I've been buying large advents lately and found a way to drive em all, the qrx 5500,my first quad. The thought of double stacking 4 pair of the advents is exciting.:banana: I may never leave the house. I've only opened up a couple of the older receivers but to date this is easily the filthiest one. I believe it had some kind of rodent hair inside.
I have a few questions about it and any help would be appreciated.
First are the rear channels suppose to be equal in signal strength as the fronts? When I have the main balance to the fronts I get a much better overall sound especially the low end. This happens with FM tuner,aux1,and aux2. I've got the 4 tone controls on left side of unit turned up all of the way. Also, even after cleaning the tone controls are somewhat hard to turn and the inner and outer knobs do not turn independently of each other, which I would imagine is not correct.
Also, what is the switch inside receiver marked FM de-emphasis? It is now set to 50 and I am dying to change it to 75 just to see what happens.

In my opinion you need to clean and lube the tone control pots with deoxit. Also blow out the unit with compressed air if you have any around.

Also just keep the FM de-emphasis to 75us if you are in the USA - 50us is for Europe.

Sansui Quad rules!

I did spray with deoxit but from reading some of the posts it may take a few more times. After spraying I worked the bass back and forth while holding the treble as I mentioned before if I turn the bass the treble moves too. I hope they are not rusted up to much. I live in the good ole USA and just switched it to 75 as you mentioned. Thanks for the help
Oh, I have a few non working light bulbs and wondered if I can use the good ones from my sansui 7070 that is sitting idle? Are they interchangable?
Ken

The lightbulbs would only be interchangable if they are the same or very similar in ratings. My recommendation would be to contact AK member dgwojo - he will be able to hook you up. I get all my bulbs from him, and its an easy thing to replace if you have a soldering iron.

I would work the controls a bit more and apply a touch more deoxit - like folks on here have said, it may take a few applications.

Have you visually inspected the inside at all? I would be looking for resistors that look out of the ordinary (dark or burnt) and if you have a multimeter or ohmmeter it would be good to see if they are out of tolerance. I guess it would be a good idea to blow out the unit with compressed air or use a paintbrush or something to clean out that dirt.

Just be careful around the variable resistors. They look like circles with a place to put a phillips head screwdriver to turn. You do not want the paintbrush to accidentally bump one of these if you are cleaning.

I used to sell the Sansui before and after Quad. And IIRC (I'm getting where I don't remember all these things) the rear channels were lower power in smaller receivers, the same in the most expensive receivers.

Also, depending on what setting you use for the decoder the rear speakers receive a more limited frequency response. Sansui thought that most rear speakers would be small compared to the front.

That said, get Hendrix and play WPDQ (I think that is the cut name) it will swim around you. OOOoooooo the old days!

If, after pulling the two knobs off those stacked pots, you can not easily turn the center shaft while holding the outer shaft, the shafts are either succumbed to dirt and oils or corrosion.

Here's what I would do and have done many times -- but I'm not suggesting that you do this unless you are prepared to assume the risk :scratch2:

Using a screwdriver, pick-up (or spray) enough Liquid Wrench (used to free rusty/stuck nuts) to create one small drop on the shaft of the screw driver and then place that one drop on the junction of the inner and outer shafts of the pot. Do not spray these cleaners directly on the controls.

Work the pot's inner shaft back and forth a few dozen times while holding the outer shaft stationary.

This will usually free and clean those shafts. Wipe off any residual cleaner with a rag.

Finish by applying a drop of a good electronic cleaner that also has a lubricant. Repeat the back-and-forth action.

Paul

Actually, each "double" pot kinda wants to be that way, I think, since the inner & outer shafts control the left & right channels, and you normally want to change both at the same rate & amount. Keep in mind, that the reason you have 2 front & 2 rear pots, is because there's a seperate dual pot for the A speakers, and another for the B speakers. So the right-hand pots should only adjust the B speakers, once you hook them up, and the left-hand pots are your A speakers. I had to pull the circuit boards on mine, to really get good access for cleaning, and most of the crud was on the shafts, where they pass through the chassis & faceplate. By pulling them, I could hold the boards in the right position, so that when I sprayed the pots, the cleaner could run out along the shafts, & clean out that inner surface better, then they got much easier to turn. :yes: The 3 balance pots & volume pot are the same way, on another circuit board, & that board definitely needs to come out to clean the pots. Cleaning those right is how I finally figured out that one of my balance pots is bad, which kinda sucks, but now I know for sure where my efforts need to go. Refurbing a quad definitely takes some patience, lol, and that's before even trying to recap it. :D

