Help restoring Sansui AU919

[gurmi100]

:sos:
Hi friends! I have recently purchased a fairly decent Sansui AU919. Though everything seems to work fine but the sound and clarity was not that great. It was running a little hot too. I intend to recap & restore it completely. Kindly suggest someone competent to take up this job in NCR. Any help shall be deeply appreciated. Please help!
Regards,
Gurmeet

 

[krell]

i have done one of my Sansui AU 717 complete restoration in Chennai by power electronics.they done a wonder full job.
one amp in USA and one in Chennai.
both sounds excellent.

 

[Record Player]

All the best with the restoration. Not sure of a place in Noida, however a very well known place in Delhi is Lakozy.

Lakozy Electronics & Services

Cheers...

 

[Audio_Freek]

i have done one of my Sansui AU 717 complete restoration in Chennai by power electronics.they done a wonder full job.
one amp in USA and one in Chennai.
both sounds excellent.

Krell,

Could you share the contact info about Power electonics ,Isn't in Richie Street? or somewhere around?

Also any idea about they charge for Full restoration of AU 919
SOME average amout atleast, Just you could share the amount what you paed-off for your Beauties

 

[denom]

Hi Audio Freek,

Power Electronics is headed by the famed John Thankachan. He is also the man behind the Torvin brand of Speakers & amplifiers. Quite a soft spoken & humble person.


Power Electronics
2, I Floor, Seeyaliamman koil street
Mount Road, Chennai - 600 002
Tamil Nadu, India

Tel: 91-44-28419133
Fax: 91-44-28529914

Email: [email protected]

 

[AVM]

I got my AU317 serviced in Ghaziabad from Mr. Jha, a recommendation from FM Heliumflight.
He should be able to look into it.
Contact info - +919211125895
Regards

 

[gurmi100]

Sorry friends, was caught up somewhere; so could not see replies.
Many many thanks for the valuable inputs!:clapping:

Thanks Krell! I am open to send my AU919 to chennai but would prefer someone closer. In fact based on the recommendation in another thread, I have talked to Mr. Akshya Jha in Mumbai, who is presently pre-occupied with some other work and shall hopefully be free by Mid-April.

Hi Record Player ! Does Lakozy at Lajpat Nagar, ND (who afaik deal in NAD & PSB) take up restoration work too?

Thanks AVM! I will definitely talk to Mr Jha in Ghaziabad as that shall be easier to manage. I just hope he is competent enough and available for the restoration.

I am presently at Allahabad and go back home every 15 days or so. I shall however update about the progress on this front. Thanks all FMs!:clapping:

I had very high hopes from AU919 and in fact bought Grant Fidelity Tube DAC 11 along with a vintage Sony PS-6750 Turntable to go along with AU919 but the sound did not excite me at all! So I just hope the restoration would yield results.

 

[yingzaoqifen]

He is also the man behind the Torvin brand of Speakers & amplifiers. Quite a soft spoken & humble person.

 

[krell]

Please do not expect miracles after the restoration, until unless you changed the large reservoir caps.but generally restoration not involves changing those.i had two AU-717 with complete restoration(one in india and one in usa).i know the sound before and after restoration.
nothing was changed drastic,no magic injected.
just piece of mind that your lovely amp lasts more time.
yes, in some cases you may find the marginal changes.but in my case not magical. all the caps during restoration was replaced with nichicon-elna caps.

 

[kartick]

If it is comfortable for you to carry your set to West Delhi side (near Rajouri Garden area), let me know and I will refer you to a repair guy who has plenty of experience with restoring Sansuis and many other vintage brands. There are certain things you will have to bear in mind while dealing with him though. In case you are interested to go to him, do let me know and we can talk. I'll be happy to help you deal with him in the most economical way.

Disclaimer : No affiliation with this guy at all. I have actually had a tiff with him in the past when he tried to charge me more than required. But I still endorse him because he knows his job well.

 

[SIDEWINDER18X]

:sos:
Hi friends! I have recently purchased a fairly decent Sansui AU919. Though everything seems to work fine but the sound and clarity was not that great. It was running a little hot too. I intend to recap & restore it completely. Kindly suggest someone competent to take up this job in NCR. Any help shall be deeply appreciated. Please help!
Regards,
Gurmeet

I was once a great fan of Sansui vintage amps and speakers . At one point of time I had 16 Amplifiers with me. AU-919 was also not an exception. On what you are saying. I am sure that the quiescent current setting needs a re-calibration. It is drawing more current at no load. Instead of changing each and every capacitor
you should get to the bottom of the actual fault.
Since I was into stereo amplifier manufacturing that time, I used to repair my stuff by myself. At many occasions I had brought amp from scrap and successfully restored them to its original working state.

Vivek

 

[reubensm]

What Krell said is right. Approach the restoration with the mindset that you are going to give your amp an extended life span. Some enthusiasts initiate restorations with the expectation of a drastic increase in performance. This is likely not to happen in most cases, unless your amp is very bad off in its current state. Remember, you may be changing components that are fully functional as well. These components would have significant burn in over the years and would have set in. Replacing them with new components may even cause some minor deteriation in the sq. I once recapped a NAD 3020 for a friend using imported caps from the UK. After completing the recapping, I felt that it did not sound as good as it sounded before the restoration so I advised the owner to allow some time for burn in. I would also like to assume that the quality associated with vintage components is always going to better than the modern ones.

 

[Audio_Freek]

I was once a great fan of Sansui vintage amps and speakers . At one point of time I had 16 Amplifiers with me. :licklips:
Vivek

OMG, 16 Amps thats a Heavy weight collection and I am not sure how you came down the way without them Really .

