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Which would you buy? Sansui AU607 or Luxman L80 amplifier.

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Scottodes

New Member
Im looking to start putting together my vintage sound system and looking at these two amplifiers, the Sansui AU 607 or the Luxman L80. I live in Tokyo and have found the Sansui in really good condition but I also love the Luxman L80 and have found a couple of good examples here. The Luxman is a beauty and a couple hundred more, while the Sansui is a totally different beast but also very cool both from the late 70s and looks to maybe have more power. Looking to run these through JBL speakers. Any comments would be appreciated.
 
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The Luxman is 40 wpc and the Sansui is rated at 90 watts per channel. Both from about the same time period. If you need the power the Sansui is the choice but I prefer the sound of Luxman in general and if 40 wpc is enough that would be the choice.
 
I can remember when we thought 40 watts was a lot of power and 100 could only be obtained by running Stereo amps in a combined mono mode. Seems like yesterday on one hand a century a go on the other, I guess it was over a half century ago I strapped my MC 240's together to run my Bozak Symphonies. As it was back then and is today its all about the speakers we choose. If they. are efficient like Klipsch Heritage speakers they will blow the house down with 40 watts. If you pick something with the sensitivity of a AR_3 or a Quad electrostatic you better be sitting close to your speakers. 90 watts, well with 90 db sensitivity speakers you'll be fine. At the time I preferred Luxman too. They had a nicer build quality and weren't in the shop all the time like other Japanese or Korean brands. Finding experts to restore either of them will be a challenge in either case; so, good luck.
 
The Sansui

Internals of each.

The Sansui has real fully dual mono power supply, that tips it to the Sansui's favour IMO, and by the look of it more PS filtering capacity, a little beast.
 

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I would vote for the Sansui if they were same price, and while the Luxman is more expensive I would not even think a second of buying the Luxman instead of the Sansui.

Liking both brands and having a few "seventies" pieces of each brand, I think I am not brand biased.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Wow, I’m totally at a loss at what to do after doing a little more digging... now I’ve found a Luxman L85 and a Sansui AU D907. Both with a little more power. I also stumbled upon a Luxman T88V tuner which matches perfectly if combined with the L80 or L85. Also found was a Luxman PD291 turntable. I wasn’t planning on getting a tuner but the T88V is a beauty, especially with the bronze knobs. I also realized my local second hand store is almost an audiophile museum filled with Luxman that is way out of my price range including a JBL Paragon speaker cabinet. With all these options, when all is said and done, my home here is very modest in size compared to a home in the west, so I really don’t need a lot of power although it’s always nice to “speak softly but carry a big stick.”
 
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