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Sansui TU-S9 Find

Wolverine

Wolverine

AK Subscriber
Subscriber
Stopped at local thrift during lunch and came across a very cool looking Sansui TU-S9 with cool looking black face and rosewood cover. They were only asking $10 and it powered up fine so off I went.

Got it home and lost FM when I pushed one of the pre-set buttons. AM-FM button does not seem to be working. Took the cover off and it is spotless inside. Started poking around the AM-FM button and got it back into FM mode. I think there maybe a solder crack but can't be sure.

Hooked it up to my Denon 1200 pre/2400 amp. Cannot believe the sound from this fairly light-weight box. Very quiet but full sound. Probably the best sounding bass I have ever heard from a tuner. FMTuner has it ranked #22 on their shootout list and I can hear why.

Very little info out there on it which seems surprising. I know it is from 1980 and at $480 would have been a bit expensive I would think at that time for only a tuner.

Anyone here have any experience with it- possibly some insight with the AM-FM button issue? Any feedback would be appreciated. Will post pics when I get my camera back.
 
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One of the best tuner I've heard. I agree pretty flimsy, but nice looking. I think I paid over $100 off eBay, awhile back, to match the AU-DII. The combination is fantastic.

Did you put in some fresh batteries in the back? My S9 was doing odd things with the AM and FM too, before I took it out of rotation. I thought it was just me.
 
onepixel said:
One of the best tuner I've heard. I agree pretty flimsy, but nice looking. I think I paid over $100 off eBay, awhile back, to match the AU-DII. The combination is fantastic.

Did you put in some fresh batteries in the back? My S9 was doing odd things with the AM and FM too, before I took it out of rotation. I thought it was just me.
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I have not put any batteries in the back. I understand they are there to keep the unit from losing your pre-sets if you loose power or unplug it. Since it was pushing one of the pre-sets that caused me to initially loose FM am not going to touch them again. :D

I noticed the descriptor of one the sold I on E-Bay recently mentioned an issue with the AM-FM button so maybe that is an issue with these units. Listening to it again this morning and am still impressed. It is in an area of the house where I have struggled with other tuners getting a strong stereo signal. This one is having no problems at all with just the stock antenna picking every station and then some. Not a hint of hiss - almost CD like in its presentation.

Now I am going to have to figure out where to put it....... :scratch2:
 
Those are great tuners, and well under the radar.

Clean the compartment and contacts and put batteries in it. It needs them.

The AM FM switch is a problem on these units but I can't remember what or why.
 
The actual matching tuner to the D11 II was the TU-S77X, which came with an option of faux-wood side panels (like the D11 II has):

http://www.vintage-audio.com.ua/en/cat/361/2546.html

And yes, the TU-S9 does seem to have an issue with the power pushbutton switch which tends to get stuck, wish they simply would have made a better one which would not have been so difficult.
 
Actually... I should have said AU-D11 and not AU-DII.

I read somewhere that the little foam pads around the buttons eventually rot and get sticky. That might be a cause. I decided to clean and check mine out. I'll let you know if I come up with anything.
 
Still need to clean up the battery compartment a little as Dave suggested but thought I'd finally post a pic.

I decided to pair it up with my Sony GX900ES. I just used the TV hook up so I will listen to the Sansui rather than the receiver's tuner. The nice rosewood case works well with the wood rack it is sitting on though you can't see that in the pic.
 

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When I had one of these I made a slip of paper to poke in the right side with the station numbers on it. Some fiddling with the size in the Paint program and it worked pretty good.
 
I had one at one time.Then the am-fm got stuck on am and I tried but couldn't get it back to fm so I got rid of it.
 
superdog said:
I had one at one time.Then the am-fm got stuck on am and I tried but couldn't get it back to fm so I got rid of it.
Click to expand...

As mentioned earlier the same thing happened to me.
While I had it apart with the power the screwdriver slipped near the AM-FM button and I saw the FM signal flashback for just a second. I then touched the screwdriver on the board near the AM-FM button and "jumped" it back to FM. I am thinking it may be a solder issue but just a guess because of the metal on metal contact. It seems to be a common problem with them. Really just an unbelievable little tuner.
 
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