Vintage Sansui vs <$1,000 Modern Amp

Some vintage gear can give a lot of modern gear a good run for the money after restoration.
But with some smart shopping you can land a lightly used modern piece for a lot less
that the $3500 thrown around in this thread. But to each their own.
At some point the $20 vintage garage sale finds are going to dry up.
Putting the time and money into a $20 piece is time well spent.
Paying $500 for that same piece kind of sucks the joy out of it.
Go find a 8080 or 9090 on CL or E-scam and see what they are asking.
Also, the other issue we are all going to run into is getting replacement parts.
A lot of those transistors are starting to get hard to find.
 
At one point I thought about a new integrated Yamaha as I heard some good things on sound quality. I was thinking this because of the heavy weight of my beloved Kenwood power amp is heavier than the USPS will take and in my remote location it is the only option for sending the whole unit out to be rebuilt. (Fortunately I was able to send some of the boards in it out to be rebuilt very economically). The Yamaha (75-85wpc range) look nice and uncluttered and is something I could afford but I have heard they put plastic knobs on it and they come with a lot of digital add on things that I really don't care about and would prefer not to have to pay for. But the plastic knob thing is a sticking point for me for no good reason other than I like knobs built from a solid block of aluminum that were machined into the shape. Plastic just seems like broken up landfill material I guess. Bottom line is build quality. That is where vintage delivers. Modern does too but often takes more coin than I want to spend to get into that.
 
Indeed a tweaked and restored vintage piece can keep up - but I wouldn't make a blanket statement that all vintage is just better. To me at leas it is as much about the look and feel - there is just something very imposing about a large amp in a wood sleeve, featuring switches and levers with a solid feel and sound.


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The way I see it, is what do you want sitting in front of you at the end of the day?
For me I knew I wanted the AU-TU-717.
The price for vintage is set buy what "we all pay" so now a days it's over priced because we made it over priced.
As for the new audio, I see lots of nice stuff I would like to set in front of at the end of the day to enjoy. The prices to me are off side on that stuff just like everything else we all think we need to have in life.

This is your post:
Does anyone have any experience with any of these new <$1,000 amps? I'm curious if you think any of them will be an improvement over a re-capped Sansui AU-719 (or AU-717) or does it take an amp better than these to beat a 719/717?

Any thoughts?

I think it's been answered.
As for all the other crap that has made this thread turn, get over it.
With the exception of onwardjames living 20 min. from the greatest place on earth, Corvette Museum & Plant.

Just my 5 cents.
We here in Canada don't have penny's anymore.
 
Bruins said:
The way I see it, is what do you want sitting in front of you at the end of the day?
For me I knew I wanted the AU-TU-717.
The price for vintage is set buy what "we all pay" so now a days it's over priced because we made it over priced.
As for the new audio, I see lots of nice stuff I would like to set in front of at the end of the day to enjoy. The prices to me are off side on that stuff just like everything else we all think we need to have in life.

This is your post:
Does anyone have any experience with any of these new <$1,000 amps? I'm curious if you think any of them will be an improvement over a re-capped Sansui AU-719 (or AU-717) or does it take an amp better than these to beat a 719/717?

Any thoughts?

I think it's been answered.
As for all the other crap that has made this thread turn, get over it.
With the exception of onwardjames living 20 min. from the greatest place on earth, Corvette Museum & Plant.

Just my 5 cents.
We here in Canada don't have penny's anymore.
Click to expand...

You should see what we are left with , here in Greece. Not even penny's.
 
Personally, I could be completely happy with a lot of vintage or modern amps at various price ranges. Technical capability of amps is mainly down to the design philosophy, rather than factor limited by era.

For the record, I sold at $10k amp after hearing a recapped Sansui AU-555A. The $10k amp was outstanding technically and in terms of pleasing sound; you could even weld with it by shorting the output terminals. It's probably worth mentioning that I bought that $10k amp because it (to my ears) beat the crap out of the 20-50k stuff I also checked out. But in the end, the 555A is pleasing and I didn't need the Watts of the big guy.

It's also maybe worth mentioning that I'm <40yo, and most of my amps are older than me, so I'm not sure how much nostalgia has to do with it, rather than pleasing sound, build quality and ease of service. In any case, I think there is excellent modern gear at various price ranges that performs very well compared to the vintage Sansui gear. Build quality and ease of service might be trickier to match though
 
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There is another equation here and that is that often you find vintage stuff in good working order (or even add the cost of a service or rpair) for a fraction of the cost of a comparable inflation adjusted priced contemporary piece of equipment. You could buy a rack full for an inflation adjusted price of $3,500 and just toss them as they break.
 