Thanks to all for the great info, I will take your suggestions and give it a go. I do need to get a manual for this and maybe it will explain some of the controls on it. I am not sure what all that "phase matrix" etc jargon is. Ok, I need to ask Grainger more about what wpdq song might be. Is that the initials to a song or the actual song title? I googled Hendrix lyrics and no luck. In the meantime I am trying to find the ELP song that had a very cool synthesizer part at the end of it that spun around in quad. I remember going to an ELP concert at the international amphitheatre in Chicago back in 70s when they performed the show in quad.

Thanks to all for the great info, I will take your suggestions and give it a go. I do need to get a manual for this and maybe it will explain some of the controls on it. I am not sure what all that "phase matrix" etc jargon is. Ok, I need to ask Grainger more about what wpdq song might be. Is that the initials to a song or the actual song title? I googled Hendrix lyrics and no luck. In the meantime I am trying to find the ELP song that had a very cool synthesizer part at the end of it that spun around in quad. I remember going to an ELP concert at the international amphitheatre in Chicago back in 70s when they performed the show in quad.

My friend, I was at that very same concert at the Ampitheater, and this concert as you say, was in Quad Sound, with something like 2 million bucks worth of monster JBL Monitors (Sectional Horns and Bass Cabs) stacked to the ceilings in all four corners of the joint! When I came home, to listen to my own gear, (of course with some ELP to compare) my system, consisting of JBL, and McIntosh sounding like a little transistor radio!

The concert was when they came out with the LP "Brain Salad Surgery", and I believe the song you are referring to, is Karn Evil 9, as Keith closed that song (3rd impression) with an onslaught of Synthesizer the world had never heard before.

I can remember that gifted SOB playing 3 keyboards at once, a huge board in front of him with Cables in, and out, switches, plugs, and large oscilloscope, going like crazy, starting off slowly, then building higher, and higher, faster, and faster till some bombs blew off at the very end.

It wasn't the song "Lucky Man, which ends at the end of thier studio version with some cool synth, as the live version was an acoustical version at the concert.

Reason why?, Greg Lake couldn't be playing both Acoustical, and Bass guitar at the same time as in the Studio version of Lucky Man.

If you want to hear a very similar rendition of that concert, then buy 'Welcome Back my Friends, to the Show That Never Ends. a two LP Album. (Or the CD)
AquaTarkus is killer on this LP!

As for your Tone Controls, and De-Ox-It, do make sure you're spraying into the rear of the pot in its little access hole on the Pot Housing. It is also permissible to remove the Knobs off the Pots, and spray the Shafts with de-ox-it as well, then rotate to free. This won't hurt them.

As for Lamps, as far as Fuse Type lamps, yes, the Lamps in either of your Sansui Units will be the same.
Generally were 7v 300ma, but the 6V, or 8v 250ma from Parts Express will work, or as another poster recommended, contact our A-Karma Forumite for the proper Lamps. The Fuse Lamps don't need soldering, but indicator lamps, or FM Stereo Lamp typically will.
Mark

As far as I know, I am not aware of any true 4-channel ELP records (either in SQ, or CD4) or Reel Tapes ever being done, but I could be wrong about this?

All I've even seen were 2 channel Stereo of any LP ELP ever did.

There might've been some 8-tracks?

The guy who would definitely know, would be "Quad Bob" over on the Quadraphonic Quad Forum. He owns literally every Quad LP, and Tape known to man!

