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Thoughts on price of Sansui AU-20000?

KeithD

KeithD

AK Subscriber
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Have an AU-20000 here for in-home demo before potential purchase. I've posted pictures and some details of internal condition in this thread. Asking price is $2,400. Only a couple of recent e-bay sales: one not coming out of protection sold for $3,000 as a buy it now; another sold as an auction for $3,228 in working condition, but a little bit challenged in the cosmetic condition, and lots of static in the pots/switches. I'm not see any other sold ones on other U.S. audio sites. Any thoughts or links to sold listings I'm missing? He's had this for sale locally for about 18 months. Not advertised anywhere, just "word of mouth" among "audio-types" in the area.

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If the front face plate is in good condition and you can do the restoration work yourself, then the price seems reasonable enough. For sale for 18 months and no takers, perhaps $2K would own it? If the faceplate is perfect perhaps $2400 is fair. They aren't making any more of these.
 
TomD62 said:
If the front face plate is in good condition and you can do the restoration work yourself, then the price seems reasonable enough. For sale for 18 months and no takers, perhaps $2K would own it? If the faceplate is perfect perhaps $2400 is fair. They aren't making any more of these.
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I do know the particular history on this one and the owner's method of selling. Basically, he's flipping this one. He bought it 18 months ago, and then set it out for sale. His method of selling is to set his prices at the low end of e-bay sold listings, and then he's not really willing to come down on price, since he's priced things at the low end of e-bay. At least, that's his rationale.

Faceplate has one knick between volume knob and muting switch. Otherwise, it's really in excellent cosmetic condition. Most of the blemishes are on the top.

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Agree with the sentiment that "they aren't making any more..." If you wanted to buy a new integrated amp of this quality/aesthetics today, I can't imagine what it'd cost. Assume you'd be looking at McIntosh, Luxman, Accuphase? A lot of today's high end gear just doesn't have this aesthetic.
 
You should probably grab it for the asking price. The prices you quoted in your initial post of recent sales makes this one a bargain by comparison.
 
TomD62 said:
You should probably grab it for the asking price. The prices you quoted in your initial post of recent sales makes this one a bargain by comparison.
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Yeah, that's what I thought when looking at the e-bay sales. I can only assume sale prices 18 months ago when the owner priced it were $2400 and up for working ones. There's really no rush. He hasn't had anyone interested, and I've got it for demo. Can probably take a couple of weeks to have a good listen.

In the owner's "shop" he had it sitting on top of a Pioneer SX-1250 priced at $2800.

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Personal preference would be the Sansui integrated amp over the Pioneer receiver every day, twice on Sunday.
 
I’d be concerned about the modifications that you pictured inside, hoping that there isn’t anything difficult to source that’s been replaced/modified, but it appears that it’s working properly (also from your other post) so if you really need to have an AU-20000, …

I prefer un-molested original if possible, but complete and cosmetically excellent are more important than un-molested if I have to choose, local makes it easy.
 
What's also interesting is I looked for sold listings of AU-X1 and, there is one sold listing on e-bay for a working, restored one at $2,200. This surprised me. I was under the impression most consider the AU-X1 better than the AU-20000. :dunno:
 
KeithD said:
What's also interesting is I looked for sold listings of AU-X1 and, there is one sold listing on e-bay for a working, restored one at $2,200. This surprised me. I was under the impression most consider the AU-X1 better than the AU-20000. :dunno:
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One word: meters

If you love them, you love them!
 
SaturationPt said:
One word: meters

If you love them, you love them!
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You must be right about that, might also be an issue of how challenging the AU-X1 is to work on (based on threads I've read), and how many issues need to be corrected.

I'd have to look at Sansui catalogs, but I can't think of another integrated amp that had meters other than the AU-20000. Anyone know?
 
Hyperion said:
AU-G77X & AU-G99X had electronic meters, but that's not retro enough for some. ;)
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Yeah, you're right. Can't get excited about those amber bars. Everyone just loves "bouncing" needles! (with whatever color lights you want to put in there) :beatnik:
 
Yes, the blue LEDs would go. I would want to source something closer to the original blue/green color to match my TU-9900.

TU-9900 copy.jpeg
 
Purchased today. Worked a trade (restored Fisher 400) + cash. Given what I had in the Fisher, figured I paid $2200 for the AU-20000.
 
Sometimes I get thinking about the relative value/price/cost of things... I recently sold a refurbished Hammond B3 organ with PR40 tone cabinet (speaker) for $2200 - same price as I paid for the AU-2200. It took over a month of listing on CL, FBM, and Reverb with regular markdowns from an initial price of $2900 for the B3 to sell. This morning I was thinking, how can this

B3 Console-speaker.jpeg

equal this?

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No real answer, or complicated answer, but interesting to think about supply/demand/desirability of things. I know which one is easier to ship! :rflmao:
 
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