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Why does "loud" equal "good"? Is a G901 good?

Tromatic

Tromatic

What about the glands...
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While trolling (the other kind) through the post's looking for Sansui G901 info, I came across a number of things here and around the www. Seems that a lot of people consider loud to be good, especially when it comes to the bigger vintage receivers.

Is it an age thing? I have no intention of playing the soon-to-be-mine G901 at crossover-and-voicecoil frying volume, it's reported main strength along with power, POWER, POWER! And POWER! Shaking floorboards! Woofers blown right out of the basket! AND POWER, TOO!

I wonder if some of that comes from a generation trained on ear-ball frying noise through an Ipod. Some of the speakers and sources listed on some of those "reviews" could be used to cut glass and drill holes in concrete.

I hope I'm not wasting the G901's potential as a hearing-loss generator, because that is not what I will be using it for. If anyone can chime in on how a 901 sounds reproducing music at low to moderate volume, I'd appreciate it.

I pick mine up on Saturday, so say nice things.


Anyway, thanks much.
 
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/jack/

Being of the younger generation I feel I should chime in. I like to listen to things loud sometimes just for the felling of it. I like being able to feel the music. :music:

/end jack/
 
Good points. I do like loud on occasion, but it's not how I would rate the sound of a piece of gear. Anyway, thanks for the replies.
 
The big vintage monsters with the mega-power ratings also happen to be the ones with the highest degree of design sophistication.

'Loud' (or at least the capability to be so) is just a byproduct.
 
EchoWars said:
The big vintage monsters with the mega-power ratings also happen to be the ones with the highest degree of design sophistication.

'Loud' (or at least the capability to be so) is just a byproduct.
Click to expand...

Thanks for posting. What do you think of the innards of a G901? Any unobtanium in case of failure? It's pristine, inside and out. Any issues to be aware of?
Thanks!
 
Does anyone have a picture of this unit? The early Sansui product was like the Rock of Gibraltar, and may contain a portion of unobtainium--especially if the ouchputs are of the TO-3 case style.

The newer stuff is not quite so sturdy, but does the trick.

Loud is not as sought by me as an attribute as perhaps it was when I was younger. I used to run near a thousand watts of power into some 12" 3-way monitors and a couple of very large bass bins.

My ears are my trade, so I have recognised the need to care for them a little better. :o I may some day fire up that mighty stereo, but will probably revel more in the headroom that will always be there than sheer rock shivering loudness.
 
EchoWars said:
The big vintage monsters with the mega-power ratings also happen to be the ones with the highest degree of design sophistication.

'Loud' (or at least the capability to be so) is just a byproduct.
Click to expand...

Couldn't concur more, my experience has been that the more power a receiver/amp has, the better it actually performs at low volume, all other things being equal.
 
Old1625 said:
Does anyone have a picture of this unit? The early Sansui product was like the Rock of Gibraltar, and may contain a portion of unobtainium--especially if the ouchputs are of the TO-3 case style.
Click to expand...

The outputs are indeed TO-3 cases. On Semi produces a substitute that replaces these with no sonic changes. Some of the FM circuit chips may be hard to find but I don't think they fail often if at all. Most of the big G's seem to get scrapped from handling damage rather than parts avaliability.
 
Regarding the assertion about how more powerful receivers tend to sound better because of greater sophistication in design, this holds true to a point. The 100-200 watt "TOTL" receivers like the Sansui G-9000, Pioneer SX-1250, and Kenwood KR-9600 are all top performers, with great-sounding amps and killer 5-gang tuners. However, the crazy brutish watt-war specials, like the Sansui G-33000 and Pioneer SX-1980 were designed with one goal in mind: power. As such, some have said they don't sound that great.

I think this is a good analogy: A 500-horsepower Ferrari will handle beautifully, because it is designed holistically; the power is just a necessary byproduct. A top-fuel dragster won't handle at all, because it is built only to go fast briefly in a straight line.
 
Grasshopper

With the Sansui G901 you have chosen wisely.

Just remember, with great power comes great responsiblity.:yes:
 
Loud and good have nothing to do with one another. They can co-exist, but it is pretty rare that they do.

Never forget, it is always the first watt that is the most important one.
 
So, if loud and good sound have nothing to do with each other, then what do folks mean when they use the term "headroom"? I hear this term used often in descriptions of amplification of one type or another.
 
Yggdrasill said:
So, if loud and good sound have nothing to do with each other, then what do folks mean when they use the term "headroom"? I hear this term used often in descriptions of amplification of one type or another.
Click to expand...

Communist Propaganda!:D
 
My amps range from 200 to 350 wpc. I seldom listen above 80dB in the listening room, usually maybe into the 70s.
 
I'll attempt an oversimplification here as to why more power is desirable. Lets say you have a 10w/ch amp and a 100w/ch amp. Both are driving the same speakers (separately of course) to the same volume with the same source material. Lets say you are running about 5w average (which can be tremendously loud depending on the efficency of the speakers). On a transient you may hit well above that for just a split second. This transient is so fast that even if you had meters on the amp to show output power, it wouldn't read this. Say the transient signal required 15 watts to be reproduced cleanly.The 10w amp, trying to reproduce this transient, hits its 10w/ch peak but can't go any higher. It then "clips" the output waveform at its 10w limit and you hear distortion as this clipping is attempted to be transformed into sound by your speakers. Now the 100w amp on the other hand, has lots of "headroom" still left until it hits its 100w limit. It can reproduce that transient waveform cleanly with no clipping of the signal. That's it in a nutshell. Now this says nothing about quality of sound. I won't even attempt to open the can of worms about how how XYZ amplifier rated at 50w/ch sounds light years better than ABC amplifier rated at 250w/ch. OK, putting my flameproof suit on now.
 
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