke/tar, inside and out. The case has rust spots on the insides and so does the transformer case. the aluminum/pot metal bits are all corroded, although it's mainly cosmetic (no pitting...yet). It's missing screws, things are cross threaded and the hold down piece for the power board is missing. It's been thoroughly messed with and looks like it might have spent time in an outside shed or (lord forbid) time at the curb in the weather. But the silver front is all there, the clear plastic is in decent shape and the silk screening all seems intact (under that "brown" layer).
He starts putting fuses in the protection board and the pop over and over. He then starts going bigger and I'm getting ready to leave as fuses start popping elsewhere on the board and it's getting more and more likely I don't want to bother with what else is beginning to get fried.
But then he gives up on the fuses and we start talking turkey. He wants way more than what I think it's worth, especially with problems. I know it's all fixable, but how much is it going to cost me? We settle on 260 Cdn and I'll take a couple of his pieces home to see what I can do for them.
I load it all in the truck thinking I'm stupid as the day is long and I just paid waaaaay too much for a busted and beat up unit. But it is a Sansui,it is an 8080DB and it is (I hope) salvageable. Toss in the "nearly impossible to find" element and I pretty much had to take it. I'm also a sucker for hard luck cases and I felt this ol' girl needed me to save it.
I don't even get halfway home and I have to stop and unload all the gear to the bed of the truck. Thankfully, it's sunny and dry out. I can't even be in the same cab as the stuff, it stinks that much. I'm not a smoker, so it's really turning my stomach. Sucking smoke for the last 1/1.5 hours isn't helping either. Actually, my skin is beginning to feel really bad at this point and I figure it's all the smoke I was moving around in. Stuff goes in the garage when I get home, clothes go straight into the washer and I go straight into the shower for a serious scouring.
Later, I head out to the garage with a bottle of lysol wipes. A quick cleaning on the outside reveals it's not too bad, at least not where it counts (cosmetically). I grab a can of contact cleaner and liberally spray the interior, watching brown liquid run out the bottom of it and stain the plywood I had it sitting on.
I pull the power board and plug it in. No fuses popping. Power board in; pops fuses but no protection mode. Seems like outputs are the likely culprit. I'll chase that down soon. I feel like chasing some cosmetic stuff right now so I can feel better about buying it, at least looks wise.
I should have taken a few before pictures, but didn't think of it at the time. Suffice to say, it looked like pooh.
The whole unit gets a good soaking and bristle brushing with isopropyl. The face plate comes off and I clean up the silver bits with my go to: nevrdull. Takes the tarnish and brown off and leaves the silk screen lettering in place, just don't go too crazy with it.
The knobs and switches are disgusting. IPA and a good scrubbing gets them respectable. One of them looks like the unit has been dropped on it. The chassis and pots don't show any obvious damage, just the face of the knob. I'll replace that one in the future, but it will do for now. I coudl just spin out another one on the metal lathe, but buying a decent used replacement will just be simpler.
The Headphone jack is all sideways cross-threaded, so I sort that out too. Basically have to use picks and sandpaper to rebuild the plastic threads enough to start the metal nut.
The potmetal widow surround around the lens is just beat to crap. Corroded and flaking everywhere, like it's been outside in the elements. But that's easy; old paint just gets new paint. I use an "auto trim" black. Just dull enough with a hint of satin that pretty much matches the original Sansui paint job. Once cured, a little aggressive grit sandpaper and some careful sanding reveals the silver band in the black and gives it a similar "brushed" finish like original.
The lens is actually pretty good after a quick clean, so i put it all back together to just see what it is going to look like.
And it looks damned good! That classy 70's Sansui look is shining through again and I'm feeling a little better about spending 260 bucks on it, even if I still feel sick to my stomach (sick from smoke a full day later! Sheesh!).
The wood case is really just a plywood with fake plastic woodgrain stuck on to it. It's beat up pretty bad and looks like Pooh. Big steaming piles of pooh.
I thought about re-using it by stripping it and using wood veneer. Then considered just putting the fake woodgrain back on it and calling it a day.
But this is going to be a keeper unit for me and probably a last one I intend to buy (yeah, famous last words). 85 WPC is more than I'll ever really use. So I think I'll just put the original cover away in storage and build a new case out of walnut or cherry. It's a pretty simple project for me to bang out in an afternoon (all I need in the shop to do the wood working). Something nice that will take a nice stain to look like the original, but in real wood instead of fake.
That about catches us up to today. Next up will be chasing down the electrial faults and a bit more cleaning/painting of components.
Once I get it looking respectable and at least working to the pint where I know I'm not throwing money away (err...I guess I mean more money), it will be time for re-capping and such. Eventually, it will get to a total restore job, maybe even better than original but still looking and feeling like a classic Sansui.
Hello all.
Been getting back into HIFI over the last while and have developed an affinity for Sansui ever since getting my Sansui 350. Sounds great and looks just right to me. Paired up with a Technics SL2000 and some AR-4x's it sounds fantastic. Snuck a pioneer CT-F750 in there for my old cassettes just because (and there may be a modern 5 cd carousel Sony CD player hidden in the room somewhere too). Toss in a set of Sansui SS-35's and Pioneer Monitor 10 headphones and I'm just about set up for any listening I want to do.
If you haven't guessed yet; I prefer "vintage" for audio stuff.
But I've been keeping my eyes out for one of the bigger Sansui units. something 880/9090-ish. But that stuff is near impossible to come by around here and if you do, they want the moon for them. The other option was buy one online, but you'd pay more in shipping than you pay for the unit!
