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Au-919 modern equal

ghamilton

ghamilton

Super Member
Have you ever wondered what the closest modern equal would be to your favorite old vintage amp? Well I restored my AU-919 using mostly ELNA Selmic II caps. The report on these caps say that when broken in (min 100 hrs) they have a very sweet-mellow top-end & mid. I agree. With these caps and the proper sounding interconnect & speaker cables I believe that the modern equal for the AU-919 would be the "LUXMAN L-505" integrated amp.
For you 919 owners/lovers out there, here is the modern equal.:ntwrthy:
http://www.stereomojo.com/Luxman L-505u Integrated Amp Review/LuxmanL-505uIntegratedAmpReview.htm
 
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ghamilton said:
Have you ever wondered what the closest modern equal would be to your favorite old vintage amp? Well I restored my AU-919 using mostly ELNA Selmic II caps. The report on these caps say that when broken in (min 100 hrs) they have a very sweet-mellow top-end & mid. I agree. With these caps and the proper sounding interconnect & speaker cables I believe that the modern equal for the AU-919 would be the "LUXMAN L-505" integrated amp.
For you 919 owners/lovers out there, here is the modern equal.:ntwrthy:
http://www.stereomojo.com/Luxman L-505u Integrated Amp Review/LuxmanL-505uIntegratedAmpReview.htm
Click to expand...

And it's as cheap as the AU-919 was way back in 1979 as well. :D
 
The CPI calculator says that $3,500 in 2010 would be the equivalent of $1,047 in 1978. What was the original price of the 919?

- Pete
 
I seem to remember the AU-919 was about £450 = $724 in 1978/9 (at todays exchange rate) I do remember I paid £299 (= $481) for my AU-717 in 1978/9.

But this is in the UK - no idea what the US prices actually were :scratch2:
 
I don't know if this is a good compairson but before I purchased a sansui system(that I always wanted by the way) I had been using a sony 6.1 X100W surround system I purchased new. I always thought at least with dvd's the sony was the best till one day I decided to play an old album. I thought it sounded like crap. I purchased a replacement cartridge ,then a turntable trying to make the system sound like I thought it should. I had an old sansui amp in the basement I never through away and decided to fix it . It a cheap a707 I purchased in a auction and lost a channel after years of use. I bought a replacement slk module from woodang and solder it in . To my amazement it blew the sony out of the water in sound quality with a record . I since then bought a au x711 which of course makes the a-707 suck . At least to me short of spending thousands ,its hard to compete with the quality of the systems available in the 70-80s
 
The retail was $800 in 1979 for the AU-919. I believe that the Lux is close in
many ways (today) to what the 919 was in it's day. The designers seem to have in mind the same goals for build quility and performance.
What integrated do you believe would be it's equal for today?
 
I have not had the 919 long, but think it's a great Amp.
And as mentioned earlier in this thread how much of a difference are you getting for your dollar.
I had a couple Sansui receivers that I was not impressed with like the 9090, and when I got the 919 I thought I would flip it. Well that did not happen. It's not going anywhere.
Makes me want to get lucky and find the AU 20000. :yes:
What would be that much better the the 20000?
 
ghamilton,

I re-capped my AU-9500 last Fall using Elna Silmic II's on all of the boards, and yes they do sound wonderful when broken in. My big Krell/Sherbourn system sounds thin in comparison.
I now use the Silmic II's in all of my audio projects.

Al. Wise
 
Enthusiast2 said:
I have not had the 919 long, but think it's a great Amp.
And as mentioned earlier in this thread how much of a difference are you getting for your dollar.
I had a couple Sansui receivers that I was not impressed with like the 9090, and when I got the 919 I thought I would flip it. Well that did not happen. It's not going anywhere.
Makes me want to get lucky and find the AU 20000. :yes:
What would be that much better the the 20000?
Click to expand...

The AU-20000 is an earlier amplifier design I believe just looking at the schematics, so its still a capacitor coupled amplifier, but its a very elegant design for the time......It certainly has plenty of power, but I would'nt necessarily call it an upgrade in technology, its just an upgrade in terms of power and features.....

