Here’s a receiver you don’t see often. The 9010 is the black faced version of the 881. I was looking for an 881 and found this 9010. It is identical to the 881 except for the different designation and the black out panels on the face plate.
The 881/9010 shares some features with it’s bigger brothers the 8080 and 9090. It shares a variation of the driver board used in the bigger models. It also has a caged tuning cap, triple tone controls, and provisions for three sets of speakers. But that’s where the similarities end.
The 881/9010 does not have power meters or a lighted dial pointer. The power supply is not nearly as robust and it has a vinyl cabinet with slot vents rather than the stamped steel grill used on its beefier brothers. This is a step down from the wood covered cabinet on the Eight Deluxe, which preceded it as TOTL. It is also a physically small receiver compared to the x0x0 models.
It does have a couple of features that the 8080/9090 do not have. The chassis is cad plated. The x0x0 series didn’t get cad plating until almost the end of production. But best of all the 9010/881 have two, count them, two aux. inputs, a very rare feature indeed. (Highly prized TOTL receivers like the Concept 16.5 lack an aux. input all together.)
The 881 was produced from August ’74 until July ’76. Towards the end, the serial number record gets a little spotty. There are no units on file built in April, May or June 1976 which could indicate that production was paused during that period.
It was Sansui’s TOTL receiver for approximately a year. Production of the 8080 and 9090 began in August ’75.
The 881/9010 is a good mid power receiver with some worthy features. It’s a shame that we had to wait for the 9090 to see the return of the wood covered cabinets.
- Pete
The 881/9010 shares some features with it’s bigger brothers the 8080 and 9090. It shares a variation of the driver board used in the bigger models. It also has a caged tuning cap, triple tone controls, and provisions for three sets of speakers. But that’s where the similarities end.
The 881/9010 does not have power meters or a lighted dial pointer. The power supply is not nearly as robust and it has a vinyl cabinet with slot vents rather than the stamped steel grill used on its beefier brothers. This is a step down from the wood covered cabinet on the Eight Deluxe, which preceded it as TOTL. It is also a physically small receiver compared to the x0x0 models.
It does have a couple of features that the 8080/9090 do not have. The chassis is cad plated. The x0x0 series didn’t get cad plating until almost the end of production. But best of all the 9010/881 have two, count them, two aux. inputs, a very rare feature indeed. (Highly prized TOTL receivers like the Concept 16.5 lack an aux. input all together.)
The 881 was produced from August ’74 until July ’76. Towards the end, the serial number record gets a little spotty. There are no units on file built in April, May or June 1976 which could indicate that production was paused during that period.
It was Sansui’s TOTL receiver for approximately a year. Production of the 8080 and 9090 began in August ’75.
The 881/9010 is a good mid power receiver with some worthy features. It’s a shame that we had to wait for the 9090 to see the return of the wood covered cabinets.
- Pete
