What Happened to Sansui

Don McR

Don McR

Well-Known Member
With the recent Sansui threads, it got me to wondering what happened to the firm. I hadn't realized they had dissappeared from the North American market. I dug up a couple of posts from Google Groups that stated the firm went bankrupt in the mid 90's and the name was sold to a Hong Kong firm that used the brand on low fi junk. However, a Google web search reveals that there remains a Japanese based Sansui Electric Co. Ltd at the following site:

http://www.sansui-jpn.co.jp/

They sell some pretty high end gear including the following piece at $4,000.

au111g01.jpg


Anybody know anything about this firm and its relation to the original Sansui?
 
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I can't shed much light, but I can confirm that Sansui is the name on a bunch of mass-market plastic rubbish that is marketed by the equivalent of a CC down under. Cheap consumer electronics ... TV's, cheap speakers & boombox type systems etc.

Very sad ...
 
Hi Don:

Well, as you may know if you've seen my posts before here, I am a HUGE Sansui enthusiast. Your question is a very good one and I have wondered about that myself.

I hope to get more information regarding the company and how they changed ownership and the effect of that on their products, sales, and reputation.

I have corresponded with some people Online that have provided me with bits and pieces of info. One of them is from Canada and he worked for a Sansui distribution company back in the 70's & 80's. He said thing things were great in the 70's but with the change in the Economy in the 80's and the huge jump in the value of the Japanese Yen, that really had a big impact on the company as far as having their products exported which wasnt cost effective anymore.

Sansui looked to be going ok thru 1987. Then late in that year, they changed their company logo. In 1988, there are far less ads then they had before in hi fi mags. It was probably around this time that the company was undergoing some serious business trouble. I believe some British global company took over the controlling interest in the company in Japan and while it looked promising at first (that the Brit orginization would inject money into the company) some big scandal in the British company took place and resulted in all assets being frozen. I believe then in 1993 the company name was bought by another company. The names Ive heard in this story are Polly Peck, and Semitech and one of them being affililated with Singer Sewing Machine Co.

I think from the 1990's on, Sansui stopped making any products for the US market. The Lyndhurst , New Jersey office that used to appear in print at the bottom of their ads in hi fi mags disappeared. I do have a copy of a 1991/92 German Sansui catalog and you can also check Isao's site: www.sansui.us Isao is on the Yahoo Sansui Group and plans to expand his site very soon. It seems like the newer company has built some cheaper products like mediocre vcr's and whatnot, but they have also made some very elegant, state of the art audio amplifiers as well- such as one thats on Ebay now where the seller said it won Japan's highest award for Outstanding Audio Product in 1995 (Pat S, a member here, had mentioned it to me)

As for the Link you provided, I did email them a while back asking them the same question you asked here- what relation they have to the old company but they never responded back. 'gware' is a member on audioasylum and I belive he lives in Tokyo, its been a while since I got in touch with him Online, but maybe he can update me with some more info if he knows anything.

Regards, B/F.
 
Hi BeetleFred

Thanks for the detailed reply. It appears that Sansui may have sold the worldwide rights to their brand when they hit financial diffuculties and kept the domestic Japanese rights as a separate company. There is an Indian Sansui site that seems to be the origin of the low-fi crap that doesn't seem to have any relationship to the Japanese company. Their site is here:

http://www.sansui-india.com/

Keep us posted if you find out the story. I have a peripheral interest since Sansui was the original JBL distributor in Japan. They sold a number of Sansui branded speakers using JBL components. It appears none were exported since I doubt JBL would allow Sansui to compete with them outside of Japan.
 
Hi Don:

I certainly will be in touch should I get more on the scoop of what took place concerning their company affairs.

Regards, B/F.
 
I remember seeing the Sansui brand around year's ago as a kid, but really just thought of them as run of the mill with no desire to own any of their product's, nor ever knew anyone who actually did. Is there something special about any of the brand's equipment that I'm missing out on.
 
so sad the way of sansui, like so many other fantastic hi-fi companys, in the 80s, infested by bpc black plauge, and thrown away to rot with some crappy nameless chinese electronic company. like so many others.
 
Don McR said:
However, a Google web search reveals that there remains a Japanese based Sansui Electric Co. Ltd at the following site:
http://www.sansui-jpn.co.jp/
They sell some pretty high end gear
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I think "used to sell" would be more accurate. These appear to all be discontinued Japan-market models made by the original Sansui. From the text on the website, this appears to be the skeletal remains of the original Sansui that is handling ldistribution of income to stockholders from liquidation of assets and royalties collected from licensing of the brand.
 