But the 919 has made extensive use of JFET's through the amp, so its direct coupled and has extremely low distortion, its the next evolution of amplifier design from the AU-20000, it has a very cool phono head amp design......
I would say looking at the DC rail voltage, its probably actually capable of producing more than 100watts RMS, just like the the G series receivers, they probably quote those conservative figures because they wanted the lowest distortion figures on the market, possibly......
I think looking at the 919, it was a revolutionary design for the time.....very impressive.

The only comparable amplifier design from Sansui with more power would be the G-9000, and the G-22000/33000 receivers.........they went for high power very low distortion......Im a big fan of that sound......
The bigger G-X700 series, say the 8700-9700 would fit into that category as well, although the build quality lets them down, all is forgiven however when you hear them.......

FWIW, all my opinion of course.....some guys arent into the receiver look though, but I love it......lots of meters and dials and switches.....the chicks love it!!!
 
The mid-80s Sansui stuff like the AU-x901 is nothing to sneeze at and I'd love to have one...that amp sounds incredible.

But knowing what even my Luxman 5L-15 from '79 sounds like, I'd not be so quick to think that the L-505u doesn't better anything from the '70s that was in it's relative price bracket. That's an amp that has been in development for some many years, just not in the states, and it must be popular for a reason. Nothing against the 919 but I don't think any 'guess' says anything until you get those two amps in the same room.
 
The Au919 was a special effort from Sansui which in my opinion has held its own over time. A lot of Sansui fans are not enamored with its signature because of it basic adherence to "neutral" sound and please note the absence of a loudness button. In my view an amp for all seasons.
 
JohnVF said:
The mid-80s Sansui stuff like the AU-x901 is nothing to sneeze at and I'd love to have one...that amp sounds incredible.

But knowing what even my Luxman 5L-15 from '79 sounds like, I'd not be so quick to think that the L-505u doesn't better anything from the '70s that was in it's relative price bracket. That's an amp that has been in development for some many years, just not in the states, and it must be popular for a reason. Nothing against the 919 but I don't think any 'guess' says anything until you get those two amps in the same room.
Click to expand...

Gonna be tough to raise the Luxman Flag on the Sansui forum.

I'd take the Lux, LRS integrated from 79 (DMLs replaced of course) or the 505 as that amp number has been used for years.

But then I have a stack of Lux gear and have sold the Sansui units I had, one being a 331 so we didn't expect that to stay forever.
 
Blue Shadow said:
Gonna be tough to raise the Luxman Flag on the Sansui forum.

I'd take the Lux, LRS integrated from 79 (DMLs replaced of course) or the 505 as that amp number has been used for years.

But then I have a stack of Lux gear and have sold the Sansui units I had, one being a 331 so we didn't expect that to stay forever.
Click to expand...

If the L-505u is an extension of what they were going for with the Laboratory Reference Series, just with 30 years of refinement, there's not a Sansui on the planet I'd give equal odds to in a fight. And I really like Sansui.
 
I had the Lux R-1120 receiver back in the 80's. A tuff act to follow. I believe I prefered my Kenwood L-05m mono amps over it though. My 919 is a lot like the mono amps. Very impressive. I'm sure the Lux L-505 would be super. It cost enough. It better be super!
I do love my 919.:yes:
 
ghamilton said:
I had the Lux R-1120 receiver back in the 80's. A tuff act to follow. I believe I prefered my Kenwood L-05m mono amps over it though. My 919 is a lot like the mono amps. Very impressive. I'm sure the Lux L-505 would be super. It cost enough. It better be super!
PHP: 
I do love my 919.:yes:
Click to expand...

It's a great Amp! Tough Amp to beat in the price range it sells for.
 
reggaenaut said:
The Au919 was a special effort from Sansui which in my opinion has held its own over time. A lot of Sansui fans are not enamored with its signature because of it basic adherence to "neutral" sound and please note the absence of a loudness button. In my view an amp for all seasons.
Click to expand...

It sounds great through my hard to drive Tannoy's. If it can drive those power pigs it can drive anything.
 
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