AU717????

I think a properly restored 919 sounds a bit better, but I don't own either so no skin in the game. Why in the world they put such crap speaker terminals on such a good amp boggles my mind. Maybe all the money went into the electronics because mechanically they could have done better.
 
For anyone who's heard both, aside from the power differences, how do the 517 and 717 sonically compare?

Almost exactly the same, just a little more finesse from the AU-717, it just sounds ever so slightly better. (I have restored three AU-517's).
 
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For anyone who's heard both, aside from the power differences, how do the 517 and 717 sonically compare?
I havent heard the 717 but had a fully restored 517 and I wasnt really impressed. I've had a few Sansui amps and I actually preferred the full warm sound of the 555a compared to my 517
 
I think a properly restored 919 sounds a bit better, but I don't own either so no skin in the game. Why in the world they put such crap speaker terminals on such a good amp boggles my mind. Maybe all the money went into the electronics because mechanically they could have done better.
That was the norm in the 70's. I put binding posts on mine
 
JBL had been in business for 30 years by the time you say that they were working with Sansui...so if anybody was learning anything about speaker building, it would have been Sansui. I've never heard that these two companies did any development work together, but if they did, it would not seem that Sansui's speaker products benefited very much from it.

In any case, this thread is about Sansui amps...particularly the AU-717.
Jbl used sansui soundcraftsmen and sae amp primarily to voice their monitors. I know for l worked for jbl for 25 years outfitting studios
 
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JBL Joe,

This is what I was trying to explain,
JBL had excellent tools in the form of the best audio testing equipment,
like Aerobic Chambers, scopes, Spectrum and Distortion Analyzers,
and multi function generators, as well as sound engineering and the right attitude.
But back then, the supply of multi function generators
that could supply ULF/Htz was expensive (Hewlett Packard...) and limited.


But Sansui just happen to have real/proven
DC Amps and Receivers that could and would happily
reproduce Sine and DC/Square waves from +.0~ hertz to 100,000Htz
and beyond,
this over and above ultra flat spectrum at song with low distortion sound/sine or square wave.

Back in the 70's, if you were a big highest quality audio component manufacturer
and you can buy another Hewlett Packard Generator for $$$$
or you could talk to somebody who already made DC amps capable
and proven to be flat from.0~ to 100,000Htz,
wouldn't a working relationship be sound advise?

====================================

-Somebody already mentioned that the AU line was capable of ~0 to 400,000 Htz at Voltage/watt.


-In 1980, While my Brother was attracted to Big Goldish Marantz Amps with Oscilloscopes built in,
I was attracted to 0-80,000 +/- 3db at rated output both channels driven
with no more than .02% distortion + much headroom driving 4 17 inch kabookie woofers
that were/are still capable of sending low frequencies to my core
so much so that my heart felt like it was having a hard time "thumping" to it's own beat,

And I Liked It.




?
?Hey, Wait a minute,
Now that I Come to think of it,
Maybe that was that was my Harmon Cardboard?
:rolleyes:









cordial,
moe





View attachment 1158446












11 14 2017
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Im not sure 0 tp 400000 is correct.
 
...Maybe all the money went into the electronics because mechanically they could have done better...

To their credit, Sansui held onto the component quality and circuit design longer than many of the other brands when the downward spirals hit. They compromised their metalwork and construction instead. That was as mistake as most consumers see and touch their gear and didn't care what was inside.

I was selling Sansui near the end, at the exact same time, Yamaha, Pioneer and Sony were producing the finest gear they had ever made. Poor little old Sansui was just a sad joke as it went down in the Asil Nadir Polly Peck fiasco and its name ended up stuck on Chinese crap. You need to realize, Sansui was always a minnow compared to the other companies.

Dan Dagsstino examined my 717 with the cover removed and he said to build an amp like this today it would sell for 7k.

He's clearly a gentleman if he said that.

The AU-717 is right on late 70s cost-cutting and the AU-719 more so. I've got a few 717s in store and have worked on many, many of them. It's casework is OK, but not up to the standards of earlier gear. The output devices are borderline for SOA and it has over active current limiting protection to protect them from failure. Clearly, the design originally called for 2 paralleled pairs per channel of 2SC1116/2SA747 and they stripped them out to save money, because Sanken RETs were expensive. The result is a pair (each channel) of 100W transistors for a rated 85W/ch amp. Totally inadequate and anemic into 4ohms. In comparision, a Kenwood L07m has six of them (A suffixed 200v versions) for a rated 150W amp. They continued their sailing close to the wind with the AU-719 with a single pair of T03Ps per channel for a 90W/ch rated amplifier. By that stage, a year later, all sorts of cost savings were rife.

The AU-717 has nice solid knobs and toggles, but the pots are cheap- except the 4 gang volume pot they used to pull down the preamp buffer stage noise. The speaker terminals aren't that bad IMO, but people seem to think a 4mm socket is more 'HiFi'. The AU-719 was a more accomplished topology, but it also suffered from cost cutting.

Sansui just happen to have real/proven
DC Amps and Receivers that could and would happily
reproduce Sine and DC/Square waves from +.0~ hertz to 100,000Htz
and beyond,

Clearly, you have an oscilloscope and a signal generator. Go grab your favourite Sansui amplifier or receiver and show me what a 100KHz square wave, at say 10V, looks like coming out the speaker terminals. Then, just for fun, put some DC (say 1 volt) into your favourite Sansui amplifier or receiver and post the scope trace pic here, for all to see.

'Happily reproduce' is utter BS. You've been reading too many 1970s HiFi brochures.
 
Very interesting posts r-j - I had come to the conclusion that the AU-719 OP TR's were inadequate, but not made the connection /realised it, for the AU-717.
 
.


.




JBL Joe,

This is what I was trying to explain,
JBL had excellent tools in the form of the best audio testing equipment,
like Aerobic Chambers, scopes, Spectrum and Distortion Analyzers,
and multi function generators, as well as sound engineering and the right attitude.
But back then, the supply of amplification that could supply ULF/Htz was expensive
and limited.


Sansui just happen to have real/proven
DC Amps and Receivers that could and would happily
reproduce Sine and DC/Square waves from +.0~ hertz to 100,000Htz
and beyond,
this over and above ultra flat spectrum at song with low distortion sound/sine or square wave.

Back in the 70's, if you were a well respected audio component manufacturer
and you needed to properly test your drivers under full load,
Wouldn't you talk to somebody who made proven AC/DC amps capable
of accurately reproducing fair flat from.0~ to 100,000Htz?

?
Wouldn't a working relationship be sound advise?




====================================

-Somebody already mentioned that the AU was capable of ~0 to 100,000 Htz at watt.


-In 1980, While my Brother was attracted to Big Goldish Marantz Amps with Oscilloscopes built right in,
I was attracted to 0-80,000 +/- 3db at rated output both channels driven
with no more than .02% distortion + much headroom driving 4 17 inch kabookie woofers
that were/are still capable of sending low frequencies to my core
so much so that my heart felt like it was having a hard time "thumping" to it's own beat,

And I Liked It.




?
?Hey, Wait a minute,
Now that I Come to think of it,
Maybe that was that was my Harmon Cardboard?
:rolleyes:









cordial,
moe





View attachment 1158446












11 14 2017
.
I totally agree. For some of the larger monitors like the 4350 they also used McIntosh. This stemmed from the Woodstock festival in 69.
 
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