3000 & 3000a parts interchangeability

[4everanalog]

Good afternoon AK,

After an exhaustive search I have at long last gotten my hands on a 3000a with the factory recommended cap-coupling mod. Listening through the AUX input ... the thing sounds incredible. Smooth, detailed and the high frequency adjustment seems to go on forever.

I'd heard these units have a certain magic and I tend to agree.
I have quite a few units to compare to (G-8000, Marantz 2325, Marantz 4270, HK 930, HK 630, MAC 4100 etc)

Oddly enough, the only piece I have that comes close to this one sonically would be my (very early - low serial #) Marantz 2230. Smooth and liquid sounding.
Suffice to say I believe the amplifier section is in good working order.

The bad - I have ZERO activity from the AM tuner section and I'm finding FM to sound muddy. Yes, I use AM and this unit has one of the best I've heard.

My Question,
Are parts (ahead of the output section) interchangeable between the 3000 & 3000a? I have 2 3000s and a 3000a unit with messed up output sections but working tuners.
Anyone out there swap parts between these 2 units?

I am not a tech so I apologize if my wording is off.

Thanks!

 

[Sam Cogley]

They're identical except for some parts changes on some of the boards.

 

[4everanalog]

I would expect the amplifier section to be different for sure since the the 3000 is set up to drive only one pair of speakers vs the 3000a which can drive 2.

Tuner section pretty much identical though?

 

[Sam Cogley]

There's not really much needed for an A/B speaker control. Just a rotary switch and another set of terminals.

There were some changes in the tuner components, but the boards are identical. I couldn't find a 3000A manual when I rebuilt mine, and the MPX board had a lot of problems and components were not legibly marked, so I rebuilt it with the 3000 parts list. Works fine. I have a 3000A manual now, but I've never felt a need to go back and change anything.

 

[4everanalog]

Thanks for the quick replies and the valuable info.

Nothing more reassuring than hearing from someone who's been there and done that.

Man does this thing thing sound awesome.
And dead quiet surprisingly (on aux at least).

I've heard the AM on one of my other units and boy does it sound good.
Quite UNlike any of my other receivers. Clear, detailed and selective.

 

[Sam Cogley]

The AM board on mine is dead, I've never gotten around to fixing it. Probably another blown transistor.

Unless it's been worked on recently, you're probably going to want to replace the diodes and resistors that are part of the stability mod with modern components, along with a recap of at least the power supply. The 3000A is a great receiver, but it's older than most solid-state components. For some reason, Sansui was early to developing very good solid-state amplification, but they also overlapped with their tube receiver production longer than most. Kind of a perplexing company.