You wont believe, I feel sick to go out even during weekend for even some functions out of town and one of the reason , I want be apart from my amp and speakers for a while:indifferent14:

For me, You are IRON MAN by heart atleast.

 

[krell]

I was once a great fan of Sansui vintage amps and speakers . At one point of time I had 16 Amplifiers with me. AU-919 was also not an exception. On what you are saying. I am sure that the quiescent current setting needs a re-calibration. It is drawing more current at no load. Instead of changing each and every capacitor
you should get to the bottom of the actual fault.
Since I was into stereo amplifier manufacturing that time, I used to repair my stuff by myself. At many occasions I had brought amp from scrap and successfully restored them to its original working state.

Vivek

16 amps in one time, my wife will give me divorse.how you managed. please share your secret to please the better half with our bad habit of collecting speakers and amps:indifferent14:

 

[deba]

Sansui use to make some of the best Amp in the Industry , Its sad that Nakamichi / Sansui and Akai is no more.......its a cheap Chinese company now.........

 

[Saket]

16 amps in one time, my wife will give me divorse.how you managed. please share your secret to please the better half with our bad habit of collecting speakers and amps:indifferent14:

I bet he is not married as yet.

 

[SIDEWINDER18X]

OMG, 16 Amps thats a Heavy weight collection and I am not sure how you came down the way without them Really .
You wont believe, I feel sick to go out even during weekend for even some functions out of town and one of the reason , I want be apart from my amp and speakers for a while:indifferent14:
For me, You are IRON MAN by heart atleast.

Yeh, I was once deeply devoted into my crave and lust for listing to great sound sources. There was a point of time I use to wake up and go to bed spending tons & tons of time with my music system. It went so far that I even started buying and selling vintage audio gear. It was all when I was at high school & in my collage days and after. But as time passed by I had to choose between my profession and my hobby. I had to sacrifice my hobby and chose my profession which was eventually born out of my hobby itself. But not for my own pleasure but commercially make my living out of it. I traded off each & every piece of my stuff. And today I do not even own a radio where I can listen to some music. No time for all that now. Make my day somehow thru my bluetooth head set and my collection of some downloaded music on my android device on the move.

Some of my Sansui collection amps & speakers were ....
AU5500
AU7700
AU7900
AU 517
AU 717
AU 719
AU 919
AU D11
AU G99X
AU X901
AU 11000A
AU 20000
9090DB RECEIVER AMP
GX 9000 RECEIVER AMP
BA 5000 POWER AMP
CA 3000 PRE AMP

SANSUI SPEAKERS
SP X9
SP Z9
SP 11000

There were many more and even of different brands but these listed ones were with me for years.
Vivek

 

[reubensm]

simply amazing but its unfortunate that you traded all of them away.

Yeh, I was once deeply devoted into my crave and lust for listing to great sound sources. There was a point of time I use to wake up and go to bed spending tons & tons of time with my music system. It went so far that I even started buying and selling vintage audio gear. It was all when I was at high school & in my collage days and after. But as time passed by I had to choose between my profession and my hobby. I had to sacrifice my hobby and chose my profession which was eventually born out of my hobby itself. But not for my own pleasure but commercially make my living out of it. I traded off each & every piece of my stuff. And today I do not even own a radio where I can listen to some music. No time for all that now. Make my day somehow thru my bluetooth head set and my collection of some downloaded music on my android device on the move.

Some of my Sansui collection amps & speakers were ....
AU5500
AU7700
AU7900
AU 517
AU 717
AU 719
AU 919
AU D11
AU G99X
AU X901
AU 11000A
AU 20000
9090DB RECEIVER AMP
GX 9000 RECEIVER AMP
BA 5000 POWER AMP
CA 3000 PRE AMP

SANSUI SPEAKERS
SP X9
SP Z9
SP 11000

There were many more and even of different brands but these listed ones were with me for years.
Vivek

 

[gurmi100]

Thanks for all the inputs, friends!
I could see the replies today only as I was away caught up in my official duties.

I shall describe my setup: I am presently using an Apple TV to stream music from my NAS to nuforce dia which drives my Tekton Design Mini-lore speakers. The performance of this setup is pretty satisfying.

I had expected the sansui to better the performance vastly. Sadly that did not happen. I bought a Grant Fidelity Tube DAC 11 to connect Apple TV to Sansui driving my Mini-lores. The sound was shriller, forward with not much bass and separation.:sad:

Based on the recommendation of a FM, I have given the amp to one Mr. Kalam, a small timer, based in CR Park, Delhi. He says the biasing has to be adjusted and later he told that all electrolytic caps need replacement. He shall be replacing with equivalent Phillips or Keltron caps, as he does not know where to source Nichicon or Panasonic caps which I suggested.

Another strange thing that I noticed when he tested the amp at his workshop (just as it is with no adjustments); it sounded far better with his small bookshelves (onida make) than it did with my M-Lores. It was probably the source (he used an old CD player) or just that my speakers do not match well with the sansui.

Thank you krell and reubensm for advice; now I reckon, if the recapping would make me any happier!

Thank you kartick; wish I had seen the replies earlier!

As for now, I am keeping my fingers crossed. I am presently at Allahabad; shall go back to Noida/ Delhi after 2 weeks time. Lets see what happens!

 

[Shailesh Dhodia]

Hi Gurmi,

if possible please do not go in for Keltron. Those are not audiophile grade caps. Samwha would be better...even better would be Panasonic/Nichicon. If possible please get in touch with Aniket of our forum who is from Delhi. He might be able to help you in procuring good caps.