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It’s been a good week at the thrifts!

BilboBaggins

BilboBaggins

Addicted Member
Thrifting reopened here last week, and I have to admit, I am taking advantage of it. But what is it with all the people ignoring social distancing while not wearing a mask! Anyway, I’ve been finding some great music on vinyl, and even a brand new with tags Tilley hat! In my colour!

So today, I took a vacation day and slept in. Got up at 10 and quickly dressed, made my coffee, and went to my local Value Village. I haven't been going frequently this past two year period, and I hadn’t found any great Audio deals in a while. A guy was right in front of me and I thought, oh great, he’s going to get it all. He looked like a shark. But he walked right by a wood encased silver faced beautiy and didn’t even blink! I walked up to it. A receiver! Sansui! Now what kind? A SIX. I had read about the model 8, and never expected to see one any more. I picked it up, heavy! Carried it to the testing station just to see better what it was and it’s condition. Two Phono inputs, check! Two complete tape sets, check, aux, good! I bought it!

I brought her home and opened her up, and I think I was the first. The screws had that factory feel to them. Lots of dust, with a beautiful black metal encased transformer, well made, nice board design, and the wooden cabinet is nice. No real blemishes on it either. Lots of dirt. I cleaned it well! It lights up, and after a deoxit, it played fine through my headphones from my iPad.
 
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Lucky sucker! I do not go to thrift stores often. But, only because I have found it to be a waste of time (in my area). I have NEVER seen anything "audiowise" worth looking at. Other than the standard records that you see everywhere, no amps, receivers, turntables, nuthin'.
 
Nice Scroe! The only things worth noting that I find at my local thrifts are the occasional Technics or Pioneer turntable, blank cassettes and oh yeah, a pair of Realistic Optimus 5’s and a pair of AR bookshelf’s. The rest is just flippable 80’s BPC receivers and the like.
 
Congrats, the single digit series is great, IMHO. I have the Seven and Eight, and I'd expect the Six to sound more like the Seven or an Eight Deluxe than and Eight, but I find the difference between my Seven and Eight to be small. Wish I'd been there. I'm interested in getting a Six just to complete my single digit collection!

Sansui Eight w labels.JPG
 
Bigbeard said:
Congratulations! One question, though, what does a vintage hifi shark look like? :)
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LOL, he walked like he was a pro. With purpose, a fair amount of speed, and an eye on the electronics. I'm glad he wasn't or I would be posting on the one that got away thread! I haven't hooked it up since that first test. I have too many milk crates of records on the dining room table, and I will have to move them before I can set up the Sansui. I found a Realistic Lab-390 direct drive turntable today at the same location. It was $5 more than the Sansui! I really have to stop doing this, as I have to make space for renovations.
 
KeithD said:
Congrats, the single digit series is great, IMHO. I have the Seven and Eight, and I'd expect the Six to sound more like the Seven or an Eight Deluxe than and Eight, but I find the difference between my Seven and Eight to be small. Wish I'd been there. I'm interested in getting a Six just to complete my single digit collection!

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Nice listing of gear in your Sig! I started off with the 9090, and still have my AU-9900. I almost got a QR-6500 a couple of years ago, but the unit needed too much cosmetic help.

Here are some pictures of the Sansui model Six before I started cleaning.

IMG_2711.jpg IMG_2712.jpg
 
I've got 9 milk crates full of records I have to move first. I'm really tempted to set up up now so I can test out that Lab-390. Stylus is gone, but I have spare cartridges and headshells.

MacMillan, where are you located? Nice amp! :)
 
My favourite people in Canada!

The Denon dp-1200 is a very nice table! When I first returned to Audio and decided to get a turntable, I started with a dp-30. My second Denon was a 1200. It is in Vancouver somewhere now.

Be very cautious in your recap of the 9900. There are a lot of signals passing through the boards and lots of interconnects. I had my tech go through mine when I first got it and it took him two try’s to get everything working properly. I just got him to do the prone to failure parts and to clean controls that I couldn’t get to. Apparently, it can take a lot of signal tracing to track down intermittent signal cuts. I don’t have that issue on mine, knock on wood!
 
BilboBaggins said:
My favourite people in Canada!

The Denon dp-1200 is a very nice table! When I first returned to Audio and decided to get a turntable, I started with a dp-30. My second Denon was a 1200. It is in Vancouver somewhere now.

Be very cautious in your recap of the 9900. There are a lot of signals passing through the boards and lots of interconnects. I had my tech go through mine when I first got it and it took him two try’s to get everything working properly. I just got him to do the prone to failure parts and to clean controls that I couldn’t get to. Apparently, it can take a lot of signal tracing to track down intermittent signal cuts. I don’t have that issue on mine, knock on wood!
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Interesting comments about recapping the AU-9900. I’ve been pondering re-capping mine - at least the PS and driver boards, but it’s giving me no problems, so I wonder if I should be going in there with the potential for making a mistake?

The 9090 is a great receiver, but right now it is on the shelf. The Eight is just better to my ears.

I find Sansui quad a whole other level of experience in music. I know it is not for everyone, but I can’t resist that feeling of being immersed in the music!
 
Here are a couple of pictures with the system on the dining room table. Speakers have changed to Philips SP-30s. The wood matches nicely with the cabinet. One burnt out light bulb. No biggie. Some bad news, the Lab-390 lights up, but the motor doesn't spin. I'll take a closer look tomorrow. I dropped in a spare Rotel I have sitting around.

IMG_2713.jpg IMG_2714.jpg
 
Bigbeard said:
That makes sense. I was a bit self-conscious and thought you would say something like "a bearded dude with a washed out band T-shirt".
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It's easy to see when people are making a living from thrifting. The type of things they pick, how they walk, how they look at things, so many others. I see one of the owners of a record store here on a regular basis, and sometimes I run into a guy who holds estate sales, and another guy that has a booth in an antique market. There is also a vintage clothing picker I used to see more frequently, and a guy who always fills his cart up with books, mainly text or technical. I think he ships them to Africa, but I'm not certain. We know each other by face at least, but we might talk, and might even be friends.
 
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