That. Sansui 800

birchoak

Hi-Fi Nut
I had heard bits and pieces about this smallish receiver and finally bought one some years ago. Today I dusted it off and hooked it up to some bi-wired Paradigm towers in my basement as I was conducting some listening tests (very scientific, I assure you) of different amps and receivers. A Yamaha A-760 integrated amp sounded very good, with lots of good bass; a Denon receiver someone gave me (missing volume knob) surprised me, sounding as good as the A-760 (but without the cryptic switches and silver-faced Yamaha mystique), and a recently purchased Harman Kardon A300 tube amp presented itself beautifully, perhaps the most balanced of the bunch. Then, because I was thinking of selling it, I hooked up the 800.

Wow. Same speakers, same listening space/position, same day, same sun position (ok I'm being silly now) and better bass than all of the above units. The best way I can describe the Sansui's sound is that I heard more information at the lower frequencies; its lower end simply had more authority than the other amplifiers. Madonna's Hung Up is a workout for any amplifier, as is Fat Boy Slim's That Old Pair of Jeans, but the 800 delivered the goods, up to a point. It did run out of steam much sooner than the others, more likely due to its age and questionable state of the filter capacitors than its lower power rating, methinks.

So, I am not selling it and just ordered a bunch of capacitors. It is such a sleeper! Everyone wants the Eight or the 9090DB or one of the G-Series monsters, and that's just great for people like me. Bring me the underdog; I'll feed him! I'm guessing the 800 flies under the radar because it doesn't look particularly threatening and appears to be a low powered budget model. But it ain't! Holy cow does it put out sound! A wall of sound! You look inside it and think to yourself, what is in here that is making all that sound?

Chime in with your Sansui 800 impressions! Am I mental? Deluded? Probably, but I think I'm right about the 800.
 
Owned it. Loved it. Sold it for some goddam silly reason.

Bought it again, this time in mint condition and in a lovely wood case.

I've bought and sold several dozen receivers (mostly 15-30 wpc) over the past 5 years, and the Sansui 800 is right at or very near the top of my list. Take a look at Pat Font's thread on the Sansui 505. The late, great Jim of QRX Restore told me that the 800 is pretty much a 505 with a tuner!

Only one thing I don't like about the 800, and that is the lovely green tuning dial only glows when listening to the radio, which I pretty much never do. I want to see that beautiful dial ALWAYS. I'm pretty sure my tech can rewire it accordingly. I'll do that someday.
 
I've only heard good things and seems they can still be had cheap.
I do think any of the single digit receivers are amazing, 800 I need to try.
DL
 
Owned it. Loved it. Sold it for some goddam silly reason.

Bought it again, this time in mint condition and in a lovely wood case.

I've bought and sold several dozen receivers (mostly 15-30 wpc) over the past 5 years, and the Sansui 800 is right at or very near the top of my list. Take a look at Pat Font's thread on the Sansui 505. The late, great Jim of QRX Restore told me that the 800 is pretty much a 505 with a tuner!

Only one thing I don't like about the 800, and that is the lovely green tuning dial only glows when listening to the radio, which I pretty much never do. I want to see that beautiful dial ALWAYS. I'm pretty sure my tech can rewire it accordingly. I'll do that someday.
I agree on the dial not lighting up--there's got to be a fairly easy way to supply power to it so it's on all the time.
 
If I remember corectly, it uses type #47 bulbs for tuner display, you will wish to convert to LED if you find a way to keep them lighted all the time.

This tuner amplifier have really good bass indeed, with great sensitivity speakers, I used it in the past with Wharfedale 12" bass drivers , 8" mids and dome tweeter and was sounding excellent, hard to beat.

Not so excellent with the cheapest smallish Radio Shack speakers I had at a moment, too low sensitivity for his 22 watts.

The only pain for me with this 800 , is the bias adjustment is not very easy to understand with manual and schematic when you are not very acquainted with electronics, that's one of the the resaons why I screwed it up when I was younger.

Still have it but not in working condition for years, I still keep it hoping someday I will repair or have it repaired and restored.
 
I have an 800. That lil receiver can kick some butt. Sounds way more powerful than 22 wpc. Made at a time when discreet circuitry was used. Great amp sections in those older Sansui's.
 
