sansui au-11000 question

[Bigyank]

My "new" integrated amplifier which I finally got to use tonight for some long term outdoor listening now that the weather cooperated here in the northeast, started giving me fits!

When I was running the amp (about 1/2 volume, or 12 o'clock) the left channel started to cut out. If I swiched the input selector from aux-1 to aux-2 and back the left channel would work for an hour or two then cut out again.

This worked a few times but the left channel is steadily out now! Looking for some troubleshooting tips please!

 

[Punker X]

Does it just cut out? Or does it get distrorted before dieing?

How hot is the amp running at 1/2 volume?

First thing I might do is hook a tape deck to the record out. See if you are loosing the the channel on the tape loop. If so you probably only need to clean the switchs and controls. If you have the channel and you have a pre-out jack and another receiver then I might try taking the output of the pre to another receiver or amp.

If you have the channel at the pre- outs but still have a dead channel, it could be dirty contacts on a protection relay.

Check for DC voltage at the speaker outputs. Although I don't think that would be your problem, If you had high dc voltage at the outputs it would go into protection mode. If the DC is good, Is one side of the amp hotter than the other? If so you may have a bias problem in the amp.

My money is on the selector switch, clean it with some quality contract cleaner and I bet the problem goes away. While you have it apart I would clean every switch and control in it. It will save some headaches down the road.

Best of Luck,

X

 

[RobV]

BY,

Another switch that might be the problem is the direct/connected switch near the pre-in/main out jacks. Flipping it back and forth a couple times might help indicate if it is indeed at fault. You don't want to ruin a good switch by flipping it much with dirt in it, though; a good contact cleaner servicing ASAP is advisable,

RobV

 

[Bigyank]

Thanks to both of you for the responses I will try that tonight. Had to dig out the Marantz 2330b in the mean time!

At 1/2 volume the amp was not warm.

Now if I turn the unit on, switching the input selector makes no difference, no sound out of left channel.

Was wondering though, who in the Northest does BeatleFred recommend for repairs?

 

[sjnemo]

BeatleFred recommended to me www.soundsmith.com up in Peekskill, New York. I have just inquired on a friends AU-11000 with the chief engineer Pete Lederland. They specialize in vintage Sansui, but they wont work on anything that has been previously opened or serviced by anyone else. He quoted me a max price of $370 but talk to him with your situation and he can give you more details.

 

[Bigyank]

Thanks! I had sent BeatleFred a PM to that effect. I will be contacting them this week!

 

[BeatleFred]

*** Correction Note: sjnemo forgot to put a hypen in the Link between the sound and the smith, thus the link he posted is for another site *** (its an easy thing to overlook).

The correct Link is: www.sound-smith.com


I havent brought any of my own units up there for any testing/repairs- they would be about an hour's drive from where I live. I did call and speak with the Chief Engineer, Mr Lederman, a few months ago about the complicated Oscillation problems I was having with my Sansui AU-X1 amp, however, it is true that they will not accept anything thats been messed around it by someone else- which was the case with mine and the person I bought it from (and referring to him, the AU-X1 Seller, as 'person' is being very nice about it on my part).

So, The Sound-Smith place strikes me as a place where they take what they do very seriously and they appear to be very meticulous about their work- thus charge $$ accordingly.

I dont think its so much that they specialize in Sansui, they specialize in alot of other brands as well, as can be seen on their website. Before you do arrange to have any unit sent to them, I would double-check on the problem you're having becuase it sounds to me like its just a dirty switch- the same thing has happened on my CA-2000 preamp- if you turn it a few times or just give it a rest and try it again in the next day ot two, it should clear up. A little cleaning of the switch internally should also help.

I think for the $300 Plus $$ that the Sound-Smith charges is for them to completely go thru the unit and upgrade all the old components in there that they feel need replacing and so forth- so make sure about the work they will do and the total you'll be charged, as well any concerns about modifying any original circuitry that could possibly detract from the unit's Vintage value- or it could enhance its value- thats a bit controversial as diferent people have different feelings about it.

Regards, B/F.

 

[sjnemo]

B/F, thanks for pointing out the correct web-site.

 

[Bigyank]

Okay down to business. Contacted the Web Site but figured in the mean time to open her up and take a look. Anyone recommend a very good parts cleaner?

 

[sjnemo]

Well, forget about using Sound-Smith if you have opened up the unit, and especially if you have sprayed it with anything! They stated to me that because of thier 1 year warranty, they will not work on anything that has been opened up by anybody and definately will not work on it if you have sprayed the controls. Sound -Smith told me absolutely do not spray any of the pots, switches or controls with modern cleaners you will destroy them! Well, I'm on the fence on that spray comment, as I did mention Caig De-Oxit 5 (other reputable techs told me they have been using it for 20 years with no adverse effects). I also called Caig directly, and they said absolutely not. But as far as Sound-Smith goes its their policy. Good luck!

