Who made the best vintage audio?

My Sansui AU-919 is hand built and is considered by everyone in the world and on other planets as the best electronic device ever created. There are some who believe that God himself owns one. There has never been and never will be a better design or execution. If you don't believe me, you can sniff my sneakers after I wear them to mow the lawn. In fact, you are welcome to do this even if you do believe me.

Mr. Sansui himself personally hand-soldered every AU-919, using platinum solder. Every stereo magazine, textbook, newspaper and billboard says that it is the best, and it weighs 473 pounds. Mr. Sansui's design team consisted of the best electrical engineers, the best opera singers and the entire Manhattan Project staff.
 
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My Sansui AU-919 is hand built and is considered by everyone in the world and on other planets as the best electronic device ever created. There are some who believe that God himself owns one. There has never been and never will be a better design or execution. If you don't believe me, you can sniff my sneakers after I wear them to mow the lawn. In fact, you are welcome to do this even if you do believe me.

Mr. Sansui himself personally hand-soldered every AU-919, using platinum solder. Every stereo magazine, textbook, newspaper and billboard says that it is the best, and it weighs 473 pounds. Mr. Sansui's design team consisted of the best electrical engineers, best opera singers and the entire Manhattan Project staff.
And that's just the half of it...
 
I pride myself on my self-control. It's nearly as good as the controls on my Sansui AU-919, which were crafted by Faberge jewelers under the supervision of Carl Sagan to meet NASA-level quality requirements. But enough about my Sansui AU-919. Let's talk about the inferiority of all other electronics instead.
 
Let's talk about the inferiority of all other electronics instead.
Inferior, I don't think so. This Sony, not only does it have a thread here on AK, but I can attest to its far superior FM reception capabilities compared to that obviously limited AU-919. pic borrowed from the Radio Attic.
Martin_Sony_ICF-9650W.jpg


I got one of these and since I have tunes in the garage, I gave it to a friend for his garage. It picked up the stations with ease, something the AU can't do and has tone control processing to adjust to the environment or the listeners preferences. It really was a great sounding radio. Still working even without a recap. Seems Sony made a billion of them in slightly different iterations.

Maybe @Solid_State will drop in and provide new pictures since the ones in his thread are no longer hosted. He can just drag and drop to a post in this thread.

Take that

My Sansui AU-919 is hand built and is considered by everyone in the world and on other planets as the best electronic device ever created.
 
Inferior, I don't think so. This Sony, not only does it have a thread here on AK, but I can attest to its far superior FM reception capabilities compared to that obviously limited AU-919. pic borrowed from the Radio Attic.
Martin_Sony_ICF-9650W.jpg


I got one of these and since I have tunes in the garage, I gave it to a friend for his garage. It picked up the stations with ease, something the AU can't do and has tone control processing to adjust to the environment or the listeners preferences. It really was a great sounding radio. Still working even without a recap. Seems Sony made a billion of them in slightly different iterations.

Maybe @Solid_State will drop in and provide new pictures since the ones in his thread are no longer hosted. He can just drag and drop to a post in this thread.

Take that

I hope this is what you need as I no longer have the radio but I saved the pictures on my computer

Sony2.jpg

Sony3.jpg

Sony1.jpg
 
What's your opinion

SANSUI - the Big G SERIES receivers are UNTOUCHABLE!!!! Their Amps ar sooo powerful!! My AS 300 speakers are the best sansui's, though not nearly the most powerful, I've heard. I hope to pick up a CA 2000 and a BA 2000 tomorrow. Amp and Pre. I sold all but my G 7000, 8900ZDB, 1000X, and A 9 amp. Put one of the Large G series receivers beside any receiver you can find and it can't be beat unless you go to crazy high end, Even then???

JBL - Speakers extrordinaire!! Creme de la Creme! L65 Jubals for perfection

AR - Oh Yeah!

Pioneer - mass produced at times but some stuff was outstanding.. How about the SX 9000 receiver with reverb? lovely

Technics - So much junk, so little quality stuff. just a few good things ever produced. SL 1200 MKII turntable of which I have 2 and an SL 1700 are LOVELY! Nice EQ's also

Yamaha - Simplistic design, sweet sound receivers

Kenwood - Some Junk, a few good items. Overall average at best

Harmon Kardon - I have a 430 receiver that sounds nice. Very powerful bass and full sound. Quality stuff not really mass produced

Onkyo - The most underrated vintage gear available. I bought a TX 4500 at the urging of you guys and it is excellent. I plan to buy one of their big boys soon.