Brought one home with me 69 or 70,,, its my war bride!!! Its also my connection to AK, as I found this site searching for help/info on recapping it... Its a fine little (20W or so) 60's SS amp... used it for 40 years before I rebuilt it,,FM, R2R, CDP, TT, headphones... This amp is exactly as described above!!! Punches way above its weight... I don't run it much now, as I got into tubes, but its not going any where!!!! Sansui 350 is its little bro, IIRC...

Pic of it after recap 5 years ago...
 

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Lot's of Sansui equipment was bought overseas during the Viet Nam era. Bought by soldiers and taken back to the states. Sounds like that's what you did. If so, thanks for your service!
 
These posts about Sansui prompted me to put my 4000 back into service in a spare bedroom. Paired with some vintage KLH 23's it sounds really nice. Both pieces built circa 1970. Pulled my Mac 1700...I think the 4000 sounds a tad better.
 
Ed Lethbridge loaned me a Sansui 800 while my Tandberg 2075 was in the shop so I wouldn't be deprived of that warm vintage sound. Man, did he see me coming. There was no way the 800 was leaving my house. It ably powered my Duntech Opals, and more importantly has converted to Sansui. I gave the Tandberg to my wife and moved the 800 to the living room, paired with lovely a/d/s CM6 monitors, also on "loan." (I'm an easy mark.) My Duntechs are now powered by a Sansui QRX-6500 quadamp in the man corner of the basement. Ugly imho but nice sound and great bass.

Thanks for the great thread! Always honoured to be in such knowledgeable company.
 
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Have tons of monster receivers... this little guy has been fully recapped along new small transistors. Cap coupled greatness.

People who have one know the secret and universally agree to how well it sounds.
 
You guys are killing me here. About 15 years ago I had an 800, the amp worked great but the tuner was trashed by some idiots prior repair attmepts. Being fully caught up in collecting the big dogs at the time, and deciding the needed tuner repairs were not worth the investment, I parted the thing after using it as a workshop amp with a CD player for a spell.

Can't deny that the amp stage sounded great, but without the tuner, and the cosmetic issues it had, just considered it a write off. Thinking about it now, I really feel stupid for having done that. It did save a few other units with pots, switches, and other miscellanea I snagged from it, so not a complete waste, but still...

Still have a 2000X, and a 5000, A and X from that era and love them all, but part of me would really like to have that 800 in the collection. I do still have a 350A and it is a remarkable little unit. It has fooled more than a few people into thinking it was a much bigger and capable model. There's no denying that Sansui gave us a lot of bang for the buck with these more modest models, even when the heavy hitters were getting all the attention. Funny how some of us are just recently [re]discovering the magic in these junior members of the Sansui lineup.
 
You guys are killing me here. About 15 years ago I had an 800, the amp worked great but the tuner was trashed by some idiots prior repair attmepts. Being fully caught up in collecting the big dogs at the time, and deciding the needed tuner repairs were not worth the investment, I parted the thing after using it as a workshop amp with a CD player for a spell.

Can't deny that the amp stage sounded great, but without the tuner, and the cosmetic issues it had, just considered it a write off. Thinking about it now, I really feel stupid for having done that. It did save a few other units with pots, switches, and other miscellanea I snagged from it, so not a complete waste, but still...

Still have a 2000X, and a 5000, A and X from that era and love them all, but part of me would really like to have that 800 in the collection. I do still have a 350A and it is a remarkable little unit. It has fooled more than a few people into thinking it was a much bigger and capable model. There's no denying that Sansui gave us a lot of bang for the buck with these more modest models, even when the heavy hitters were getting all the attention. Funny how some of us are just recently [re]discovering the magic in these junior members of the Sansui lineup.
You can still find them, and due to the perceived low power, they don't seem to sell for a lot, at least not compared to their more powerful brethren. There are several receivers from that era that sound huge: Sherwood S7100A (much easier to work on--cleaner layout, easier to take apart), JVC 5010 (one of the best receivers I have ever heard, period, but looks very bland, JVC 5521 (ditto).
 
^^^ I've almost picked up an 800 a couple of times in the last year and a half. Just never pulled the trigger yet as I have a surplus of gear already, and no place to setup another receiver at this point without putting it on a rotation, which I already do with other gear. As much as I like the 800, just can't justify adding it. I should've kept and fixed the one I had but then probably would've sold it anyway.

I will say I really like the look of the 800 panel design, especially the engraved logo and model text on the lower right face. Simple, yet really sharp. The green dial scale and unusual vernier pointer are also a nice touch.
 
In a Navy PX brochure circa 1973, the 800 was listed as costing $129. That's the equivalent of $733 in today's money. It was an expensive piece.

