Sansui AU-9900 impressions

Curse

Old Uncle Thingy
Hello,

I just wanted to share my impressions of my recently acquired AU-9900. It has arrived in my hands via Hyperion, who gave it a full re-working and got it well up to spec whilst it was in his possession.

I am absolutely enamoured with the sound of this thing - I'm hearing new things in every record I play. It seems to present any and all music very openly and effortlessly, with all instruments and vocals given plenty of room to breathe. Tom Waits sounded like he was sat in my front room with me - unnerving, bu amazing!

It has displaced my AU-517, which although an amazing amplifier in its' own right, just doesn't sound as refined *to my ears*. Whilst it is powerful and direct, it just doesn't seem to have the same level of control over its' output. Of course, this may well simply be a matter of taste / hearing damage :D :smoke:

I did a lot of research on the '9900 before deciding to take the plunge, and read many peoples' posts on here.

At the risk of dragging up an old subject, I'd very much welcome any further thoughts anyone here has on these amps.

Out of interest, this particular '9900 is the original version, not the 'A'.

Also, the 'honest' volume control has not proven to be a problem at all for me - I have found it to be very reassuring that as it creeps towards 12 o'clock the sound just gets bigger and bigger without becoming fatigueing or harsh :banana:

Oh, and the green power lamp is very appealing! :D

Thanks John, and cheers for any comments!

Dan :music:
 
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Indeed - apparently much the same unit, albeit the '11000 has a bit more power.

There seems to be a sort of 'industrial strength' attitude to these amplifiers, whatever you throw at it, it just takes it and seems to say "is that the best you can do?"

I've heard intricacies in vocal lines and especially guitars that have never been evident before. And the separation of the lower frequencies, whilst remaining fully audible and clean, is way beyond my expectations!


Dan
 
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What a serious looking thing (since someone didnt upload pics, one had to google ;-) )

It has that no-nonsence - lets get to business look. Congrats and thanks for sharing impressions. Cheers, Tom
 
Although I don't have an au-9900 I do have a ca/ba-2000 which is supposedly the same as the 9900 but in two separate packages. I did have vintage marantz before and still have yamaha cr-2020 & cr-1020 and the sansui beats them all hands down. Just plain sounds better.
 
Apologies for the lack of pictures! I'll upload some soon, but this daft phone won't allow me to for some reason...

Another thing that pleases me greatly are the tone controls. I have run all of my other amps flat, but the ones on this unit seem to compliment the sound rather than over embellishing it. Its especially good to have mid range controls - i can push those guitars even harder :banana:
 
I have an AU-9900 and an AU-11000A. I have noticed similar things. A very sweet sounding top end that never gets fatiguing. The sound is so rich and liquid it makes you want to turn the volume up to get more of it. Imaging is very precise. The AU-9900 is driving Technics SB-7000A's and the AU-11000A is driving ADS L630's. Both sound wonderful.
 
They sold a bazillion of these things, yet they aren't up for sale very often.
That says something....

Congrats!
 
The first AU-9900 I got, someone found it on the curb! He brought it to a friend of mine who had a repair shop. My friend called me and said "You can have it for what I paid for it; $15! I brought it home, turned it on and it worked! This was maybe 20 years ago, before people started to realize how good this vintage gear is.
 
A few pictures here, taken by John before he sent the amp.

Warren, I did read your previous posts on the 9900 / 11000 before deciding to pull the trigger on the amp. Your thoughts were instrumental in helping me make up my mind - so many thanks!

As regards the black and silver look, yes it is a very serious looking piece of hardware, and is indeed built like the proverbial brick outhouse :yes:

Dan
 

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If you ever want to sell it, PM me!! :thmbsp:

BTW, what is the "honest" volume control? Does it attenuate the treble as you raise the volume to account for the way the human ear skews frequency at higher decibel levels? If so, that would be awesome. I've always thought how that would be a cool thing to implement in an amp. It's kind of how the Parthenon was designed architecturally to cancel out our ocular imperfections of how we perceive everything slightly fish-eyed by making the columns bow out slightly and the base humped in the middle.
 
A few pictures here.

Warren, I did read your previous posts on the 9900 / 11000 before deciding to pull the trigger on the amp. Your thoughts were instrumental in helping me make up my mind - so many thanks!

As regards the black and silver look, yes it is a very serious looking piece of hardware, and is indeed built like the proverbial brick outhouse :yes:

Dan

Very nice looking amp, Im a sucker for the black facia and silver knobs.....

I would like to have a listen to one these some day.......
 
If you ever want to sell it, PM me!! :thmbsp:

BTW, what is the "honest" volume control? Does it attenuate the treble as you raise the volume to account for the way the human ear skews frequency at higher decibel levels?

The '9900 has a 'linear' rather than 'logarythmic' volume control. As far as I know, all this means is that you get a more 'honest' volume as you spin the dial. At a quarter turn = quarter power; half turn = half power, and so on.

There is a thread from AK here with a bit of info:

http://ns1.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?p=718304

Thanks everyone for your comments so far :D

Dan
 
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Very nice looking amp, Im a sucker for the black facia and silver knobs.....

I would like to have a listen to one these some day.......

If you did get the chance, I would be most interested to hear your opinions!

Dan
 
Hi, as the owner of an AU-9900 I can only say good things about these, they are built to a very high standard and the sound quality is excellent very revealing and detailed with smoothness to boot....I should listen to mine more often! :yes: Cheers Glen
 
Hi, as the owner of an AU-9900 I can only say good things about these, they are built to a very high standard and the sound quality is excellent very revealing and detailed with smoothness to boot....I should listen to mine more often! :yes: Cheers Glen

Or sell it to me.......:D
 
Nope...I foolishly let this thing go once before many years ago and kicked myself for doing it.... the poor AU9900 must have missed me because strangely enough it 'came back' :D I'll never be doing a stoopid ting like dat again! :banana:

Or sell it to me.......:D
 
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For those who are / have used the '9900, do you make much use of the tone controls?

I found that I did initially, but am generally running it flat now. Main reason for this being that as the volume goes up :)D) the extra bass stresses my speakers a little; the output is a little less smooth.

HOWEVER, with the controls flat / bypassed, as I turn it up, the bass is more than adequate anyway - nice and tight, not boomy. and no speaker stress, no matter how slight is yet noticeable. (I'm not running it flat out though, sometimes up to 1 o'clock...)

:banana:

Dan
 
For those who are / have used the '9900, do you make much use of the tone controls?

I found that I did initially, but am generally running it flat now. Main reason for this being that as the volume goes up :)D) the extra bass stresses my speakers a little; the output is a little less smooth.

HOWEVER, with the controls flat / bypassed, as I turn it up, the bass is more than adequate anyway - nice and tight, not boomy. and no speaker stress, no matter how slight is yet noticeable. (I'm not running it flat out though, sometimes up to 1 o'clock...)

:banana:

Dan


I don't use the tone controls on any of my systems. I am of the school that it is better to treat the room or buy speakers that sound natural, rather than run the audio signal through more circuitry, adding distortion.
 
love my AU-11000 and can only agree with all of the positive comments. They reveal so much detail on recordings and sound so effortless no matter how generous you are with the volume knob ... just absolute speaker control. My AU-717 is a very good Amp by all standards but the AU-11000 is in another league IMO.
 
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