Nakamichi - Excellent tape deck. Pray to God it never breaks because they have the worst service department in the universe

Akai - Very Nice tape decks

EV - I have some very old series four speakers that sound nice. Large and 30 watts.

Altec Lansing - try one of their old amps if you want to really hear something sweet. A friend of mine has a pair of their speakers made in 1958 for a discoteque. MOnster speakers and about $3,000 a pair. He pushes them with an old altec amp and You could deafen every person in a high school gymnasium with them. I have NEVER HEARD ANYTHING REMOTELY CLOSE!. My $850 JBL L65 Jubals sound like a transistor radio beside them. Of course they weigh about 150lbs each. They bave these HUGE IRON horn type tweeters with ball magnets that look like they must weigh 25 lbs or more each alone!

Any more to ADD?

Anyone to dispute my thoughts?
I don't think anyone makes vintage audio, they just make audio equipment that later becomes vintage.
 
Audio equipment to me is sort of like hot dogs. I used to work with a butcher who used to say when questioned about the differences between cheap hot dogs and good ones. “ hot dogs are all made from lips tongues and ass holes. Some are just better quality lips tongues and ass holes”. And I agree
 
My Sansui AU-919 is hand built and is considered by everyone in the world and on other planets as the best electronic device ever created. There are some who believe that God himself owns one. There has never been and never will be a better design or execution. If you don't believe me, you can sniff my sneakers after I wear them to mow the lawn. In fact, you are welcome to do this even if you do believe me.

Mr. Sansui himself personally hand-soldered every AU-919, using platinum solder. Every stereo magazine, textbook, newspaper and billboard says that it is the best, and it weighs 473 pounds. Mr. Sansui's design team consisted of the best electrical engineers, the best opera singers and the entire Manhattan Project staff.

Actually, religious scholars believe that both god and the devil own an AU-X1. After scouring reams of ancient scrolls and texts, theologians claim that this is the only known example where god and the devil agree.

Regardless, the debate continues among mere mortals as it will until the end of time...

 
I was going to ask if God will eventually sell the AU-X1, but since devil also has one, there is no need to buy one. Eventually we mortals may be able to enjoy one or the other.
 
Nah, on the seventh day God rested just long enough to hear Eve nagging about wanting to eat the apples from that other tree and Adam telling her to go bake a pie. So he created the AU-111 and horn drivers with 103db efficiency and cranked that sucker to listen to some Earth, Wind and Fire.

Then when he saw what she did, he kicked them out of the garden and made them listen to a GPX boombox with only iheartradio top 40 stations on FM and normal bias cassettes for the rest of their lives. He then turned the serpent into a 4' 18 gauge piece of lamp cord to use as a wicked cheap speaker interconnect.
 
Umm--all of my Marantz gear was hand made right here in America. The lower end Marantz gear was made in Japan. And the later tuners.........
 
my neighbor had a brand new Rotel unit some years ago. And all he ever says when he comes over and hears my Marantz 250's is "it's not supposed to sound that good"--and admission that my 40+ year old Marantz amps are still the best ever designed and built in SS land. Don't like that? eat my shorts. You all know it's true. and you all wanted just one back in the day. Kenwood..................phhhhht.


I'll see your puny Marantz 250s and raise you. Kenwoods mighty L-09mKIMG1081.jpg. Brute power, and finesse. Assembled by ninjas, samurais, and hand wired by the loveliest geishas in the land of the rising sun.:rflmao::rflmao::rflmao:
 
At this time they were still made in New York--original home of Marantz. The serial number indicates that this was the 76th unit produced in the 250 line of amplifiers--still considered to be one of thee finest amps ever made. My Marantz pre amps were made in America as well. I have many of their units. All they ever need--for the most part, is to be recapped and re-biased. Marantz's units like this employed fully discreet circuits, all hand wired and hand soldered using silver bearing solder. Marantz was the only company to use silver bearing solder. As they advertised at the time, "they were built to military specifications". That is a reflection of Saul marantz being in the radio corp during WW2.
 
I'll see your puny Marantz 250s and raise you. Kenwoods mighty L-09mView attachment 1317960. Brute power, and finesse. Assembled by ninjas, samurais, and hand wired by the loveliest geishas in the land of the rising sun.:rflmao::rflmao::rflmao:

:)

can't even be called a "Marantz wannabe"--like MacIntosh. I use three of these babies to power two Imperial 9's--fully active tri-amping.

I also have a hand made behemoth HeathKit AA-1640. Had to be shipped in two separate containers as you cannot ship the unit with the transformer installed due to the sheer weight of it. I use a dolly to move the thing around.

heathkit_aa-1640_1.jpg
 
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