It really does come down to personal preference at the end of the day.

There are some very good, sensibly priced modern amps which I feel are more transparent and accurate than any 'vintage' Sansui that I've heard.

However, if someone values a warmer sound, then the vintage Sansui gear may well prevail.

I'm a convert to modern X-balanced/AU-Alpha Sansuis and have a strong preference to their clarity and musicality vs the older Sansui gear. It's a real shame that Sansui never had the opportunity to continue to develop the Alpha design beyond 2000 or thereabouts - one can only speculate as to how good they'd be!
 
Old interesting thread wise AK,
my personal experience, update 2017 , test made always with JBL's 4408, 8 inches monitors, very revealing:

Sansui AU101(price around 150$ refurbished,in good looking condition) VS Topping TP30 or similar Tripath in the 150$ range ( I have tried few of them):
While the T-amps around this price point have pristine signal and in the specific case of the tp 30 a Dac input
the AU101 offer more versatility with the preamp section, and has a phono stage.
I would say if you play often vinyl get the old guy (will go forever and repairs will be cheap)
if you are playing a pc get the Tripath (will fail at some point, buy a new one at little cost)

Sansui AU5900 ( price around 500$refurbished, in good looking condition) VS Rega Brio R (500$ demo version)
This is where the comparison get hard, subjective little details (sound or connection /interface wise) can make a great difference.
I still prefer musically the vintage and pre-controlled versatility of the AU5900 (yes I play the knobs a lot to adjust to music-source/room-behaviours)
but I have to report the Brio has no fear to sparkle and rumble,
while the Sansui sounds better at party levels, more detailed and low freq generous (totally magnificent for his 45 wpc)
the Brio R (mk1) seems superior in liveliness and authority at moderate volumes, has better MM phono stage (vinyl sounds more richfull and open)
is well built and last but not least has a remote, but no headphones. There is a 2017 improved version (mk2) with headphones and few other improvements
but while I am writing this that model cost more and falls in a different price class compared to the previous model (around 1000$)
and I bet if compared to the AU911DG below would have such an hard task to shine.
I would say if you play often (read it is on all day like in my case) get the old guy (will go forever and repairs will be cheap).
if you are playing just sometime, at moderate volume and don't want to get involved in the vintage side of things, the Brio is a good entry level amp.

Sansui AU911DG (price around 1000$ refurbished, in good looking condition) VS Yamaha A-S801BL (900$)
These are two amp built 30 years of distance each other that play very similar,
they have pretty much the same connections (the Yamaha can decode Flacs, Flacs were not there in the 90's so Sansui can't deal with it but CD direct is pretty impressive on the 911),
they both have a remote.
I tried the Yamaha for a week, serious amp. ESS Technology 32-bit ES9010K2M Sabre DAC is a beast.
Hard to say who is better but I can tell you something: the 911 is now 30 years old and in 5 years of my ownership never failed, feels like new.
Will the Yamaha perform the same in the long range? Is it durable? Surely lack of pre out, that the Sansui has.

Looking forward to compare the AU9500 but so far I did not come across anything modern that worth to compare,
I am in love with the tank sorry, I would not be objective on the thing.
I am not saying this is better than anything else, I am saying this is better than anything else to ME:)
How much for one of those, $1000? Oh man, open the hood and tell me what you think.


Sorry I had to rescue this topic, too much fun reading and when I got to the end of the 6 pages I felt I was ready to read more about people different experiences.

Happy music everyone
 
cicada said:
Old interesting thread wise AK,
my personal experience, update 2017 , test made always with JBL's 4408, 8 inches monitors, very revealing:

Sansui AU101(price around 150$ refurbished,in good looking condition) VS Topping TP30 or similar Tripath in the 150$ range ( I have tried few of them):
While the T-amps around this price point have pristine signal and in the specific case of the tp 30 a Dac input
the AU101 offer more versatility with the preamp section, and has a phono stage.
I would say if you play often vinyl get the old guy (will go forever and repairs will be cheap)
if you are playing a pc get the Tripath (will fail at some point, buy a new one at little cost)