 

[grumpy]

Thats one lame as policy if its true ! Find one piece of gear that has never been opened or sprayed. Its gonna take a while.....

 

[sjnemo]

Well, take it for whats its worth, I inquired with them to help out a original owner buddy with a "never been touched" AU-11000 that needs work and this is how it was presented to me. Well, anyway, my buddy opted not to fix it, he was going to use it as a garage unit, and could not fathom almost $400 to fix it. $400 will buy a lot of lumber to build the garage! First things first! Ciao....

 

[BeatleFred]

I was already aware that the Sound-Smith was very selective about what they accept to work on. I had explained the situation regarding my Sansui AU-X1 amp to them on the phone a while back and they flat out told me they wouldnt touch it. I was a bit disappointed by their response though I undertood somewhat, as the unit I had was definitely tampered around with inside.

I didnt quite realize that they were so anal that they dont even touch anything that has been merely sprayed with a cleaning product, Geeeez!

They say on their Site that they specialize in Vintage hi fi equipment but I have to wonder now- how many of them do they actually work on, because it seems to me that it would be hard to find many 25, 30 year old hi fi items that have never been touched as per their requirement.

Maybe its just better to not say anything and tell them as far as you know it hasnt been touched and send it to them.

I recall some other site that speciliazed in Vintage hi fi that was based in Connecticut but I would have to search around for it, I mightve saved that site somewhere here in my computer.

B/F.

 

[sjnemo]

I wished I had saved the e-mail that the chief engineer had sent me I would have forwarded it on to you. I had inquired with him regarding spraying the pots and controls of an AU-7700, with Caig De-Oxit 5, sparingly of course. His reply was absolutely not! The newer cleaners have carriers that will permanently destroy the materials in the vintage controls an pots. Well, I talked to Tim over at ClassicAudio.com, who stated that he has been using the product religiously for 20 years with no adverse effects. I also even called Caig and they told me absolutely not (sales pitch?)Well, you know what to say about opinions! Geez, now I really dont know who to believe. I guess you play it safe and only use it as a last resort. So now everytime you pick up a piece of vintage equipment with scratchy controls, you never open it and send it out for big $$ repair? Anyway, down here in CT I have had good luck so far with a company out of Newington called Electronics Service Labs (www.eslabs.com). I just got back a 1974 Yamaha CT-800 Tuner. They replaced all the lamps, aligned it, researched down any factory updates (since new) and replaced 3 diodes accordingly and gave it a good cleaning all for $145. In addition I was lucky to find a 1991 Sony TA-N80ES 270 WPC amp (MSRP in 1991 $1800) locally for $75-It wouldnt power up-I really lucked out it had a misplaced fuse-they corrected it and gave it a good cleaning (they are Sony Factory Authorized) all for $49. Well now what to do with the AU-7700 I bought 2 weeks ago with the Yamaha- since I bought it I put it back into service and now the right channel is getting very week and the phono 1 stage doesnt function...Too bad, cosmetically its mint.

 

[EchoWars]

Well, forget about using Sound-Smith if you have opened up the unit, and especially if you have sprayed it with anything! They stated to me that because of thier 1 year warranty, they will not work on anything that has been opened up by anybody and definately will not work on it if you have sprayed the controls. Sound -Smith told me absolutely do not spray any of the pots, switches or controls with modern cleaners you will destroy them!

Not only are they full of shit, it sounds like they don't want any work that might interfere with their f*cking off from 8 to 5.

If they don't want to work on vintage gear like more and more shops are doing, they should say so. How can they possibly say they specialize in vintage, when they won't open up a unit that someone else has?

Funny...they don't want anything that had been modded, but straight off their website:

We will locate and re-engineer the "weak links" in any design. The result? You should get dramatically extended service life from your product.

Like they have a monopoly on the 'right' was of doing anything.

I would avoid these guys like the plague.

 

[BeatleFred]

sjnemo- ES Labs was the place I was thinking of- Thanks for posting that.


*** Well, I just sent an email to both The Sound-Smith and Caig and asked them to read the messages and provide their response.

B/F.

 

[BeatleFred]

Here is a an email response that I received from the Sound-Smith earlier today:


Dear Fred;

Thank you for your inquiry. I am also including an Email I got today. This flies in the face of some of the statements regarding us being money mongers. I will copy you on the Email. Again, I thank you so much for allowing me to respond. If you know how to post the below response on this site, I would deeply appreciate it, along with the links for our site. Please let me know if you can do this for me easily, as I am terribly busy with projects, and would deeply appreciate your doing so. If you cannot, I thank you anyway.

