Poor man's Sansui GX-5 rack

[jd-audio]

I have 2 rare GX style rack cabinets I would like to show you.

Back in 1977 the Dutch Sansui distributor really liked the new AU/TU-x17 black face line with the rack handles. Just what his market needed during the heydays of the rack based systems.

But the distributor also knew he had a problem: In his market customers mostly bought the bottom- and mid-line items (e.g. AU/TU-117/217). The GX-5 rack was (a) relatively expensive and (b) due to its height looked best when combined with the full height items as the AU/TU-717, SE-5 and cassette decks. So not a good match for his market.

Therefore the distributor decided to make his own GX clone, with less height.
It was marketed as the “Sansui Stereo Cockpit”, with a choice of the “half-height” units AU-117/217/317 and U-217. With an amp and tuner, there was just enough space to store your records on the bottom part. Until then, customers bought a piece a time and had to save to extend their sound system. A full set often took 3-5 years to complete. But now with the "Sansui Stereo Cockpit" an (allmost) complete rack set came in to reach of many customers. Sales boomed.



Actually this worked so well, that eventually you could choose from 2 versions, with different heights. The second height (still a bit lower then an actual GX-5) allowed to add a (full height) cassette deck (e.g. SC-1110) and still have room to store records.



There was a problem connection the rack handles to the cabinets rails. There were no Sansui lookalike parts available on the local market. So they used this solution:



These racks were a great sales hit up to 1979, together with the AU/TU 117/217 and SC-1110. Nowadays the rack cabinets are all gone, but a lot of the Sansui equipment survived. Especially the AU/TU-217 are frequently on offer.

Have fun
-John-

 

[Robisme]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Rob

 

[Reidy12]

Maybe the GX-150 rack wasn’t available in Europe or too expensive? I’ve managed to snag 3 of these but now need to improvise the mounting system also. I was looking at serrated washer hex automotive nuts but the square would better with the thru thread to lock into position even when vertical. The GX-150 also had the 2 record frames if you wanted to go that way. Also had 2 glass doors to keep dust & fingers out!
View attachment 2328193View attachment 2328191View attachment 2328192

 

[jd-audio]

Maybe the GX-150 rack wasn’t available in Europe or too expensive?

That GX-150 looks great!

As I have never seen one or heard of one (and I am quite familiar with that era of Sansui equipment), I think these were never offered on the Dutch market. Maybe in other European countries, but as the Dutch distributor was strongly involved in the European Sansui import in those years, I doubt that.

I did some digging in my brochure pile to look for clues that the GS-150 rack was ever offered over here:

No references to the GX-150 showed up. Nothing in brochures 1977-1979 (the “rack handle” years). As the GX-150 is probably a “late” rack type, I date it 1979-1980. Unfortunately I seem to lack 1980 brochures and price lists.

I did find Dutch price lists of 1981 and 1982, but the GX-150 does not show up (as no “rack handle” units were offered anymore in that years, this is no surprise).




So changes are slim me ever acquiring such a great looking GX-150 rack

Have fun
-John-

 

[jd-audio]

Very interesting. Thanks for posting..

Thank you kindly. As time is passing, a lot of information is getting lost, especially information that strongly depends on first hand memories. With Audiokarma it seems we can save or at least share some of this information.. I am no tech (but love to read the technical threads), but hope to contribute in a very small and humble way to this forum.

Following pictures add to the “Sansui Stereo Cockpit” story:



The second picture names the GX3 rack in the text, but it is safe to say that Sansui never made such a rack. This indicates the customer was not made aware of the difference between a Sansui rack or a clone rack.

Have fun
-John-

 

[Reidy12]

Cheers John....interesting. The only place I have seen the GX-150 in print is in a Catalog from Spain? It's too large to import here but page 18 shows the rack and I've clipped the front page. Within this catalog is the SE-7/RA-900 which from the AK database were introduced February/May 1980.

 

[bluesky]

Cool.

I've always wondered about those 'shorter' racks. Now I know.

Nice collector's piece!