Sansui AU5900 ( price around 500$refurbished, in good looking condition) VS Rega Brio R (500$ demo version)
This is where the comparison get hard, subjective little details (sound or connection /interface wise) can make a great difference.
I still prefer musically the vintage and pre-controlled versatility of the AU5900 (yes I play the knobs a lot to adjust to music-source/room-behaviours)
but I have to report the Brio has no fear to sparkle and rumble,
while the Sansui sounds better at party levels, more detailed and low freq generous (totally magnificent for his 45 wpc)
the Brio R (mk1) seems superior in liveliness and authority at moderate volumes, has better MM phono stage (vinyl sounds more richfull and open)
is well built and last but not least has a remote, but no headphones. There is a 2017 improved version (mk2) with headphones and few other improvements
but while I am writing this that model cost more and falls in a different price class compared to the previous model (around 1000$)
and I bet if compared to the AU911DG below would have such an hard task to shine.
I would say if you play often (read it is on all day like in my case) get the old guy (will go forever and repairs will be cheap).
if you are playing just sometime, at moderate volume and don't want to get involved in the vintage side of things, the Brio is a good entry level amp.

Sansui AU911DG (price around 1000$ refurbished, in good looking condition) VS Yamaha A-S801BL (900$)
These are two amp built 30 years of distance each other that play very similar,
they have pretty much the same connections (the Yamaha can decode Flacs, Flacs were not there in the 90's so Sansui can't deal with it but CD direct is pretty impressive on the 911),
they both have a remote.
I tried the Yamaha for a week, serious amp. ESS Technology 32-bit ES9010K2M Sabre DAC is a beast.
Hard to say who is better but I can tell you something: the 911 is now 30 years old and in 5 years of my ownership never failed, feels like new.
Will the Yamaha perform the same in the long range? Is it durable? Surely lack of pre out, that the Sansui has.

Looking forward to compare the AU9500 but so far I did not come across anything modern that worth to compare,
I am in love with the tank sorry, I would not be objective on the thing.
I am not saying this is better than anything else, I am saying this is better than anything else to ME:)
How much for one of those, $1000? Oh man, open the hood and tell me what you think.


Sorry I had to rescue this topic, too much fun reading and when I got to the end of the 6 pages I felt I was ready to read more about people different experiences.

Happy music everyone
Click to expand...


Thanks for this!

Have been searching high and low for some ESSamt's.
Compare with the L100's of yours? on either the 911dg or 9500...
 
canuckaudiog said:
The only thing I dislike about buying vintage is that even if its restored, there are still a lot of other aging parts in it. It's rare that anyone goes through and replaces absolutely everything. Then of course with modern you get a warranty. Sound quality? That's subjective.
Click to expand...

That's been a concern of mine for years.

The old stuff is getting really old now.

With that said... just hope for the best. Sansui!
 
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The old stuff Sansui stuff is relatively simple and I have full confidence I can keep my units running until the day I die (I am just a hobbyiest/amateur technician... this stuff must be a piece of cake for the pros). And as a 41yo I hope that will be some decades away. In fact, the older the unit, the more confident I am in keeping in running due to simplicity of design. There are very few irreplaceable parts in old Sansui amps. For example my AU-777A has absolutely nothing special in it and that series of amps are really easy to figure things out on. Same goes for the tube amps, except the transformers but they are very hard to kill. Actually, the tube amps are even easier... such simple designs. Slightly newer stuff has some dual FETs that can be a bit tricky, but there are no replacements for those too. There are work arounds for almost all hard to replace parts. There are a few exceptions, but those are mostly things like Sony VFETs etc for which substituting parts requires significant redesign.

On the other hand, if I buy a modern amp, I have very little confidence in keeping it running even until I retire, let alone die. The schematic and PCB complexity melt my brain and if certain ICs go, it's game over as replacements of some parts are difficult - this even starts to apply from the early 80s, let alone truly modern.

The exception might be some high end stuff that is well built, and mostly using discrete components, but those units are outside of the OP's <$1000 price range, with a few exceptions; those components will be what the future generation of vintage collectors will work on.
 
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resurrecting old thread for no particular reason. Always wanted to play with amp from this era, and got Sansui AU 317 on facebook marketplace to compare to Rega Brio R. I actually think the Sansui sounds a bit better not by leaps and bounds but I think the highs are bit more controlled.
 
All I can give as input here is my Sansui Model Eight Deluxe and a Sansui G8000. These two had been rehabbed by CDFixer many years ago. He is no longer with us, but he sure did some quality workI have doubts about any unit having a better feel and sound as I get from these two. I have three small D class amps. One plays music in the bathroom and the quality of the sound coming from my DCM CX-07s is nice. I tried each of them in this job and all seem identical. None of them would hold a chance against my Sansuis.
 
Just find yourself an 'in excellent shape' AU-X701 or AU-X901 for a 'nice price' and you will be simply amazed.
 
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