Siblings-Sansui 2000A & 4000

Ishmael

Super Member
Here are our Sansui 2000A ( right) and 4000 (left) receivers. The 2000A was our first Sansui receiver (our first Sansui was a TU-717 in our main system, a superb tuner). We have found in our main listening room that the 2000A will effortlessly drive our Wharfedale W70 speakers. This is the blessing of efficient speakers and a 35watt receiver, you will never exceed the receiver’s capacity, yet you have all the power the speakers will ever need to reproduce the music. The 4000 which we picked up today is matched with our Walnut Original Large Advent speakers, here again the match is very very good (it is a seeming requirement that for gear to be vintage somewhere you will find small speckles of old paint, such was true again when I cleaned the 4000 and found three tiny paint drops on the heat sink in the back). There is to my ear a synergy when vintage components of a similar time period are matched together, it is as if the designers of the speakers and the receivers were thinking of each other (which I believe must have been the case), or, as Rich says at the end of Casablanca “Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”P1040176.jpg

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Alas, the OLA's need more room than our small bedroom turned into an office, so now the hunt is on for a vintage speaker that can live in a small room, 9' x 10', with some bass. I think this may be something like the quest for the Holy Grail. Any thoughts or suggestions are more than welcome.
 
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Thanks Schmikka, they really are, with our vintage Wharfedale w70s and Lintons either of these receivers have all the power you will ever need (we are past the volume 11 party days). 59volvo if you check my post on "psycho-acoustics" in "Speakers" you will see I am now at peace with the Wharfedale Lintons which are doing just great.
 
It is funny, as you grow into a hobby you find your own tastes. For example what attacked me to these receivers besides there sound is the fact that they can be maintained now and into the future. This is no small consideration given the influx of throw away technology. Already questions are being asked about exotic $500,000.00-multi-million dollar cars. How long will you be able to keep a Ferrari Enzo running, where will you get the computer parts, sensors, software when they are no longer being made/supported? We already see this with $600.00 cell phones that turn into desk paper weights in three years. The same is waiting in our hobby of recorded music as the music industry tries to sell its catalogue for the fourth, fifth time by rendering formats/hardware obsolete. Will that $10,000.00 (mid-priced????) pre-amp and amplifier be working in ten years, can you find the parts to fix it? This will never be an issue with these Sansui receivers, they can be fixed, even improved with LED lights, because here they are nearing 40+ years of age and still making music.

The other thing I noticed was a small thing, when I set the Sansui 4000 on the glass top of my little equipment table it sat flat, no wobble at all. Quality, that wood case is 40+ years old, it has gone through heat cycles, humidity changes, being left in a garage, who knows what else, but there is no warp, no wobble. Yes, junk has been made in all ages, however in our current age we seem to be being trained in our consumption to value convenience, rather than quality. Yet the convenience of having so many functions also increases error, and makes what could be simple fragile, to which the answer is “just throw it away and buy a new one, get a replacement”. However, when I have to get up to adjust the controls on these Sansui receivers I move back into a world where quality mattered. Machined knobs, well placed and few buttons, it is that tactile feel that Honda mastered in the controls of their cars, to me this along with reliability made their company. You have to do some work to listen to music through vintage gear, but then that’s the point, when you have done what is needed, cued up the source, adjusted the controls, you listen to the music.
 
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