 

[Gdavidjr1]

 

[Bright_Star]

I think the word 'cagenut' is what that is called. If they fit into the side rails of the GX-5, then they are very useful substitutes, do you know their size
and where they they can be found/ordered online?

 

[M-D-Z]

I don’t know what Sansui called their special OEM captured nuts that came with my GX-5II, but in my experience as machinist and mechanic, the term “cage-nut” most often refers to the integral spring/clip-nuts made to snap-fit into the std rack mount rails manufactured with pre-punched square holes with 1.75”/U intervals. Likely current std cagenut clips included would be either #10-32 or M5/M6 thread. Vertical hole spacing is:
0.625”+0.625”+0.500=1.750” ~ repeat pattern.

Sansui rack ears were unfortunately not spaced out compliantly to the international vertical U-spacing conventions, but thankfully the horizontal (19”) dimension was & still is compatible.

T-nuts, Tee nuts, T-slot nuts, clip-nuts, rail nuts, J-clip nuts etc., come in many sizes and most are designed specifically for their strength requirements and intended slot dimensions.

 

[M-D-Z]

I think the word 'cagenut' is what that is called. If they fit into the side rails of the GX-5, then they are very useful substitutes, do you know their size
and where they they can be found/ordered online?

I’ve looked for exact replacements, but have been unsuccessful locating enough original nuts, I could use like ~50 more. Originals have an integral spring that prevents them from falling down the vertical rail slot. I ended up making solid brass sliding double threaded hole T-blocks (nut-plates) spaced out exactly to fit each Sansui rack ear individually. I prefer using uniform #10x32 stainless steel hardware with nylon shims and SS conical washers. I hate seeing any “rack-rash” on my equipment due to careless mounting practice.

 

[Bright_Star]

Yes, it would be great if there was a place to obtain "cagenut" parts for all GX-5 owners, I am sure we would all like to have extra spares.

I think the screws should not be too hard to find a substitute for, but the brass "clippy thing" seems more unique- thus harder to find an exact match for.

I have several GX-5's and just finished rearranging one of them on the weekend, this one being composed of a few Sansui units, but mainly for my guitar effects rack components. I dont know yet it if I will further need to reconfigure the top to bottom order of the equipment, so for now, I did not attach them to the side rails.

Like many things, The GX-5 has its pros & cons. Visually, it looks nice, and its shape makes it easy to do the connections in the back, whereas other brand/model racks require you to have to reach all the way inside to access the connectors after they are put within due to the side panels and so forth. The GX-5 was available when Sansui was at its peak in the late 70's, and it really added a touch of elegance to the superb models being produced, AU-717, 919, etc (and all the smaller amps in the series, etc, as well as very cool accessories- AX-7, or MA-7 with cue speakers). Its too bad that rack handles were phased out after the AU-D7/D5 & SE-9 eq in the early 80's.

Cons: Unlike an all-metal rack, such as those made for open reel recorders (example: Tascam RTS-15. long discontinued), the GX-5 is not as sturdy in comparison. Its ok when stationary, but you have to be very careful when pushing it along its wheels, especially when its loaded down with a heavy AU amp and other components. It can accidentally tip over- which happened to me one time, and unfortunately it cracked the whole bottom board virtually in half, rendering the rack unuseable- lesson learned.

The other time to be extra cautious: when lifting it upright from the floor- again- its loaded with weight, so unless you have a 2nd person to assist, doing it yourself requires some handling care - though its hard to avoid- I dont see a way of installing a heavy AU amp into the GX-5 while its upright, unless a 2nd person is there to try and attach the screws to the handles, while the first one is holding the amp. Putting it on the floor allows us to align/adjust the cagenuts on both the left & right side siderails. A few times, I did install some components while the rack was upright, but they were very light items such as an AT timer, though it would be annoying when upright- some of the clips would not stay in place, they would fall down the side rails, so I would then crumble up a piece of paper and stick it in the siderail to act as a stopper to keep the clip in place until I could secure it into the handles- such is the Life of a GX-5 owner

 

[StirFriedFrp]

For sale now (in the Netherlands) is a GX5 rack with the spec sheet that apparently came with it. I’ve never seen it but I can imagine it contains interesting details.