- Pete
 
Yes, I had one a few years ago. Antique store find. I really liked it, but I had enough stuff already, and it wasn’t about to replace my keeper gear so it went. I actually loved how the dial lit up only when in tuner mode.

I also had a couple of 2000s and I foolishly sold my 2000x. I had promised someone I would find him a preamp, and after 6 months I still hadn’t found anything suitable. The best match was the 2000x preamp stage.

My 800 was bought by a young lady who brought her male friend with her, and drove about two hours each way check it out. She knew what she wanted.

If I remember, it was quite heavy for the power output. Nice receiver, you aren’t crazy after all! Well...maybe you are but no worse than the rest of us. :)
 
Ed Lethbridge loaned me a Sansui 800 while my Tandberg 2075 was in the shop so I wouldn't be deprived of that warm vintage sound. Man, did he see me coming. There was no way the 800 was leaving my house. It ably powered my Duntech Opals, and more importantly has converted to Sansui. I gave the Tandberg to my wife and moved the 800 to the living room, paired with lovely a/d/s CM6 monitors, also on "loan." (I'm an easy mark.) My Duntechs are now powered by a Sansui QRX-6500 quadamp in the man corner of the basement. Ugly imho but nice sound and great bass.

Thanks for the great thread! Always honoured to be in such knowledgeable company.
Yes, it's ugly. No way around it. And that's probably helped keep it a secret.
 
The QRX-6500 is an odd looking receiver. I'd not necessarily say ugly, but definitely unconventional. That skinny little dial scale atop that DEEP expanse of aluminum with all the controls, and the use of slide pots - versus rotary - which was well ahead of the curve at the time of production in a consumer amp. That it looks weird doesn't take away form the fact that it is seriously built. The 800 on the other hand is a sharp looking little unit, even if it screams late 60's in its aesthetics. I like it.
 
I had heard bits and pieces about this smallish receiver and finally bought one some years ago. Today I dusted it off and hooked it up to some bi-wired Paradigm towers in my basement as I was conducting some listening tests (very scientific, I assure you) of different amps and receivers. A Yamaha A-760 integrated amp sounded very good, with lots of good bass; a Denon receiver someone gave me (missing volume knob) surprised me, sounding as good as the A-760 (but without the cryptic switches and silver-faced Yamaha mystique), and a recently purchased Harman Kardon A300 tube amp presented itself beautifully, perhaps the most balanced of the bunch. Then, because I was thinking of selling it, I hooked up the 800.

Wow. Same speakers, same listening space/position, same day, same sun position (ok I'm being silly now) and better bass than all of the above units. The best way I can describe the Sansui's sound is that I heard more information at the lower frequencies; its lower end simply had more authority than the other amplifiers. Madonna's Hung Up is a workout for any amplifier, as is Fat Boy Slim's That Old Pair of Jeans, but the 800 delivered the goods, up to a point. It did run out of steam much sooner than the others, more likely due to its age and questionable state of the filter capacitors than its lower power rating, methinks.

So, I am not selling it and just ordered a bunch of capacitors. It is such a sleeper! Everyone wants the Eight or the 9090DB or one of the G-Series monsters, and that's just great for people like me. Bring me the underdog; I'll feed him! I'm guessing the 800 flies under the radar because it doesn't look particularly threatening and appears to be a low powered budget model. But it ain't! Holy cow does it put out sound! A wall of sound! You look inside it and think to yourself, what is in here that is making all that sound?

Chime in with your Sansui 800 impressions! Am I mental? Deluded? Probably, but I think I'm right about the 800.
So I have to chime in with my jaw dropping opinion of the Sansui 800. I bought one yesterday 10/18/23. I had been looking for something that was similar vintage as my 2 Dual turntables a 1219 and a 1229 and I stumbled across the 800 and I can’t believe the sound that comes out of this little gem. This paired with the Dual 1219 and an ADC QLM cartridge is a match made in heaven. My only problem with the design it that the phono and aux are at the far right and left on the dial respectably, so to get to aux from phono you have to go through FM and AM. Just wish they were next to each other. And the lights out on phono and aux is a great feature in my opinion, and the mod to bypass this seems silly to me. Less power consumption and less heat from those big ol bulbs. This will be my daily driver for the foreseeable future. I’m glad that the watt monster audiophiles have disregarded the 800 as too small. Makes more of them available at a much lower price point. The kid that sold me this one will live to regret letting it go.
 
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