*** How to date your Sansui***

BeatleFred

Super Member
Nooo, I'm not saying how to take your receiver out on the town to dinner & a movie:)

Instead, what I mean is I have a vital piece of information that I'm sure most of you who own a Sansui model (or even if you dont) would be interested to know-> how to determine when it was made.

I have known about this for a while but never said anything because the person who told me said very few people know the "seceret". And he asked me to keep the info private. But as it turns out- someone Online asked about it and someone else wrote the answer- so I 'm no longer bound to keep the info private.

Sooo, without further ado'- here is how to determine when your Sansui was made and as an example, I will use the serial number of one of my models: a Sansui AU-919.

The serial # on my AU-919 is: 229100105

The first two digits, 22, is the Assembly Line Factory number.
The 3rd digit refers to the year it was made-> ( 9 means 197->9.)
The 4th and 5th digits refer to the month- so, 10 means October.
The last four digits, 0105 means its the 105th one.

So: 229100105 is an October 1979 model. You need two digits for the month as obviously October, November and December have two digits. (A February 79 model would instead be: 22902....) Get it?

Regards, B/F.
 
Fred

You made me go and look behind the amp

This ts the number 019101425

october 1969?

Mine is a Sansui AU555

Chris
 
But the bluebook says 1970-73

I guess they were stocking up long before, interesting - makes me wonder how long it takes to make a piece of equipment, or how many could be built at a time, maybe they had to build the amps, then the matching tuners later, before selling them all at the same time.

Chris
 
Hi BeatleFred,

Hey that serial number is coding is correct! :)
I just looked at my Sansui's, all my early ones were all made in the December!.. a bit freaky..hehe, but the dates etc all line up too.

Great Stuff Fred, good to know that the serial no's have been cracked! hehe ;)

Glen

Ps I might have to post my Pioneer serial number I.D. which I figured out ages ago and its 100% correct for those who don't know about it already
 
Last edited:
So you need to know the decade first though, right? Because, say
a 2000X had the number 229100105, and we didn't know anything about it, it could be 1969 or 1979, right?

I guess it doesn't matter since we know pretty close when all of Sansui stuff was made.
 
Thanks Fred. That's a good one to know.

I checked the AU919 and it was built in Sep 79. Will have a look at the others. This is cool.

cheers
Jack
 
Chris- The Blue Book is good for something general to refer to but its not perfect as far as dates, prices, and year of manufacture go. Glen- yes, the Pioneer code is interesting as well. Buzz- the 9 can be either '69 or '79- but there shouldnt be any confusion about any model being either a '69 or a '79 model- as its a ten year difference and you can simply tell pretty much from just looking at it, what era its from- there's just a HUGE difference in the audio world within that decade- looking thru audio magazine backissues- from 1974, 75, 76.... the amount of progress grows by leaps and bounds- so that (in my opinion) every audio company was at their top level in 1978-79.
 
If anyone wants to post their Sansui models and serial #- I'd be interested to see them. That way, I can further verify some of my beliefs. For example, that the 9090DB & 8080 DB came out a year later in 1977 than the 9090, 8080. The serial # of my 9090DB is :
817062852 ----> June 1977.

My G-7700 surprised me in that I thought the 3rd and last generation G models were made in 1980, but the s/n on mine indicates a March 1979 model.
 
Nice threadwork, BFred;

My 9090 carries this number: 827050967

Notice how our build date numbers are so close but you have a 'DB' and mine is plain 9090......

Want to check my cassette deck? It's a 5300 and should come from the 1980's. Here's the number: 250080271

Jay:cool:
 
Last edited:
In 1977, they came out with the 9090DB but they also still made 9090's. Just like in their catalogs- they have these models and some G Series models, so there is an overlap period. As for your casette deck ( I have an SC-3330)- its August 1980- which checks out. 0 for 1980 and 08 for August.
 
I've been very lazy.
The sn of my G-9700 is 819070573.

The last four digits, though, don't seem to fit the scheme??
Any ideas?

pete
 
model 990

My 990 is 826030281. Wonder why they made the overseas version with dolby before they made the usa version with dolby(9090 DB)?
 
Is your 990 an overseas 9090 or 9090DB? From your Post, you seem to indicate its a 9090DB equivalent. In which case, I'm glad you posted- thats the type of information I was precisely interested to know more about. Your s/n is a March 76 model. My guess in answering your question is that Sansui made their products in Japan- so seems logical to me that whatever they made would come out 1st over there in their native country before being exported elsewhere.

ps- If you have the time- please post your model and s/n over at the Yahoo Sansui Group Database. Bully Pete also- yours was helpful to confirm G-9700, 7700's.... were made in 79, a year earlier than I thought they were (as the G-7700 was reviewed in July 80 issue of Stereo review).
 
model 990 post

I posted the sn's of my 990 and my 1000x rcvr at the yahoo site database. BTW the dolby items my 990 has is a pushbutton for "dolby NR/4 ch Adaptor". And there is a "dolby FM adaptor" position on the source selector switch. Not having seen a 9090 or 9090db before I just assumed my 990 had dolby. My Marantz 2325 has about 5 buttons for dolby functions. Does the 9090 have just the 2 items for dolby or does it(or the 9090db) have a lot more controls like the Marantz?
My newness at this really shows sometimes......
 
Last edited:
Sansui 2000x

I pulled my Sansui out of storage to look, forgot how heavy this sucker is!

S/N 8101112676
 
Doesnt seem to work for their speakers..

the serial number on the back of one of the 2500's I have is:

93020186

Or am I missing something?

(The other one is - 94032907)

It dont work either...
 
Bob- You have the overseas equivalent of the 9090, not 9090DB. I have a 7070 (thats a few models below- 9090, 8080DB, 8080, 7070). The 7070 has the same arrangement of the DB switches as you described. 9090 is 110 Watts. And came out first before the DB version (in 1976) which is further verified by the s/n on yours.
 
Back
Top Bottom