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A Sansui engineer's account of Sansui history and a continuation of Sansui's legacy

Great video and great channel! Very cool to see the AU-D101 and AU-D33 getting much deserved attention in the documentary! Covered most of the important historical points. Thanks @JoseHH!

From the channel creator -

"I’m a former news editor and writer for one of the largest AV technology magazines in Eastern Europe. When times got tough, I decided to start this channel to share captivating stories about companies in the industry. Here, you’ll find deep dives into the successes, failures, and fascinating details that make the world of AV tech so unique. If you love sound, video, tech, and great stories, hit that subscribe button and join me on this journey!"
 
Personally, I found the video disappointing. The narrator states that the 1970's were Sansui's "golden era", which many here would agree with. However, a scant few minutes were spent on models from that era, with just those from the later 70's getting a mention: 517/717, 919, AU-X1. Seems odd to skip over the entire AU line before the x17 series, not to mention the "Definition Series." No mention of any receiver other than the 9090DB, 8080DB and two big G's. Sansui was clearly very proud of the Eight, as one example, so maybe that should merit a mention? (However, I am biased as I prefer the mid to earlier 70s units.) Also, too much time spent on what happened to the "brand" after 2000 (is that really Sansui history?)

I'll check out other "documentaries" on his channel as some look interesting, but I'll know what I'm getting.
 
This was a reasonable effort, though as @KeithD pointed out, is glosses over a lot of things (obviously due to time constraints) and has a couple of details a bit off. It seems to almost conflate the Definition Series with the AU-D33 and 101, for one thing, and kind of muddles the chronological order of when those models were released. Still a fairly decent summary, but I'll also just say up front that I'm not a big fan of AI generated voiceovers, and much of the voiceover "script" being read from also seems heavily AI generated.

Presently, there is a lot of this type of content being churned out on YouTube, and the AI generated scripts and voiceovers all have a certain odd quality about them that makes listening to such videos tiresome in short order, at least to me.

This leads me to my chief complaint with "AI" as presently constituted. It scours places like AK, takes the content of the posts it finds here (whether correct or not, incidentally).and amalgamates it into articles it presents as accurate, by more or less stealing away the efforts of others who posted such information to begin with. Then content creators (or AI's directly in some cases) go on to make videos built off what was basically plagiarized information, photos and video gleaned from all over the internet, in the hopes of monetizing their newly "created" content built mostly on the efforts of others. The entire process is sketchy, and I wonder if it will ever be widely recognized as such.

This is even more of an issue for online content that is legitimately under copyright, and yet is freely peeled off and incorporated into the "AI" knowledge base. I guess there's no putting that horse back in the barn now, but the essence of this is that individuals and companies are seeking to profit from content created by stealing the efforts of others, whether such was originally given freely or not. Further, because the "AI" combs everything it can find, and incorporates it all (inaccuracies included) the quality of the information it can present is frequently dubious, and yet virtually no one wants to put in the effort to verify anything, they simply trust what the "AI" presents at face value.

I'd add that I'm not singling out the video posted in this thread by any means, this is a general trend that is inescapable now. This thread just presented an opportunity for me to comment on it.
 
Sansuiman said:
This was a reasonable effort, though as @KeithD pointed out, is glosses over a lot of things (obviously due to time constraints) and has a couple of details a bit off. It seems to almost conflate the Definition Series with the AU-D33 and 101, for one thing, and kind of muddles the chronological order of when those models were released. Still a fairly decent summary, but I'll also just say up front that I'm not a big fan of AI generated voiceovers, and much of the voiceover "script" being read from also seems heavily AI generated.

Presently, there is a lot of this type of content being churned out on YouTube, and the AI generated scripts and voiceovers all have a certain odd quality about them that makes listening to such videos tiresome in short order, at least to me.

This leads me to my chief complaint with "AI" as presently constituted. It scours places like AK, takes the content of the posts it finds here (whether correct or not, incidentally).and amalgamates it into articles it presents as accurate, by more or less stealing away the efforts of others who posted such information to begin with. Then content creators (or AI's directly in some cases) go on to make videos built off what was basically plagiarized information, photos and video gleaned from all over the internet, in the hopes of monetizing their newly "created" content built mostly on the efforts of others. The entire process is sketchy, and I wonder if it will ever be widely recognized as such.

This is even more of an issue for online content that is legitimately under copyright, and yet is freely peeled off and incorporated into the "AI" knowledge base. I guess there's no putting that horse back in the barn now, but the essence of this is that individuals and companies are seeking to profit from content created by stealing the efforts of others, whether such was originally given freely or not. Further, because the "AI" combs everything it can find, and incorporates it all (inaccuracies included) the quality of the information it can present is frequently dubious, and yet virtually no one wants to put in the effort to verify anything, they simply trust what the "AI" presents at face value.

