Sansui TU-V7

[StirFriedFrp]

So has anyone ever used this TV Stereo Tuner which was only released in Japan, in 1978? Its appearance fits perfectly in my collection of black racked sansui gear. I am curious what it is, what it can do, and what is needed to get it working. But I don’t have one yet.

Someone on AK called the Sansui TU-V7 a NTSC VHF band tv sound tuner. It has lots of buttons, which suggests presets. I think it looks cool.

 

[Sansuiman]

All it did was receive the audio (monaural) for old analog VHF TV channels 2-13. Essentially useless now (save for it's looks) as all broadcasting is digital, and the old VHF TV band has largely been parceled up in North America for 5G cell service. It was a way to get sound from TV broadcasts into your stereo system more easily, back before all TV's has baseband audio outputs as standard equipment. I'm actually kind of surprised it was only ever offered as a JDM model, I figure they might've sold some here if they'd chose to offer a 120V version. It was certainly a low production item, probably fewer than 2000 total made, and maybe only 1000, I'd guess.

Edit to add: It's definitely not stereo. Stereo broadcast on OTA NTSC wasn't supported at the time it was made, and didn't come around until the mid 80's, at least in the US. I'm going to assume the output is just dual mono.

 

[StirFriedFrp]

Thanks! My tech (who is also the owner of sansuicorner.nl) tries to modify and change the TU-V7 into a functional FM tuner with presets. That would be a nice project.

 

[Sansuiman]

If it can be so modded, and can receive in stereo, that might actually be useful. I'd be quite interested to see how such a modification could be implemented.