hello,
today, i was to meet someone for a pair of jbl century.
we met in the rain and i quickly put them in my car and paid the man.
as i was about to leave, i saw a few dark metal box with knobs through the guy's car window. i asked and he says they are sansui AU and TU 9500. eventually, i paid him $250 for the both. both in great condition with even the plastic protection film still on the edges of the face plate.

couple things i wanted to ask you sansui experts:

1. did i do ok with $250?

2. he says he bought these from the early 70's in germany. were all AU, TU-9500 units made in japan or some in US or Europe? if they were, any difference?

3. i've used CA and BA-2000 for about a year and weren't too impressed with them. how is the AU-9500 compared to them?

i'm still at work, so i will post some pics. later. thanks.

That is a good deal for the AU-9500 alone, if it is in tip top condition. I would say hold on to that unit at all costs, selling the TU-9500 if you have a better tuner already.

Nah, you shouldn't keep em. You should box em up and send them to me :banana:

Nice score!

1. did i do ok with $250?

You did excellent.

2. he says he bought these from the early 70's in germany. were all AU, TU-9500 units made in japan or some in US or Europe? if they were, any difference?

I think they were all made in Japan, but I recall some manufacturers doing final assembly in places like Canada (sanyo did this).

I'd say all parts were manufactured in Japan, and most likely assembled there, but if not, there'd be nominal difference.

People get more concerned when it comes to items being built in Malaysia and China, where they once were Japanese built.

3. i've used CA and BA-2000 for about a year and weren't too impressed with them. how is the AU-9500 compared to them?

Dunno, but that AU-9500 should perform very, very well. It's a well-liked amp.

I would invest in a thorough going-over for the AU-9500 by a competent technician. Make sure bias and offset are properly adjusted and any marginal caps replaced, if necessary. The investment will be more than worth your while, as this is a highly regarded vintage Sansui.

Think the tuna is pretty darn nice too! Let us know how they sound.

Gogofast, $250 for both the AU & TU 9500 is a fantastic purchase. I've owned both since 1974. I'd advise you to keep them. The amp is the last model built by Sansui under the watchful eye of its founder, so its overengineered with a warm, tube-like sound. I love the way the knobs click when you turn them - quality construction. And even though the amp is rated at 85 watts per channel, it pushes considerably more without effort. The tuner is a 5-gang high performing unit. Even though I have other, more powerful units, the AU/TU 9500 will be the one combo I'll always keep. Congratulations and enjoy your new equipment.

last night, i applied deoxit to most pots except for the bass-mid-high knobs due to them being under a circuit board. checked the large caps. this morning i listened to them for about an hour.

they sure did sound very much tube-like.
right channel gave lots of static and low/fading output. when i turned the high freq. knob and the high freq. range knob to the max and wiggled it, the right channel came alive. after i turn it off and back on, same thing happens. i guess removing the circuit boaord or bottom of chassis is a must in order to reach those pots. other than that, it sounded fantastic. even though i was very used to the smooth tube sound, it took me a while to adjust my ears and apply critical listening knowing that it was a solid state amp. i guess this is why so many people mistake this unit for a tube integrated. the tuner even added more of that tube-like sound.

the service manual has a section on how to allign these units. i guess it only require a multimeter and adjusting of a few knobs. has anyone done this yourself?

Yes, I have experience recapping/aligning an AU-9500... if it werent for the solder bridge I made on the right channel driver I might still have the AU-9500, but thats a story for another time (Thank you Merrylander!). You will need a multimeter, a small flat head screwdriver (plastic would be great) and the service manual. I can reply with the procedure when you are ready.

Yes, I have experience recapping/aligning an AU-9500... if it werent for the solder bridge I made on the right channel driver I might still have the AU-9500, but thats a story for another time (Thank you Merrylander!). You will need a multimeter, a small flat head screwdriver (plastic would be great) and the service manual. I can reply with the procedure when you are ready.
thank you for your help.
i already have the service manual. i was wondering if it was hard or fairly easy to align. what caps do you recommend replacing?

here's a quick pic.

It is actually very simply to align. I would also recommend you have one pair of alligator clips to use with your meter.

As for what capacitors to replace, its debatable. Some people will say all of them - based on the fact that they are 30+ years old and past their life expectancy. Therefore 'ticking timebombs' that might blow up and damage other non-replaceable parts inside. Others say to replace the ones in the signal path. I have also read that the small ones are the ones that "dry up" first and should be replaced first.

Some people replace all the caps except the big power filter caps, and just reinforce them with smaller caps. Personally, I replace every cap. There is a lot of info about recapping on this board. The most important thing to pay attention to is the polarity of the capacitors. The AU-9500 is one of the easiest units I have recapped. If it werent for the unintentional solder bridge I made being careless, it would have been fine. Unfortunately it is being repaired because my mistake blew an output transistor among other parts. I would also stress taking your time and using the capacitor orientation and value that you take out of the working unit as your guide as opposed to the service manual, as Sansui service manuals are known for having mistakes.

Here is an excellent resource for restoring AU-9500 units. You should be able to figure out whats going on from the pictures, but you can use a translator website too.

http://amp8.com/sansui/9500/9500.htm

If you are uncomfortable with recapping the unit, then by all means, don't do it. I would hate to have you make the same mistake I did with my AU-9500. That said, if I had taken my time and checked my work it wouldn't have happened. I have successfully recapped far more units than I have made a goof on. (Of the 9 components I have recapped thus far I made mistakes twice. Luckily they were not fatal errors and are currently in the shop being repaired by a fellow AK member). I started recapping this August, using AK and the remnants of my high school electronics courses as my guide.