In short:

1) We do not use DEOXIT, or their products, so I don't know what is in them these days. I only absolutely know that many NEWER cleaners will melt plastics used in older controls and switches, which we have seen absolutely in units sent to us, and from which there is no easy recovery. We have also seen other plastic parts compromised and damaged by spraying (polystyrene capacitors, for example). As I don't control those products, we feel it is a very reasonable effort and a service we provide by warning people about them. As for Audio Classics, we know Steve Rowell and the fellows there very well. We consider them experts and our friends; we have an excellent relationship with them, and we remain in their debt as they refer and send us many customers. We appreciate their trust in us, and we know that THEY understand the level of work we do, the hand made parts we go to the trouble of making for our full restorations. We believe that is why they provide us with so many referred customers. Who wants to risk their reputation through a bad referral ???

2) As for "spraying" and our lack of willingness to work on opened units, I will say that we are a small and meticulous company that has lots of work on our shelves. Our site testimonials provide ample proof that what we do is quality, and if one cares to compare, one will find no other company with a warranty even close to ours. I wonder if others can begin to imagine the list and types of damage we have seen being done by folks tinkering with equipment ! To minimize everyone's potential for displeasure, we have adopted a strict policy of not working on gear that has been tinkered with in any way. Its not very complicated - How could anyone fully warranty a unit for one year that someone else has opened and done "work" on ? I find the statement of the fellow that considers that to conflict with our making every attempt to render vintage units into reliable ones very myopic. What are his qualifications for making such a statement? What does he do for a living, and what is his life's experience in engineering?

3) I am dismayed by folks who make disparaging comments without even attempting to speak to me, or considering all the possible ramifications of running a business and philanthropic school (which is what the Soundsmith partially is) as if they are aware of my 30 plus years of experience in engineering, manufacturing, research and business and the decisions one must make. It reflects on them, not on me.

4) As for what we charge, again, I suggest that folks who are interested look up my background to see what my experience and expertise is. We work with those who want people of our background and charter. No one is twisting their arms to work with us. What is important to note is almost totally without exception, those who choose to use our services are very pleased with us. Do we once or twice a year run into persons who need to attack anything or anyone that moves? Yes. And we truly wish them well, as we believe that the lowest state of a man is one where he needs to dominate another human being, a state that is one barely perceptible notch below those who feel an uncontrollable need to attack without reason.

Peter Ledermann
President/Chief Engineer
The Soundsmith Corporation
1-800-942 8009 1- 914-739 2885
FAX 1-914-739 5204

Our Credentials? CLICK HERE: http://www.sound-smith.com/history.htm
What do our Customers say? CLICK HERE: http://www.sound-smith.com/testimonials.html

 

[BeatleFred]

Dear Sir;

Here is an Email received to day. We get lots of these. Maybe posting this would solve the "problem" of folks taking pot shots. The simple truth is, we love helping folks out, and love performing high quality repairs. We even like getting paid sometimes.
************************************************************************

Dear Mr. Ledermann,

I want to thank you for helping me to solve the problem I was having with my
receiver and powered subwoofer. Before I e-mailed you, no one could figure out
why I was getting giant thumps from the sub when I shut off my receiver; let
alone how to fix it. Your simple suggestion, given at no charge to me, saved
the day. Thanks for having a great company that's more interested in helping
its customers than taking their money.

Sincerely,

Frank Gordon
fgordon@emory.edu
===========================

 

[sjnemo]

It was interesting to see Mr. Lederman's response on one hand about not knowing about Caig products, yet on the other hand telling me that spraying vintage equipment with it (as I specifically mentioned De-Oxit 5 in an e-mail to him) would destroy my Sansui AU-7700. Well, maybe the newer cleaner generalization is not what he intended, and maybe he overlooked the details of my e-mail. I would definately give him the benefit of the doubt. I wonder what he would recommend or maybe that just part of his business. Although from my other conversations with reputable techs about Caig, I'm confident in the product, but other options are always nice to know, especically for a guy like me who has a lot of low budget stuff, where periodic DIY cleaning maintenance is required now and then. I guess in the end vintage repair whether its stereo equipment or cars for that matter, tends to get very sentimental, as most of us get way too attached to our equipment! And rightly so!

 

[grumpy]

First off I would say to Mr. Lederman that no one was attacking him. I think we all were just questioning his/their policy's. How can one pass judgment on a product that they have Never tried ? As for their lack of willingness to work on "tinkered" with units. I found this testimonial on their site.

Email response upon being notified that his Classic Marantz 10B tuner that was badly butchered by another repair shop was now fully restored to original specs by The Soundsmith

Peter,

Does this mean they will work on them ?? I would like to invite Mr. Lederman to AK to discuss the questions posed. If he would like a Link from AK to his site he is more then welcome to inquire about one to webmaster@audiokarma.org

Grumpy