WTH is inside my AU-X111 MOS?

[quadklipsh]

O boy,
Only few of these 111 or 1111 are found online ,
These MOS vintage models have been cursed!
I bought one years ago , still haven't heard it. Needs some final touches .
Meanwhile I collected 4 other Sansui models and have been enjoying em.
Lets see who gets this 111 working first .

 

[Hyperion]

Words fail me too.

 

[quadklipsh]

now that we have hyperion here , i have to start another thread regarding an amp that i checked yesterday , its an AUD907limited ,(919?) to get or not to get ????

 

[fojica]

@Hunleyj - for when you will manage to get that glue or epoxy (or whatever it is) out of the caps and heatsinks area - I have a proposal for you: if you can get some good (high-res) photos of the amp boards (component side and pcb side), I'm offering to recover the power-amp schematic of AU-X111MOS for the AK community. To clarify from the start - this is just about my curiosity, my desire to learn, my time and my way to say "thank you". NO (zero) money involved.
I've asked this before for the exact same model and for some reason my proposal was successfully ignored....so, well, here we are...maybe this time we'll be more lucky
Potentially, this could also help you to throubleshoot the amp later on.

Regards,
Tibi

P.S. whoever did that 'glue' stuff....it's just a non-sense thing to do, this is not how you do anti-vibration treatment, if that was the idea behind.
P.P.S. I'm wondering if the original transformer is still in there.

 

[ignoramustot]

Surely one of the most bizarre "improvements" ever seen in these parts?
I
Just
Don't
Get
It...

 

[JSMATT]

I see the good news just keeps coming from this delivery for you. (Is there a train wreck emoji?)

Am curious to know if any other AKers have seen this type of 'field expedient' rigidity enhancer deployed into their units. That really similarly enhances the units serviceability...

One wonders what events precipitated this add-on, whether a rash of returns or whatever (or a compelling sales pitch from the putty salesman).

There certainly are other Sansui amps, like the B-2301, that have the semi-floppy mounting of certain of its larger caps, which kind of surprised me. But I will take semi floppy over this awful mess of putty any day.

Anxious to see your continued efforts on this documented here, so thanks!

 

[DEFTECHY]

What the heck?? Why would anyone do that? If its for vibration, what exactly is doing something like this supposed to do, how can that improve the sound of an amp? Never seen anything like it, hope you can get most of it off.

Have you considered contacting the seller to ask about it? Maybe they know why or were involved with doing it or can tell you what it is & why its there? Worth a message to the seller. Also regarding the damage, have you filed a shipping damage claim or asked the seller for some type of partial refund?

 

[DB-7]

Well, tried the heat gun idea (figured I’d try that BEFORE acetone ). It did soften up a little bit, was able to get a little deeper. But still a nightmare.

View attachment 2877316

I would start by heating up the tape like stuff and try peeling that off first. There's a good chance some of the hard putty stuff might come with the tape where it didnt bond as good.
Keep us posted
Good luck.

 

[Hunleyj]

@Hunleyj - for when you will manage to get that glue or epoxy (or whatever it is) out of the caps and heatsinks area - I have a proposal for you: if you can get some good (high-res) photos of the amp boards (component side and pcb side), I'm offering to recover the power-amp schematic of AU-X111MOS for the AK community. To clarify from the start - this is just about my curiosity, my desire to learn, my time and my way to say "thank you". NO (zero) money involved.
I've asked this before for the exact same model and for some reason my proposal was successfully ignored....so, well, here we are...maybe this time we'll be more lucky
Potentially, this could also help you to throubleshoot the amp later on.

Regards,
Tibi

P.S. whoever did that 'glue' stuff....it's just a non-sense thing to do, this is not how you do anti-vibration treatment, if that was the idea behind.
P.P.S. I'm wondering if the original transformer is still in there.

This sounds like a good deal for everyone, I’m on board!

 

[Hunleyj]

What the heck?? Why would anyone do that? If its for vibration, what exactly is doing something like this supposed to do, how can that improve the sound of an amp? Never seen anything like it, hope you can get most of it off.

Have you considered contacting the seller to ask about it? Maybe they know why or were involved with doing it or can tell you what it is & why its there? Worth a message to the seller. Also regarding the damage, have you filed a shipping damage claim or asked the seller for some type of partial refund?

Yes, I’m getting a refund for the cost of the amp plus tax, just out about $250 for the shipping. I haven’t asked the seller because it looks like they’re just an intermediary, maybe a pawn shop or estate sale liquidator? They have over 500 items listed as of today, guitars, hifi, power tools, a saxophone, etc.

 

[BLAH BLAH]

In a recent post, I shared how my poorly-packaged X111 arrived damaged. After removing as much of the broken glass shards/dust, I opened it up, only to find another mess. For a split second, I thought the caps exploded, then I realized this scene was created purposefully. Those are strips of semi-flexible metal tape, with a black putty-like substance underneath. I’ll let the pictures do the rest of the talking. Any ideas what is going on here? Some kind of alien-technology inspired heat-sink scheme? View attachment 2877019View attachment 2877020

 

[BLAH BLAH]

Yup. I'm definately never buying anything from Japan...lol
Looks mostly like a vibration/damping effort.
We all thought Sansui glue was a pain to remove. Can't imagine how fun thats going to be to remove. Worse part is, the fancy looking transformer cover looks like it might be missing or might get damaged removing that crap.

