New Guy

[Glassman]

I am new here and excited to be reading and following along. At this point I do not have much to add to the forum but I am a fan of Sansui and have been slowly gathering what I think are somewhat unique pieces based on how little I have ever come across them. Thanks for letting me into the group and I cannot wait to learn more.

 

[ckelly]

Welcome aboard Glassman

What sansui pieces do you have?

Chris

 

[Glassman]

Although not top of the line by any means, I picked up a pair of SP-2000 speakers from a guy at a thrift store a year ago and was blown away by the sound. He let me take them home and check them out and would take them back if there was a bad driver or blown tweeter. They were perfect so I went back and asked if he had any old receivers or amplifiers. I followed the guy into the back of the store and he started digging around in a pile of old appliances and pulled out a rather dirty looking Sansui AU-888. As with the speakers he let me take it home to check it out. The wife wasn't too pleased at first but she has warmed up to it. The amp was dirty but the wood case was in really good shape and inside it was also pretty clean. No tar from smoke and only a little dust. The pots were dirty as were the switches but everything worked after I worked them back and forth a little. The next pieces I got just recently and they are some SP-70 speakers which really don't sound too bad to me and finally a matching TU-888 tuner. Again the wood case is in great shape but needs a couple bulbs replaced. Even in my basement with a piece of coaxial in the clip on the back I get a 4.5 out of 5 signal strength. I am really happy with everything so far.

 

[Silver Fan]

Welcome Glassman!

You have found the place for vintage Sansui lovers! Well, it's really the place for vintage lovers of all kinds...

Enjoy your stay!

Ken

 

[Glassman]

My name is Jay. I just realized I never put it at the end of my posts.

Thanks for the warm welcome. The first time I took the AU-888 apart to clean the pots and switches and clean all the crap off he face I was excited to find the face was anodized aluminum and the labels were engraved rather than painted on. Someone had put a sticker on the front at one time and later removed it so there was glue residue but some acetone took it off easily and I didn't have to worry about damaging the face at all. My father who wished he could have gotten some of this stuff when he was in the service thought it was great to see each knob held in place by a set screw. All in all I am just amazed by the build quality of the items I have picked up. Based on Ebay prices I probably paid too much for everything but compared to what anything remotely close would cost today, it was a steal.

 

[opt80]

Welcome Jay,Glad to have you amongst us!

alan

 

[ckelly]

This image is taken from the archives here at AK:



Note that the power rating is "Music Power" (IMF) and not RMS.

My GUESS is that this amp has about 40 WPC, but this is a guess.

Chris

 

[Glassman]

The wattage I read on the back side of that exact brochure states 45 wpc rms into 8 ohms so 40 was a good guess. Not really big but plenty of power for my needs. I tried to attach the brochure I have but it is a .pdf file. I will try to add it if anyone is interested.

Jay

 

[Glassman]

I hope these aren't too huge.

 

[ckelly]

Send it to me and I'll see IF i can make it the right size and shape

email

Chris

 

[john_w]

Welcome, fellow Denverite!

I'm glad to see someone else in this beautiful cow town of ours can spell "Sansui" -- and even knows what it is!

Is that 140W power rating the same as peak-to-peak, per channel? Or maybe peak, both channels? Either way, you're looking at roughly 50W per channel, RMS.

Just so you know how I got this: The Root Mean Square (RMS) rating is always pretty close to .707 x peak, or .707 x (peak-to-peak/ 2) for a sine wave signal input. (Which audio amps are generally always power-tested with.) This is an ancient memory that I just dredged up from the deep, uncharted musty backwaters of my brain from tech training. But, I just looked it up, and it turns out that I actually remembered something right for a change! (The reference's peak-to-peak formula is slightly different, but it works out the same.)

If you're a math genious and you're just dying to know more, check out this page:

http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci213722,00.html

That 888 might be one of the models I got to use as a temporary "loaner" when my AU-9500 was in the shop, many years ago. The pic does look kind of familiar.

I've been experimenting with a few Sansui amps lately, myself. I'm planning to sell my current au-717 in favor of the au-919 I just got. Jay, if you're interested in an upgrade, I could give you first dibs on the 717 at my cost (I got a fairly decent deal on e-bay). Of course, that's without the shipping charge. I'd much rather sell it locally than go thru e-bay or whatever and hassle with shipping it across the country.

If you're interested let me know, and I can PM you the details and answer whatever questions you may have. Otherwise, if I can't sell it locally by other means I'll post it here in the Audiokarma Classifieds. With a few days pre-sale heads-up in this forum first, of course!

Once again, welcome!

 

[john_w]

Oops! I posted mine before I noticed your latest comment about the rating in the brochure. Well, it looks like I was pretty close, anyhow! (Especially after accounting for the marketing hype factor -- they always inflate things a bit in those intros, anyhow!)

- jw

 

[Glassman]

Thanks for the input John and I sent Chris the jpegs of the brochure to see if he can fit them in here. As far as picking up the 717, I sort of hinted to the wife last night about it just before bed to see what she would say. She didn't say much. I have bought too much lately already so unless I want a divorce (Hey, more money to spend on vintage gear!) I had better pass, that is unless the price is REALLY good and then I may have to try to persuade her. One never knows. Let me know how much you want for the 717. E-mail

 

[ckelly]

Glassman

I got the Images and resized them

Here is the front. I know the text on the pic is painful to read even for my young 30 year old eyess.

 

[ckelly]

Here is the text from the front page

 

[ckelly]

Here is the full back page

 

[ckelly]

I will post the text columns and the specs separately. Here is the first column of text.

 

[ckelly]

Here is the second column describing this amp.

 

[ckelly]

This is the third column

 

[Glassman]

Thanks Chris! Gee, it makes it all look so good. I wish I had the finish on the case they have in that picture. Mine isn't bad but it certainly isn't that nice. Following the guidelines from the various Sansui sites for determining manufacture date from the serial number I have gathered the amp and tuner were both made in 1970. I love it when I can do that. I have an old set of Rogers drums from '66 and I managed to find a Rogers snare from '66 to go with it 4 years later.


I do need to fix the case on the tuner since it was dropped or something at one time. The little pieces of wood on one side intended to brace it are gone (nothing but glue left) and the side is no longer attached ot the top. I have some clamps and some wood glue so all I need to do is find some similarly shaped replacement pieces of wood to brace it again. I will probably never get the crisp edge again where the top meets the side but at least it will be one piece. As I mentioned earlier I also need to replace a few bulbs. The Stereo and FM indicators are out as is the bulb above the dial pointer. Thanks again for posting the picures.

Jay