Sansui and American G.I.s

bobforapples

Angular banjos sound good
Could someone please fill me in?

I've talked to a few guys who mentioned they bought their Sansui gear while they were stationed overseas.

How did that work? Did you pay with US dollars? Were they cheaper over there? Did they have special shops for G.I.s?

Pardon my ignorance, I'm young.
 
Yes, gear in the late 60's/early 70's was cheaper from a military PX or BX than in a stateside audio shop. A buddy in Saigon sent me a Sansui 2000 for about $100. less than I could find it here. Shipping stuff from there was minimal, too, or if you were coming home, they would send it free.

Enjoy the music,
-Mark
 
There are a few threads here about how Japanese gear was much cheaper for military personell if you bought it overseas at the Post or Base Exchange.For example,my Yamaha M-60 was $270,my C-60 was about $300 or less,and Kef 104/2s were $800.Thats why you see so many ex military folks with great systems.If you lived in the dorm,its about all you had to spend your money on(well,that and $8 cases of Heineken).
Jimmy
 
I was stationed in Germany as a Department of the Army Civilian (DAC) from 1978 until 1985. During that time, I had PX privileges all across Europe. Some PX's were better than others for audio gear in terms of selection, but the prices were mostly the same - about 50% of full stateside retail. They would also sometimes have model closeouts and special sales that would make things cheaper yet. As long as the amount of stuff you accumulated was less than your shipping allowance for the total weight of your household goods, it shipped for free to the location of your next assignment. This applied to electronics, but to also furniture, oriental rugs, firearms, ski equipment, hummel figures, wall clocks - whatever you wanted as long as the generous housing allowance wasn't exceeded.
 
Bought my Sansui AU-D11II Integrated Amp at the Frankfurt, Germany PX in 1983. Best $300 I ever spent. In fact I'm listening to it as I type this. If I remember correctly (I was drunk or worse for most of my enlistment) stuff was so much cheaper because there were no taxes of any kind added because we were stationed overseas. I don't believe these deals were available when you were stationed stateside. I never heard of any such bargains, or of such nice equipment being available when I was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado prior to shipping to Deutschland. Everybody in my unit said to hold off on buying gear until I did m overseas tour. Apparently there was a similar deal in Korea. The guys who had already been overseas had such killer gear I knew it would be worth the wait:music::yes:
 
Being in Germany in '81-"82 they had a program that gave $1000 worth of credit as soon as you got there to use in the audio photo store on base.Some guys bought camera equipment but most bought stereo equipment.The only piece I have left is a Sansui sc5300 tape deck that I paid $300 for.
 
Navy

The Navy Exchange system always had great prices on gear, and frequently had sales.
We would buy stuff, and take it back aboard ship {USS Coral Sea} and off load at home.
Seems like the gear often had a sticker "EP" on it, nobody can tell us why.
Casey
 
Bought my Sansui QRX-7500 in Subic Bay PX for 380 dollars in 74 It was 800 in the states.It's still going strong.
 
When I was stationed at Kadena AFB Okinawa Japan in around 1978 I pick up my stereo at the BX
Sansui AU919 ,,500 dollars state side 800 or more i heard
Akai GX635D RTR 500 dollars
Teac CX650R cassette deck ,,350 dollars
Yammi T2 Tuner couple hundred I think, bought it a day before Ileft for home
A white marble base kenwood TT , think it was kenwood ?
and some speakers bought from someone in the barricks
Still got it all but some pieces needed work, the AU919 blew its outputs which led me here, the teac needed belts and the speakers got trashed before I knew about refoaming which I cant remember make or model on them

englissa
 
I think my best buy in service was my Sansui AU-111. Paid ( IIRC ) $138 for it at the BX in Saigon in 1968 or 1969.
 
For the 'Far East', Yokosuka Japan was a major player in the selling of stereo equipment during the Vietman era. And yes...it was really cheap and postage back to the states was cheap too, as mentioned. Yokosuka had it all.
 
I used to work on that gear that our hard-working GIs brought back via the military's PX/BX/whatever. Some of the gear was, indeed, well taken care of while others were flat out parties to death.