 

[Hunleyj]

Update: making slow progress. This is insanity. Acetone didn’t do anything, even when left overnight. Heat gun makes it slightly softer. Not soft enough to help, just soft enough to increase the shatter point (whatever), so I’m sticking with driving small, graduating objects in with a little tap of the hammer, then prying until I see a crack. Then drive a nail into the crack until it lets go (doesn’t always work as you’ll see in the pics). The thicker areas are really resilient, luckily the thinner ones are a bit crispy. I used pliers and my Hakko micro cutter to cut the thin edges along the top. This stuff is tough, whatever it is. Wouldn’t want to run into it in a dark alley.

 

[Hunleyj]

This is what happens when trying to make a crack in the thicker areas . I hope I never see a post on AK by someone who claims to have invented a way to minimize resonance with f*cking epoxy, black putty, and metal tape! “I will find you.”

 

[Hunleyj]

Lesson learned

 

[Sansuiman]

Oof. Looks like a real beeyotch getting that stuff off. That black rubbery looking stuff visible in the one picture of the transformer appears near identical to the stuff I found in the Denon CD player I mentioned upthread. Nasty stuff, but not as bad as the epoxy. I take it as of now the plan is to restore it to it's proper glory? With the time you are investing getting it cleaned up, that seems the trajectory being pursued. I can respect that.

One other minor detail to note, this one had the "old logo" on the front panel, these appear to be less common than units with the new logo adopted in June of 1987. Which makes it a bit rarer yet.

 

[Hunleyj]

Oof. Looks like a real beeyotch getting that stuff off. That black rubbery looking stuff visible in the one picture of fhe transformer appears near identical to the stuff I found in the Denon CD player I mentioned upthread. Nasty stuff, but not as bad as the epoxy. I take it as of now the plan is to restore it to it's oroper glory? With the time you are investing getting it cleaned up, that seems the trajectory being pursued. I can respect that.

One other minor detail to note, this one had the "old logo" on the front panel, these appear to be less common than units with the new logo adopted in June of 1987. Which makes it a bit rarer yet.

You know, I haven’t decided if I’m going to try to save it. I have to remove this crap to part out also (unless I want to foregoing the transformer). I still need to research options for the front glass replacement. Oh, any ideas how I could get a high-quality image of what the glass should look like? Would I need to bribe someone to remove theirs?

 

[Sansuiman]

If you can get someone to provide precise measurements of the location of the logo, text, and holes to be made, the image could be done up Photoshop or the like, proofs printed to check sizing and alignment, then hi-res (1200DPI) laser printed artwork done to have a screen made for the logo and legends. You may not find the dead on exact typeface used for the legends, but can get close enough to be almost indistiguishable as it is a fairly basic sans serif typeface. Kerning and character height to width ratio may need adjustment to look right.

You'd actually need two screens, one for the tan color layer with logo and text. Then one for the black layer with the rectangular "cutouts" that allow the backlighting for the source indicators to show through. Not an impossible task, but the level of precision needed is very high to insure good registration. If you don't have the wherewithall to do the artwork yourself, could probably pay a good sign or print shop to do the art layout and then send that to the screen printer.

The glass (or alternatively, acrylic) piece would have to be fabricated by another outfit unless you can find a one stop shop to do it. I suspect that would be a tough criteria to fill though.

Attached is a clean copy of the logo found online. The upper (negative) image would be the one to use. The lower would need to be edited out for use in the art layout.

 

[Hunleyj]

If you can get someone to provide precise measurements of the location of the logo, text, and holes to be made, the image could be done up Photoshop or the like, proofs printed to check sizing and alignment, then hi-res (1200DPI) laser printed artwork done to have a screen made for the logo and legends. You may not find the dead on exact typeface used for the legends, but can get close enough to be almost indistiguishable as it is a fairly basic sans serif typeface. Kerning and character height to width ratio may need adjustment to look right.

You'd actually need two screens, one for the tan color layer with logo and text. Then one for the black layer with the rectangular "cutouts" that allow the backlighting for the source indicators to show through. Not an impossible task, but the level of precision needed is very high to insure good registration. If you don't have the wherewithall to do the artwork yourself, could probably pay a good sign or print shop to do the art layout and then send that to the screen printer.

The glass (or alternatively, acrylic) piece would have to be fabricated by another outfit unless you can find a one stop shop to do it. I suspect that would be a tough criteria to fill though.

Attached is a clean copy of the logo found online. The upper (negative) image would be the one to use. The lower would need to be edited out for use in the art layout.

View attachment 2878269

Sounds like a lot! Thanks for the info. I’ll do some research once I get this cleaned up.

 

[Hunleyj]

Update: pulled underside panel off to clean out all the fallen crap, and guess what? More epoxy junk. I can’t imagine what the they were solving for here. Also, I’m not sure what it’s supposed to look like in here (are those caps off to either side part of the design?), but here it is.