I'm an old "Quad" guy myself, and still own two Sansui's, a QRX-7001, and QRX-7500, two 4-track Teac's the 3340S, and A2340R, and 4 JBL L-65 Jubals. Even still got a Denon Table, ready to roll with two AT Quad Shibata Cartridges! (Of course I never dumped any of my Quad LP's or Reel Tapes either) Mark

Thanks Mark, you probably saw me there I was the guy wearing the elephant bells.:rockon:Don't forget the ultimate blow your speaker ELP version of Toccata. I just spent the last hour watching youtube videos of the trio and thought I would pass this one of the flying piano to all. I don't imagine he eats a big dinner before taking the stage. Enjoy


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSm5IQFaTZA

I dunno if ELP ever released any true quad material, but they definitely SHOULD have, those guys were awesome. :yes: zeprock, in case you're not aware yet, most CDs sound very good in QS-Synth mode, so finding true quad recordings isn't "as" important as you might think. ;)

I did a google search for ELP quad and someone posted that Brain salad surgery was recorded in both Stereo and quad. Right now i am listening to Brazilian jazz on WNUA. It's amazing how someone who grew up listening to Sabbath and Zeppelin can mellow with a good quality receiver and open up new music options. I just printed out the manual for this 5500 and it is almost 40 pages long. Lots of good info. I think 2morrow I will spray it down again with deoxit, I started to hear some distortion in the rear speakers but went away when switched to mono. Now it's ok. thanks again

I did a google search for ELP quad and someone posted that Brain salad surgery was recorded in both Stereo and quad. Right now i am listening to Brazilian jazz on WNUA. It's amazing how someone who grew up listening to Sabbath and Zeppelin can mellow with a good quality receiver and open up new music options. I just printed out the manual for this 5500 and it is almost 40 pages long. Lots of good info. I think 2morrow I will spray it down again with deoxit, I started to hear some distortion in the rear speakers but went away when switched to mono. Now it's ok. thanks again

Interesting about the quad brain salad surgery. Wonder if it was LP, 8-track, R2R?

As for repairs, I understand Quad Bob is also the guy to give the task to, as he seems to lean towards the Sansui stuff himself, doing mods on the decoders for better sound, and on some, even retrofits them with pre-out/mains in jacks, so that one could use a pair of more powerful outboard amps if one desired.

This was an option-feature Sansui should've implemented, but didn't.

Of course, the Sansui bad boy, was the QRX-9001, and always wished I could've gotten my hands on a mint example that was gone through by Bob. Mark

Thanks to all for the great info, I will take your suggestions and give it a go. I do need to get a manual for this and maybe it will explain some of the controls on it. . . . .

IIRC there is a manual data base somewhere on the site. It might help . . . . might not.

Of course, the Sansui bad boy, was the QRX-9001, and always wished I could've gotten my hands on a mint example that was gone through by Bob. Mark

Yep, that would be the quad Holy Grail, or the next one down, the QRX-8001 would be quite acceptable. :yes: I kinda like the looks of the x500 series better though, they look more vintagey. It'd be nice to get the functionality & specs of a 9001 into the shell of the x500, but it wouldn't be very practical as an experiment, lol, might get pretty spendy. ;)

. . . I kinda like the looks of the x500 series better though, they look more vintagey. . . .

Since you can't hear my tone here, I want to say I am dead serious.

I like the lights and display on the X500 series. It is just right to me.

Hummmmmm...... looking at the ad below maybe it was X400 series that had the joystick control and a 4 channel kind of display. Of course, the meters too!

Hi zeprok123
I just found an add for the Qrx 5500 and thought you might like It.
http://www.vintagetechnology.com/ad_scans/receiv_sansui_qrx-5500_1974.jpg

Later Rick

Cool ad, thanx for posting it. :smoke: I guess flying ears hatching out of eggs really did fit into the "psychedelic" scenario, somehow, lol. :D

I did a google search for ELP quad and someone posted that Brain salad surgery was recorded in both Stereo and quad. ELP Brain Salad Surgery was released as a multi-channel (5.1) DVD-A.

thanks Johnny fever for the ad, I don't have much artwork in my house that may be a start.
Ken

I have a QRX-9001 but I'm having left channel troubles on it.

Sorry I can't help you Zadok but maybe if you start new thread with your question I am sure someone can help. Even with your troubles I would still love to own one. Everytime I come across something new, receivers or speakers I find out about a better model like the "sui 001" series and I start searching for that. Just got the Eric Clapton dvd Crossroads 2007 of which I was in front row and it sounds amazing in quad.
Ken