Sansui AU-517 Spring Terminals

[MtnBeachBum]

The answer to my question may be on here but I haven’t been able to locate it. A buddy of mine is selling a Sansui AU-517 and allowed me to take it home and hook it up to my system to see if it sounds good. It of course has the non functional spring terminals that seems to plague most of these. I found lots of info for replacement of these but since I am just evaluating the amp I am not looking to replace them yet. I’ve read on some posts that they can be pryed open. Could someone explain the procedure to do this? I just messed around with it some but couldn’t figure out the mechanism. Is this accomplished from the rear of the unit or from the inside? Am I looking to pry the vertical piece of metal inside that holds the speaker wire or is there something inside the case ( rear of terminals) that I have to push? I don’t want to go ram jamming in there without knowing the best way to accomplish this and break something on it.

Thanks

 

[JoseHH]

In my opinion it would be best to try to test the unit without having to get involved with these speker binding blocks.
You may be able to get a good enough contact even with damaged binding terminals. Perhaps using the speakers selection switch in "A+B", and you may be able to hook one speaker on the A system and the other on the B system. The ground wires are all connected together and return to the power supply.
Alternatively, you may be able to remove the top cover and access to the solder tabs where the internal speaker wires are soldered to the speaker terminal blocks. You may be able to go from there.

If you still want to try to fix the speaker binding terminals (in my experience Au-317, AU517, AU-D907) it is not worth and the results are poor. I could not find any reliable way to reconstruct them. Even after trying to recycle parts from the first two amplifiers to fix a third one, the levers do not work very well after rebuilding the blocks. It is easy to break the plastic levers and end up with less functionality after trying to fix them.
That said...
To do this it would be most convenient to remove the speaker binding posts from the amplifier. They have some latches and you need to push the from the inside of the amplifier after desoldering all the wires. You need to gentle pull from the metal solder tab while you hold the plastic level in the same way as you would to open the binding site where you would insert the speaker wire. You will find that the plastic lever has a rather complicated shape. The metal part acts as a spring, a solder tab and a clamp that holds the speaker wire. Both, the metal part as well as the plastic lever come out together from the back side of the speaker binding block. I have done this, only to find that the plastic lever is cracked. There is no room for any glue. Assembling them can be very confusing so please take a picture as you remove the parts. Do one at the time, or leave at least one section assebled as a guide to rebuild the block.

I hope you like the sound of the AU-517. I have been using mine 12hs every day for the last 8 years , and I replaced the speaker terminals after failing to salvage the originals.

 

[Hyperion]

Am I looking to pry the vertical piece of metal inside that holds the speaker wire or is there something inside the case ( rear of terminals) that I have to push?

Are you saying that the red and black plastic 'tabs' underneath the cable holes are all missing? - all 8 of them?

Whatever you do to fix this so you can audition the amplifier, leave NO possibility that your fix will allow any of the speaker cables to touch together, either inside or outside the unit, (or to the case of the unit) - as, depending exactly on what you do - this is almost certain instant death for the Output Transistors.

BTW: It is a horizontal piece of metal that you might need to push vertically downwards.

 

[MtnBeachBum]

Are you saying that the red and black plastic 'tabs' underneath the cable holes are all missing? - all 8 of them?

Whatever you do to fix this so you can audition the amplifier, leave NO possibility that your fix will allow any of the speaker cables to touch together, either inside or outside the unit, (or to the case of the unit) - as, depending exactly on what you do - this is almost certain instant death for the Output Transistors.

BTW: It is a horizontal piece of metal that you might need to push vertically downwards.

The tabs are there but they’re just hanging loosely they aren’t functional. Ok that’s what i was wanting to make sure of. I just need to get that pushed down somehow? I’ll take a closer look at it tomorrow and see how I can get a small screwdriver in there to push them down. Thanks

 

[MtnBeachBum]

In my opinion it would be best to try to test the unit without having to get involved with these speker binding blocks.
You may be able to get a good enough contact even with damaged binding terminals. Perhaps using the speakers selection switch in "A+B", and you may be able to hook one speaker on the A system and the other on the B system. The ground wires are all connected together and return to the power supply.
Alternatively, you may be able to remove the top cover and access to the solder tabs where the internal speaker wires are soldered to the speaker terminal blocks. You may be able to go from there.

If you still want to try to fix the speaker binding terminals (in my experience Au-317, AU517, AU-D907) it is not worth and the results are poor. I could not find any reliable way to reconstruct them. Even after trying to recycle parts from the first two amplifiers to fix a third one, the levers do not work very well after rebuilding the blocks. It is easy to break the plastic levers and end up with less functionality after trying to fix them.
That said...
To do this it would be most convenient to remove the speaker binding posts from the amplifier. They have some latches and you need to push the from the inside of the amplifier after desoldering all the wires. You need to gentle pull from the metal solder tab while you hold the plastic level in the same way as you would to open the binding site where you would insert the speaker wire. You will find that the plastic lever has a rather complicated shape. The metal part acts as a spring, a solder tab and a clamp that holds the speaker wire. Both, the metal part as well as the plastic lever come out together from the back side of the speaker binding block. I have done this, only to find that the plastic lever is cracked. There is no room for any glue. Assembling them can be very confusing so please take a picture as you remove the parts. Do one at the time, or leave at least one section assebled as a guide to rebuild the block.

I hope you like the sound of the AU-517. I have been using mine 12hs every day for the last 8 years , and I replaced the speaker terminals after failing to salvage the originals.

Ok. Thanks for the information. I hope so too. He also has a near perfect unused 717 iob with the accessories still sealed in their bags. He’s decided not to part with it because he knows he will regret it. So he offered the 517 for a whole lot cheaper. It might be the more correct match for my sr-636. Not the totl but almost.

 

[JoseHH]

He’s decided not to part with it because he knows he will regret it. So he offered the 517 for a whole lot cheaper. It might be the more correct match for my sr-636. Not the totl but almost.

That is a nice turntable!. The AU-517 has a decent phono section but only for moving magnet cartridges. A moving coil cartridge will sound less loud. The AU-717 is quite similar to the AU-517 in this respect, and both sound very similar. You may look at this thread for some comparisons between the AU-517 and the AU-717 (and a few others) if you have time. This thread, comment #2 also suggest an AU- 517, and this thread also talks about the phono inputs of the AU-717 (which is probably identical to that of the AU-517). I hope you can give it a try.