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Renzor213 said:
I remember seeing the Sansui brand around year's ago as a kid, but really just thought of them as run of the mill with no desire to own any of their product's, nor ever knew anyone who actually did. Is there something special about any of the brand's equipment that I'm missing out on.
Click to expand...

As far as amplification, turntables and tuners they have some great vintage stuff. As far as speakers go, not so much. With a few gems of course, but their components are light years ahead of where their speakers ever got.
 
Walt said:
I can't shed much light, but I can confirm that Sansui is the name on a bunch of mass-market plastic rubbish that is marketed by the equivalent of a CC down under. Cheap consumer electronics ... TV's, cheap speakers & boombox type systems etc.

Very sad ...
Click to expand...

We call it BPC, OKA black plastic crap. RIP, Sansui. DOA.:tears:
 
Old post but here it goes anyway...

Sansui was a international stereo company (not domestic so much), with stereo patents, had a bunch of internal company problems and didn't change with the times. Like they didn't get into the 'video' concept, therefore had 'no patents' in video, vrs audio, which really hurt them cause video hit it so big. After Vietnam (the war ended - everyone left with their dollars!) they lost their major purchaser, the American serviceman (armed forces). Sansui had all their eggs on one basket...'international stereo sales'. Sony and a few others catered to a Japanese domestic market as well as an international market. Sansui did not. When they lost international sales it really hurt them really bad. They had to close factories and the layoffs started. That was the beginning of the end, and that was in 1972! There were a few other things before and after this, union problems, internal company problems, internal personnel problems, etc. In the early 80s the company started manufacturing BPC (black plastic crap) and this really super hurt their international name. It wasn't like the high quality made gear they made in the 70s. It just wasn't of the high quality standards international buyers desired. Also heard that a lot of it malfuncted?? International people quit buying it. In the later 80s Sansui did go back to the quality standard and made really fine gear for the Japanese domestic market and a couple international markets, like England and Germany, but that was it (some alpha amps). Even though they made really fine equipment then...it was too late. The damage to the name was done. The international community didn't trust the name Sansui anymore, especially to spend their money on. The company continued to lose money. With the invention of personal computers...that didn't help either. People used to center their home around stereo systems, now it was computers and the computer generation. Got a CD?, play it on the computer. Normal people could afford a stereo, or a computer, but not both. Stereos lost. Computers won. 'Digital' and digital sound was here and here to stay, real stereo sound systems were out. It's even been said the younger generations now-a-days even 'prefer' the sound of digital over analog, end of that stereo story. The devaluation of the dollar and the increase in the powerful yen didn't help either. The Japanese equipment became 'very expensive' to buy internationally. Sansui Japan tried to sell thier gear at a 'good price' but it's been said that they should of even sold it for more money than they were charging for it. They continued to lose money for many years. Finally they went broke. They tried to find a buyer for the company in Japan but no takers, so they sold the company to overseas interests. A few people/holding companies have owned Sansui since, all that information is easy to find on the internet. The latest is the Chinese who use the name for namesake only (an umbrella company), licensing the name to anyone who pays to use the name for whatever products - telescopes, radios, tvs, stereos, cel phones, video cameras, just whatever, you name it. I suppose you could find Sansui sunglasses if you looked hard enough...which maybe true. A 'quality name' that everyone recongnizes all over the world being sold all over the world. Kind of a smart business move for the Chinese worldwide market really. They will do well with the name Sansui, a powerful name in world, a name everyone knows worldwide and trusts, especially in 2nd and 3rd world markets. I've read that they have a 'ton of problems' with their TVs and 'servicing is virtually zero' except in India.

Anyway, that's basically it. There's ' a - lot - more - to - the - story ', but you get the basic idea. Sansui, Pioneer, Kenwood, Akai, Nakamichi, they all fell.

It's a real shame really. Maybe someday when the Chinese really get it together they will put out some re-issues of the older gear. Doubt it. They are just selling mass quantity 'stuff' to a mass worldwide market. Makes really good business sense now a days really. Got to hand it to them for that. The Sansui name is known worldwide.
 
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bluesky said:
It's a real shame really. Maybe someday when the Chinese really get it together they will put out some re-issues of the older gear. Doubt it.
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The Chinese companies that are making better quality gear seem intent on building their own brands. Which, really, is how it should be. It's more likely to result in originality.
 
People used to center their home around stereo systems, now it was computers and the computer generation. Got a CD?, play it on the computer. Normal people could afford a stereo, or a computer, but not both. Stereos lost. Computers won. 'Digital' and digital sound was here and here to stay, real stereo sound systems were out. It's even been said the younger generations now-a-days even 'prefer' the sound of digital over analog, end of that stereo story.
Click to expand...

Uh...?

I'm not even sure how to begin to respond to that.
 
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