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Show Me Your Sansui!

Sansuiman said:
that's a beauty. It isn't so easy to find a 1000A that clean, you were fortunate to do so.
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Thank you buddy!
I was really lucky according to the last owner, it spent a long time stored in its box with hardly any use, and it was serviced. It's a very special piece; it might not be the most iconic, but it's one of the best-preserved ones I own.
 
I'd say the 1000A is pretty iconic among Sansui's best known and revered receivers. Certainly it's their best known and most collected tube receiver. A fellow collector I know has done extensive restorations on at least three of them now, and swears by them as the core of one of his main systems.
 
Sansuiman said:
I'd say the 1000A is pretty iconic among Sansui's best known and revered receivers
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Without a doubt, as you say, it's an iconic tube receiver. I always had it on my wish list, and when I saw it, I knew it was the one.
If the AU 111 is intimidating for a restoration, the 1000A is much more so.
For your friend, a restoration must be child's play, but for an enthusiast like me, restoring one would be a suicide mission jejeje
 
Was there a thread deletion of the "interesting auctions on yahoo"-something thread ?
I can't find it anymore, it is just gone. (EDIT: ok, moved to a different sub-forum part)

Hence something interesting off kleinanzeigen, a PM-555 - not mine.
PM555_1.jpg

PM555_2.jpg

PM555_3.jpg
 
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@JimEGR, I'm pretty sure those aren't stock. The tweeter has been changed (upgraded?), the woofer has either been replaced or redyed black, and the cabinets look too good not have been refinished.

Original finish in those would've been typical wood look vinyl, with a matching reveal on the front edge, the grill cloth sat a bit proud of it, when attached. The high gloss makes me think someone put real wood veneer on, followed by a urethane or lacquer finish, or at least installed new glossy laminate.

They do look good, in any case. Not knowing what was done with the drivers, I wonder how they sound. I'm attaching a picture of one in stock form.
 

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Whatever happened to those I think they look great. And maybe even sound ok now. I looked around the web before posting about them. There is very little information out there. Here’s a version with an acoustic lens on the tweeter too.

IMG_1491.jpeg
 
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^ I'm certain that JBLesque tweeter diffuser is another "field installed upgrade". It would make installation of the grill cloth impossible, just for one thing. It's also the first time I've seen an undersized square diffuser installed over a round tweeter.

These (S-50) are probably mid to late 1980's models. I haven't done a deep dig on them yet. But they resemble the sort of speaker systems Sansui was making from about 84-89. Quite a few models were made with the S prefix (the SP and others previously used having been dropped by that time). Some were better than others, I've seen some ultra cheap rack system models of that era that were made in the US, because it was cheaper to do that, then to import speakers of Japanese manufacture for anything but high end models.

The last really properly good speakers Sansui offered in that time frame were the PM-C and XL series. It wasn't until about the mid 90's or so that they resurrected the SP line with some very nice (and high dollar) bookshelf models. The SP-100i was one of these offerings, and have been discussed here on AK before.

All that said, I'd be curious about these myself, as they are not at all commonly seen, and were probably sold seperately, rather than as bundled rack system speakers. The cone midrange doesn't impress me much, but I've been surprised before by what looked to be basic, inexpensive drivers. It doesn't have to be exotic to sound good, though that can help. I'd be most interested in the quality of the cabinet construction. That fell off a lot in the 80's, and not just for Sansui.
 
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Some visual similarity there, but I'd put the S-50 production timeframe at least 10 years newer than the pictured SP-6000. Notice it has what appears to be a horn tweeter (still quite common on Sansui speakers designs in the 70's, not so much in the 80's) and a rather large cone midrange versus what is on the S-50. Also retains the dual mid/high level controls found on most Sansui models in the 70's, the S-50 has a single control.

If anything, I'd say the SP-6000 was an early interation of the basic speaker design Sansui went on to heavily produce in the 80's. They were a clear break from the old school multi driver "firing squads" with kumiko wood grilles, so they represented a modernization of the sort of speakers Sansui was building.
 
Sui-Yogi said:
I see you have an AU-8500 … among other goody’s .
What a great amp , sound wise and build quality .
Honest truth , I don’t think that Sansui managed to keep up to their standards on build quality , onwards that era …
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Yes, the 8500 my favorite of all. Such a good looking powerful beast. It's my next project starting soon. I got it about four months ago. It sounds great. After using it for a few days there was some DC cracking at the speakers. I'm going to rebuild the drivers and the power supply. Lots of glue on the power supply that has to go.
 
peterott said:
Not sure about camera angle and zoom <1, but the shelf gets wider towards the top, or? Is it really stable or just an optical illusion?
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Ha. Yes, a very close perspective in a narrow space resulting in an odd aspect from the phone. It is square and very sturdy. The shelves are 18"x48"x72". It was all scattered around the house. It's nice to have it all in one place.
 
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