I'd add that I'm not singling out the video posted in this thread by any means, this is a general trend that is inescapable now. This thread just presented an opportunity for me to comment on it.
Click to expand...
You know, I thought there was something "off" about the narration, but it was good enough that I assumed it was the voice of the person who posted the video. I was suspicious that it was computer generated (I think the British accent helps convince us Americans it must be real :p). Also assumed the person who says he is "a former news editor and writer for one of the largest AV technology magazines in Eastern Europe" actually wrote the text. I guess I'm too trusting that people are honest when they put their name to content they post. Actually, I'm too trusting in general! :rolleyes:
 
Thank you @JoseHH for shearing !

I tend to agree with KeithD and Sansuiman regarding the thorough presentation of Sansui history and to me too looks like a lot of AI involved .
I remember reading random threads that if someone put together the info and into a video it will be much more informative and it will unfold the real latitude of Sansui corporation , as well the great fall too .
 
The voiceover sounds much like an AI generated article one would be presented with if one searched for "history of Sansui" online. There are certain characteristics that come through in these (repetition and being overly verbose, notably) and as I listened to it, it had many of those same "tells". Now, the script may have been hand edited to make changes and corrections, but the underlying source material still managed to show through. Pay attention to things like model numbers when read by AI voices. "Nine thousand ninety DB" (while technically correct) rather than "ninety ninety DB" as I'd figure most english speaking humans would.say it. There are a lot of these little ideosyncracies that AI stumbles on.

I'd guess the voiceover was chosen if the creator of the video was not a native English speaker, or felt their own skills at recording a real voice over were lacking. Not everyone has a face for tv, or a voice for radio.
 
I see some fair points about the video I linked. In general I agree with what is being criticized. The narration style is common to all videos of that source, and whether it was AI generated or written by someone and simply read from the text by a software, does not bother me too much. I am not convinced that the videos are entirely generated by AI, and some seem to have been created prior to the release of most of the now known AI engines. Despite of the shortcomings pointed out by @KeithD, and @Sansuiman, for most of the brands ad companies that this source has reviewed, I have learned some bits of the history that I did not know before.
 
The channel owner is Eastern European so I don't know how else he could (cheaply and easily) get his work out in English. I see this technology as opening more doors than closing them. Without it his channel would probably be isolated to an obscure corner of Europe, but likely not exist at all. So I see this as a win for sharing knowledge and content, across language or other social barriers. Even if annoying or imperfect.

Bottom line is I don't think everyone here will be totally satisfied with a Sansui history until one of us creates it (and still probably not!). Partly this unmatched AK Sansui knowledge bank, and partly the individual proclivities and biases here are tough to completely accommodate.

Did you all notice the nod at the end of the video to our culture? We (and all the other enthusiasts out there) are the future of Sansui. Long Live Sansui!

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there is a thread here on AK translated to English:

bolero

Thread 'Ishino lab Sansui historical notes'

Ishino labs is gone, along with their website. Hirano has passed away & although you can google translate the archived site it's not very convenient.

RIP

I thought it would be easier to post the translated logs here in a thread, as long as no one objects?

I won't post any photos as Hirano didnt want them posted anywhere. But there is a lot of amazing Sansui history in there, as Hirano was an engineer who started out designing speakers, then moved on to amplifiers around 1976? And was key in developing the 707/717, 907/917, X1, superfeedforward, X balanced amps & eventual Alpha designs...
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trying to preserve that information as websites tend to disappear over time
 
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Working for me too, but I had to re-type the URL (copying it from Pete_mac's post) as below:-

オーディオのイシノラボ・ドットネット - 第１弾　日本オーディオ史

アンプなどのオーディオ機器や真空管などのオーディオパーツの通信販売・修理！山水電気ＯＢの匠の技によるオリジナル商品！
web.archive.org web.archive.org

URL Copied/typed in English but helpfully (?) automatically translated to Japanese! ;) the long URL starting with 'https:^//web^.archive^.org' (with no ^ spaces = Wayback Machine )
 
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Mikelangelo said:
Someone should download,make english pdf and help us all read it .
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My browser automatically translates both the URL and the documents within it to English if you click on it.

I am reluctant to monkey with my translation settings as clicking on the URL (even in Japanese) gets you to a translated English copy.

I agree this information is so important (to us), that we should download a copy so we can be free of any data retention issues the Wayback Machine might present us with. I have no idea how to do this, and there may be copyright issues to deal with.
 
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