YES! I get!!! SM-80 ! ;)

[Trnsfmr]

Pio, are you following this thread? What did you think of sound quality of your SM80? How did it compare to your 1000A? I must confess I was not expecting that much from this thing. I'm kinda blown away by how good it sounds. It's so different from the typical 7591 type amp, with those weird tubes. I just thought it would be a wimpy, early, tube amp without a lot of power and a restricted freq response, you know, not very good bass, muffled highs. I guess I should have known better. It is a Sansui after all.

Last nite I was playing Electronica Radio from Pandora, and another one... Oliver Helden's Radio, which is electronica and even more outrageous, fully cranked up in the shop. It was such a mental disconnect to play this thoroughly modern electronic music so very loud, and look down on the bench and see this 55 year old receiver happily playing music that didn't even exist when it was made, running completely cool, and all of it sounding as good as I've ever heard it.

OMG but I love this Sansui gear!!

 

[Pio1980]

I haven't spent much time with either Sansui, they sounded good within their limits, but I'm not yet committed to restoring the SM-80 or doing the early version 1000. I've never had a 1000A here.
Various other tube units, either project amp with p/p 6L6 and Fisher opts on a Baldwin organ chassis or a refurbed Silvertone/Warwick p/p 6BQ5 console amp. Used to have refurbed Dynaco ST-70 that has been gone ca 25 years. Present amp is a nice refurbed Marantz model 8 p/p 6CA7 amp, the same vintage as the SM-80.

 

[Mike244]

Congratulations! Nice to hear that old samurai back in the ranks!
my very slowly progress - got new custom metall pulley instead broken and get Jensen 47+47uF cap from ebay ...

 

[Trnsfmr]

if you have all the pieces, I bet that pulley could be glued back together with cyanoacrylate (super glue).

 

[Pio1980]

Alpha C may not be the best option. Perhaps a solvent type cement or Acrylic monomer would produce a stronger result.

 

[Mike244]

Unfortunately some parts of pulley missed...
And I doubt in strength 50s yo repeired plastic btw - in internet I saw pics of SM-80 with metall pulleys on both sides - it look like original steel stamped pulleys....

 

[Pio1980]

Mine also has the plastic tunimg pulley wheels. The wheel in the early 1000 is stamped steel.

 

[joshcronin]

Not sure if this is still active, but I just got my mitts on an SM-80 that I'm restoring. I may have some issues with an Output Transformer, but I'm going to recap and then go from there. If any of you have found any specs or manuals on this unit (I don't think they exist beyond the tiny schematic under the top cover) let me know, please. I'm missing a few knobs, and the radio band selector switch is broken off right at the base, but other than that, this one is fairly decent. I've got a new thread going with some more info and pics. Cheers!

 

[Mike244]

Fortunately it's alive! After winter-spring pause I again work on it - rework on output stage and get sound ! I have only scanned schematic for SM-80

 

[joshcronin]

Very nice! Did you just leave the old can caps in place and mount the new caps underneath? What board did you end up using for the new caps? It looks really clean and nice! Most importantly, how does it sound?

Аortunately it's alive! After winter-spring pause I again work on it - rework on output stage and get sound ! I have only scanned schematic for SM-80

 

[Mike244]

I stay old caps (3 x 20uF) disconnected and locate new 3 x 22uFx450V on 2 bread boards underneath. All caps in PS was changed on new - I insert 2 EPCOS 220uFx 450V into original case of old NICHICON caps Sound (even without any tweaking - just set 31mA bias on PL36 tubes) just fine - very fat and accurate!

 

[joshcronin]

Thanks for the info! Glad to hear it's up and running. I'm hoping to have mine operational in the next few weeks, as long as the output transformers test good.

I stay old caps (3 x 20uF) disconnected and locate new 3 x 22uFx450V on 2 bread boards underneath. All caps in PS was changed on new - I insert 2 EPCOS 220uFx 450V into original case of old NICHICON caps Sound (even without any tweaking - just set 31mA bias on PL36 tubes) just fine - very fat and accurate!