The problems arose in a couple of ways:

- No warranty. Even if it was still in a sealed box, these pieces did not get their warranties honored by the US distributor, who was usually a subsidiary of the parent company. That is, I could repair it but submitting the warranty claims to the US distributor were rejected. This made a lot of guys mad - mostly the ones who had abused their gear, though. In deference to those hard-working guys who worked with me, however, I did make every effort to get their gear serviced with little cost.

- Some parts were not available. Some of the receivers, amps and speakers purchased overseas were not models offered in the US at all. That is, not all models were imported into the US so the support parts were also not brought in. Then, when one of them showed up at my shop, I couldn't get parts. This was a bigger problem with cosmetic parts like knobs, cases, etc, and not transistors and electronic devices.

Some folks also had speed problems with the 50/60hz conversions with TTs and tape decks, too.

Cheers,

David
 
MCAS Iwakuni had a killer sound-shop. I wish I could remember the name of the young Japanese dude who worked there who sold me the Yamaha C-70, M-2 and CDX-1.

The local Japanese stereo shop was a fantasy land of Japan-only gear. If I had a time machine..........
 
I was at Camp Casey, Korea in 1967 & 68. Bought a Sansui receiver, an Akai reel to reel, Pioneer turntable and Pioneer speakers at the Base PX. I wanted better stuff, but as an E-4 & E-5, couldn't afford it. I still have the Pioineer speakers.
 
While in Vietnam in '69 I bought a Sansui 2000X receiver and SP-1500speakers plus a Teac A-1500W R to R through the Tokyo exchange,sight unseen via catalog. Paid with US dollars via money order. Very cheap.
 
Also...I'd be willing to bet that the Military Exchanges, during the Vietnam era/period, got 'very sweet deals on prices' from Sansui because the 'Military Exchanges' were Sansui's main buyers, buying the big volumn of stereos from Sansui. As soon as Vietnam ended, Sansui's profitability really took a dive, or, at least, it really started to hurt them bad, very reduced sales to the Military, the war was over, and so were sales. That's why Sansui had to start 'laying off people, closing factories', etc, restructuring the company for sales loss. That was Sansui's first layoff so to speak. Also, other Japanese stereo companies, like Sony - Akai - Hitachi, etc, were producing very good stereos, right at that time period, cheaper, so guys bought those stereos. Then the dollar got devalued, causing the yen to really increase, and Sansui gear became very expensive for Americans to purchase. Sansui's main plan was always to sell to the military, they did not have a very good domestic Japanese sales plan, so I've heard, and it really hurt them 'really bad'. Seems they just didn't see it coming.

And...there is more to the story and keeps getting worse from there.
 
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I was at Camp Casey, Korea in 1967 & 68. Bought a Sansui receiver, an Akai reel to reel, Pioneer turntable and Pioneer speakers at the Base PX. I wanted better stuff, but as an E-4 & E-5, couldn't afford it. I still have the Pioineer speakers.

Both my tours to the ROK were spent at Camp Casey, the 2nd one being 20 years after you were there, '87-'88. I did not get any Sansui gear on those trips, mainly DBX and Nakamichi at a substantial discount from the States.

I can tell you that not much had changed downrange in TDC, as most of the clubs looked like nothing had been updated since you left. BTW, they had changed the name from Tongduchon to Dongducheon since both you and I were there.

Regards,
TB
 
Wow, you guys sure have good memories. I was stationed in Friedberg 80-82, (big blur) and all I can remember is some excellent Sansui and Pioneer equipment bought really cheap and then when I got stateside I traded it all for an Olds Cutlass. Worst trade I ever made...:screwy:
 


Both my tours to the ROK were spent at Camp Casey, the 2nd one being 20 years after you were there, '87-'88. I did not get any Sansui gear on those trips, mainly DBX and Nakamichi at a substantial discount from the States.

I can tell you that not much had changed downrange in TDC, as most of the clubs looked like nothing had been updated since you left. BTW, they had changed the name from Tongduchon to Dongducheon since both you and I were there.

Regards,
TB

A few things I remember about my tour there...
1. The smell as soon as I got off the plane at Kimpo.
2. The relaxed military attitude compared to stateside.
3. What went on in the village
4. About 70% of the G.I.'s in my Company bought stereo gear over there. We had some loud parties in those Quanset Huts.
 
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