Au-919

[78c3sam]

mjs1 posted that he had contact with a Sansui X1 owner, he was right, I was that fellow. His writing about the events are not quite right... I did have the X1 shipped off to a fellow in Long Island and he had it for almost a year with no resolution to the issues, he did offer me a set of transistors and I was going to ship the amp to him because at the time I didn't have a chance of ever reviveing it.... But just before I got round to shipping the amp to mjs1 I got in touch with a fellow on eBay, Bill or his id as Cherish44 in MI and all I can say, he flat out knows what to do! my X1 was looking at a life of an anchor, Bill did his magic and it is a fine piece of equippement!!! I did list it on eBay, after I saw absolutely pricing on all the lesser Sansui's, I know Sansui, have had 9500's 4 of them, au717's at least 2, not to mention many others, and selling this stuff at the prices they are asking without restoration to the units, well if your buying your nuts!!!
I didn't sell my X1, I pulled it because there was no way I was selling an fully serviced and restored X1 at a AU919, 717 or a 9500's price, it is so much more than any of those....

 

[mjs1]

Hi 78c3sam. I'm glad to know that you kept your X1. I found your story extraordinarily depressing, injured great amplifier with no one eager to work on it. I still have my Japanese version which I listened to briefly but leave it out of rotation because I don't think it has ever been serviced. I never checked to see if it has its original output transistors and I am sure that it still has its black flag capacitors. Did you ever find out what your output transistors were replaced with? I agree that for the brief time that I listened to it it did sound better than the 919. But, I am so suggestible and it is really hard to compare two excellent amplifiers even when you have a switch box to alternate between them. The later Japanese only models may be better, but who has compared them? Best regards and I wish you many years of good music.

Marc

 

[John Purple]

Hi, I bought an AU-919 this summer (after I threw mine away several years ago) and in a first step I replaced all black flag caps. Due to several warnings in the internet, I didn't switch on the amp before. When I did so afterwards, I heard a constant humming and buzzing as well from the amp itself as from the speakers. Since then I checked nearly everything I could think of and found, that both transformers were buzzing, the smaler a little less than the big one. The buzzing of the small transformer nearly stopped after fixing it's screws a bit tighter and inserting some rubber buffer between the tranformer and the casing to reduce vibrations on the amp. But there was nothing to do about the toroidal transformer. It simply continued buzzing at the same level, even when fixed to the casing. It also continued buzzing after I cut it's power outputs (just to make sure the reason wasn't in diodes, the caps or elsewhere in the amp itself.).
Does anyone know how to fix that problem? There are no transformers on the market as to replace mine.

 

[commando]

I have an AU-919 that has had minimal use and an AU-5500 that had a lot of use. The latter had started to have problems in the early 80s and I only found it a few years ago stored in a closet with a matching tuner. When I put the AU-5500 back into use, I was surprised how it sounded compared to the AU-919. So much more colorful and probably inaccurate in terms of reproduction comparatively. But honestly, listening to an old Stones album, it is very enjoyable. Maybe more than the 919. So, if you are looking for the old sound of 1960s, 1970s stereos that you may have had in the barracks or at your off-base housing, the 919 is not that type of amp. I guess I am dating myself as I bought the 5500 at my local PX in Europe! But, the point of my post is that I found a guy on Ebay that refurbishes Sansui 919s and I emailed him to see if he would do the work on my 5500. I just got my 5500 back (it had issues with the I/O circuit card with solder joints cracking) and it is sounding great. He does an ESR test on all the caps and changes any with high ESR with nearly as good new ones. (The old caps are better than the new ones available today). His feedback for the 919 refurbishing is 100%. So if any of you have 919s that aren't up to snuff you might want to try him out.

 

[Hyperion]

Hi, I bought an AU-919 this summer (after I threw mine away several years ago) and in a first step I replaced all black flag caps. Due to several warnings in the internet, I didn't switch on the amp before. When I did so afterwards, I heard a constant humming and buzzing as well from the amp itself as from the speakers. Since then I checked nearly everything I could think of and found, that both transformers were buzzing, the smaler a little less than the big one. The buzzing of the small transformer nearly stopped after fixing it's screws a bit tighter and inserting some rubber buffer between the tranformer and the casing to reduce vibrations on the amp. But there was nothing to do about the toroidal transformer. It simply continued buzzing at the same level, even when fixed to the casing. It also continued buzzing after I cut it's power outputs (just to make sure the reason wasn't in diodes, the caps or elsewhere in the amp itself.).
Does anyone know how to fix that problem? There are no transformers on the market as to replace mine.

The problem you describe is unlikely to be the transformers themselves, much more likely to be disconnected wiring, damaged PCB traces, bad solder joints or excessive current being drawn by something arising from any of those problems. Occasionally vintage audio transformers do buzz a little, this may be normal, you just have to live with it if everything else works as it should. I have reconditioned 2 AU-919's neither one had buzzing transformers before or after being worked on, which leads me to think whatever work you did is the reason for the buzzing?

The AU-919 is an absolute treasure of an amplifier, a true vintage classic. I have no idea of your electronics skill level, but the AU-919 is best left to a competent tech, one with a track record of success and recommendation servicing vintage audio. I would recommend you avoid auction site reconditioning services, some are OK, but you don't necessarily know that at the outset. Personally, I can't help feeling that while you will get the equipment back in working condition, the work is very unlikely to have been done as conscientiously as it should be.

 

[commando]

There is no reason not to use an auction site for refurbishment services if the service provider has excellent feedback from a large base of users. In fact, the availability of such feedback from dozens if not hundreds of users is a better predictor of the quality of service than a handful of anecdotal comments or hearsay. An auction site service provider is far more sensitive to the possibility of negative feedback as it can destroy his/her business, hence, the online service provider has far more incentive to be exacting and conscientious with respect to his/her work product.

I agree that most repairs/refurbishment of a 919 (but even a 5500) should be left to a technician that has had long-time prior experience with the particular amp.

 

[yosl]

There are a lot of variables here. Suffice it to say the 919 is among Sansui's better integrated amps but what you plug into it and what you drive with it will make a big difference to it's sound. From what I can gather the DCM TF's are pretty accurate speakers and quite efficient. The question becomes what are you striving for, if it's reference system you'll likely get it with the 919. Any flaws in the recording and the source player will likely become pretty apparent as the 919 wouldn't lie nor likely will the DCMs. On the other hand the opposite also holds true and the result could be spectacular.