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881 and 6060. Which would you keep and why?

getter365

getter365

H.H. SCOTT stereomaster
Hi everyone, I own an 881, a 6060, and a 7070. The 7070 is not in this comparison but you needed to know I have that one, too, as it may influence your decision. Other than their power difference, is there any advantage of one over the other that you noticed when comparing the 881 and the 6060?
They both sound amazing where I am using them and have great tuners. The 881 was the top of the line starting in 1974. It is a solid, well-built receiver with no compromises and an abundance of features. The 6060 is from Sansui's next series of receivers released in 1976 (mine is from '78). It is just below the middle of the line receiever...the 7070.20160525_212024.jpg 20160528_011941.jpg I know Sansui constantly improved their designs but I don't see or hear a difference from the 881 to the 6060. The 881 is 63 watts per channel and the 6060 is 43 watts per channel. If comparing the 7070 to the 881, I think I would have to keep the 7070. But this 881 does everything so well and looks great. So does the 6060 though the 6060 has a plastic lens and it's not as heavy as the 881. 881 has thicker front alumni panel with green numbers. The 6060 has a nice blue display. Thanks
 
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I have a 771, which I really like. I do not have an X0X0 series receiver.
So, my biased initial recommendation is the 881.

I like the restrained XX1 series styling as well. The 881's triple tone controls are a nice bonus.

Unless I routinely had to blast into a really big room with inefficient speakers, which I don't, the max. power difference would not affect my decision much.

You said nothing about condition. So I assume both are in similar, fully working condition. If I had to part with one, the condition of the two would probably dominate the decision.

I don't think you can go wrong with with one from either series.
 
Always the stick in the mud, I'll offer a dissenting opinion. The 881 is rugged, easy to work on, looks good and can sound good. Unfortunately it suffers from a miserable grounding scheme and often has some degree of hum. That can be fixed, though the surgery can be scary to some. It also uses BA312 transistor arrays in the low level circuits, which seem to be excessively noisy. They're not an opamp, so you can't just roll something else in there. If you have inefficient speakers, neither of these things are serious. If not, they might bother you. Alas, I've no direct experience with the other models.
 
Hi everyone. Thnx for taking the time to respond. To answer some of your questions: I bought the 6060 fully functional except for the display lights which are intermittent (easy fix). The 881 was given to me nonfunctional ready to be recycled. It, and the 6060 are both in very good condition. I partially restored the 881 so it is fully functional and reliable. Both units sound great but the 881 is a heavier receiver (due to its larger transformer I believe). And I like the glass lens and the looks slightly better. Both tuners seem to perform equally as far as picking up stations in stereo.
I have never experienced any hum or noise out of this 881. Someone mentioned hum with regard to the 881. This thing is dead quiet. Maybe Sansui corrected the hum issue prior to the manufacture of this particular unit. It looks to be all original under the hood so I don't think anyone modified any grounding. I do see black wires (ground wires perhaps?) Interconnecting the circuit assemblies but those look original.
Anyway, all of you prefer the 881 unanimously. It is a beauty and I like the pushbutton array and the midrange feature and the two aux inputs. Only thing I don't like is I had to tighten ground terminal in the back. It was loose from the inside so you have to get in there with some small tools and hold the nut, then stick a rod or something in the hole in the bushing on the outside and turn it while holding the nut. Be careful as there are internal wires soldered to the terminal and you don't want it rotating too much or you will break the wires. So rotate the outer part as much as you can counterclockwise (w/o stressing the wires inside), then "finger" tighten the internal nut as much as possible. Then insert the rod (bayonet) through the hole in the outside bushing and while preventing the internal nut from rotating, turn the outside bushing until it is tight. Figure a half a turn or a little more will do it.
Thanks for responding. I was wondering if there was any serious performance advantage between the two models, but I guess they are pretty close (other than the power output 63watts vs 43 watts).
 
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Here is my current setup with the 881. The 6060 was here but I swapped it so I can fix the 6060's intermittent display lights. This is my den. These Sansuis20160529_121441.jpg sound real nice in this room. I have three sets of speakers for experimentation purposes. They are rebuilt (upgraded) Wharfedale W40D speakers, Polk
MONITOR 2, 5JR speakers, and Polk RT35 speakers. I switch between the speakers to see what music sounds better on what speaker system.
 
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rkgren1 said:
Can't go wrong either way. That's an enviable problem you had.
Click to expand...

Knowing me I will keep all of them. They have a good home. May main reason for my post was to see how others felt when comparing the 881 to the 6060 and what technical advantages one may have over the other. It is true, they both are great sounding receivers.....one just happens to be the top of the line and the other one less than the middle of the line. This shows the great strides made by Sansui as in a few years the top of the line went from 60 watts per channel to 125 watts per channel. Great components and great people on these forums.
 
Question, I noticed the 881 uses four of the same NPN output transistors, and the 6060 uses 2, NPN/PNP complementary pairs. Is there a sound quality advantage using NPN/PNP pairs as opposed to two of the same transistors for each channel?
 
I'd also say keep the 881 for the green and different styling since you already have the 7070 from that series.
 
I was curious, does the 881 have pre-out, amp-in jacks in the back? That would be one more reason to use the 881, if that were the case. Up through the 7070 did not have those jacks.
 
Neither of these units is a "big buck" play on the market. Therefore, I would keep both, as the amount you would get by selling one or the other is rather inconsequential. Not only that, these things are what? 40 years old? Better to have one or two in reserve...
 
Just rebuilt a 771 and a 881 both are amazing receivers, I'm a Pioneer guy but these are outstanding...keep the 881
 
Absolutely keep the top of the line 881! Especially considering that you already have an x0x0, not to mention one with all four meters (i.e. the 6060 and 5050 lack the output power meters of the 7070 and higher).

I have an 890, 6060, 8010 and 771, and the only one that hasn't been used in the past few years is the 6060. Not to say that it's not a great unit, but I have it just as a backup to the 890, and as such it's been in a drawer since 2011...
 
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