Then, one day on a whim, I tossed a "wanted" on the local facebook audio page to the effect of wanting one of the larger sansui's, working or not; 8080, 9090, etc. A guy about an hour or so away replies that he's got am 8080DB that has been popping fuses and a QR-1500. I get there and he leads me down into the basement "rec room".
He's got a hodgepodge of audio stuff: reel to reel, pioneer, akai, and some less common brands. 70's and 80's stuff. Some working, some not. Some hooked up, some not. He's a pretty heavy smoker and everything has that "brown" layer on it. Meh, to each their own, but it sure isn't helping his gear any....and the longer I'm in there, the sicker I get....two days afterways I still feel sick to my stomache....
I try to get some of it working for him, but can't do much without my tools handy other than look for burnt or obvious things.
Then we pull out the 8080DB and he pulled the case off. It's in pretty hard shape. I'm not sure how long he's had it, but it's covered in cig smoke/tar, inside and out. The case has rust spots on the insides and so does the transformer case. the aluminum/pot metal bits are all corroded, although it's mainly cosmetic (no pitting...yet). It's missing screws, things are cross threaded and the hold down piece for the power board is missing. It's been thoroughly messed with and looks like it might have spent time in an outside shed or (lord forbid) time at the curb in the weather. But the silver front is all there, the clear plastic is in decent shape and the silk screening all seems intact (under that "brown" layer).
He starts putting fuses in the protection board and the pop over and over. He then starts going bigger and I'm getting ready to leave as fuses start popping elsewhere on the board and it's getting more and more likely I don't want to bother with what else is beginning to get fried.
But then he gives up on the fuses and we start talking turkey. He wants way more than what I think it's worth, especially with problems. I know it's all fixable, but how much is it going to cost me? We settle on 260 Cdn and I'll take a couple of his pieces home to see what I can do for them.
I load it all in the truck thinking I'm stupid as the day is long and I just paid waaaaay too much for a busted and beat up unit. But it is a Sansui,it is an 8080DB and it is (I hope) salvageable. Toss in the "nearly impossible to find" element and I pretty much had to take it. I'm also a sucker for hard luck cases and I felt this ol' girl needed me to save it.
I don't even get halfway home and I have to stop and unload all the gear to the bed of the truck. Thankfully, it's sunny and dry out. I can't even be in the same cab as the stuff, it stinks that much. I'm not a smoker, so it's really turning my stomach. Sucking smoke for the last 1/1.5 hours isn't helping either. Actually, my skin is beginning to feel really bad at this point and I figure it's all the smoke I was moving around in. Stuff goes in the garage when I get home, clothes go straight into the washer and I go straight into the shower for a serious scouring.
Later, I head out to the garage with a bottle of lysol wipes. A quick cleaning on the outside reveals it's not too bad, at least not where it counts (cosmetically). I grab a can of contact cleaner and liberally spray the interior, watching brown liquid run out the bottom of it and stain the plywood I had it sitting on.
I pull the power board and plug it in. No fuses popping. Power board in; pops fuses but no protection mode. Seems like outputs are the likely culprit. I'll chase that down soon. I feel like chasing some cosmetic stuff right now so I can feel better about buying it, at least looks wise.
I should have taken a few before pictures, but didn't think of it at the time. Suffice to say, it looked like pooh.
The whole unit gets a good soaking and bristle brushing with isopropyl. The face plate comes off and I clean up the silver bits with my go to: nevrdull. Takes the tarnish and brown off and leaves the silk screen lettering in place, just don't go too crazy with it.
The knobs and switches are disgusting. IPA and a good scrubbing gets them respectable. One of them looks like the unit has been dropped on it. The chassis and pots don't show any obvious damage, just the face of the knob. I'll replace that one in the future, but it will do for now. I coudl just spin out another one on the metal lathe, but buying a decent used replacement will just be simpler.
The Headphone jack is all sideways cross-threaded, so I sort that out too. Basically have to use picks and sandpaper to rebuild the plastic threads enough to start the metal nut.
The potmetal widow surround around the lens is just beat to crap. Corroded and flaking everywhere, like it's been outside in the elements. But that's easy; old paint just gets new paint. I use an "auto trim" black. Just dull enough with a hint of satin that pretty much matches the original Sansui paint job. Once cured, a little aggressive grit sandpaper and some careful sanding reveals the silver band in the black and gives it a similar "brushed" finish like original.
The lens is actually pretty good after a quick clean, so i put it all back together to just see what it is going to look like.
And it looks damned good! That classy 70's Sansui look is shining through again and I'm feeling a little better about spending 260 bucks on it, even if I still feel sick to my stomach (sick from smoke a full day later! Sheesh!).
The wood case is really just a plywood with fake plastic woodgrain stuck on to it. It's beat up pretty bad and looks like Pooh. Big steaming piles of pooh.
I thought about re-using it by stripping it and using wood veneer. Then considered just putting the fake woodgrain back on it and calling it a day.
But this is going to be a keeper unit for me and probably a last one I intend to buy (yeah, famous last words). 85 WPC is more than I'll ever really use. So I think I'll just put the original cover away in storage and build a new case out of walnut or cherry. It's a pretty simple project for me to bang out in an afternoon (all I need in the shop to do the wood working). Something nice that will take a nice stain to look like the original, but in real wood instead of fake.
That about catches us up to today. Next up will be chasing down the electrial faults and a bit more cleaning/painting of components.
Once I get it looking respectable and at least working to the pint where I know I'm not throwing money away (err...I guess I mean more money), it will be time for re-capping and such. Eventually, it will get to a total restore job, maybe even better than original but still looking and feeling like a classic Sansui.
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