My son's old Sansui equipment and new RF-35s

[Tom In Montana]

My wife and I "inherited" a stereo system from our son to set up in our

long living/dining room in a new townhome (vaulted ceilings) we bought

for retirement. No speakers came with the components so I researched,

read and listed and really like the RF-35 floor speakers from

Klipsch. This week has been hectic but I am expecting the

speakers any day from our local Vanns store and after reading this and

other forums for a while I'm wondering if I'm going to be trying to

push good speakers with poor equipment. So, I am turning to all

of you for help. (I have communicated with a few Forum members

through email but don't want to waste anybody's time trying to

educate me one-on-one. I admit I am confused and not very

knowledgeable.)

My Sansui components (early '80's vintage I believe) are:

Sansui:

Quartz PLL Synthesizer Tuner Classique T-901

Integrated Stereo Amp Classique A-701 (separate box)

Stereo Cassette deck D-59M

P-D11 Tuntable

no CD player

I want a CD player and I want the RF-35s to get all the help they need

to "perform" and do their best. A "friend" said something like

"be careful, don't expect too much...garbage in-garbage out."

So, will I be OK with the 80's Sansui components or should I be looking

at something entirely different? I am so glad I was referred to

this forum as I have seen and read alot of great info from good people.

Thank you in advance for your help. [] Tom

[Speedball]

Hi Tom

You can't go wrong with a free gear to run with the new speakers. Try the Sansui with the Klipsch and see what you think, they could turn out to work very well together. If for some reason the sound is not exactly what you like then keep the speakers and come back here and feel free to ask for more input.

Many years ago I used to have an old monster Kenwood receiver and a Marantz which has gone by the wayside, wish I still had them.

Let us know how it works out....that's what keeps this Forum rolling along.

[Tom In Montana]

Thanks for the input. Are you familiar with these components at all? I

guess one of my concerns is whether they were ever considered "any

good" to begin with.

[Speedball]

I've never owned Sansui but I have seen many while working in peoples homes through the years. You never know until you try to pair them together....could be a spectacular sound.

[joshnich]

Hello Tom,

Welcome to the forum! I am sure that someone here who knows about Sansui equipment will chime in soon. But you also might want to check out the Exclusively Sansui topic on audiokarma.org You will find lots of folks who are very knowledgeable on Sansui equipment.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=39

josh

[lwhaples]

Tom, Welcome to the Forum! I will try to call later. Hope you find the info you are looking for.

Larry

[Tom In Montana]

Thanks Josh.......just signed up.

Are 45 to 50 WPC enough to energize the RF-35s? That may be where

I am with these components based on something I read over there.

Larry; thank you. I look forward to it when you have a chance.

This is a hectic week since my wife's surgery Monday and I may be able

to bring her home tonight or tomorrow. But if I'm not here just

leave a msg and I'll call back.

Tom

[tigerwoodKhorns]

"Are 45 to 50 WPC enough to energize the RF-35s? "

Oh boy, that's a loaded question!!

How is it measured? My Harman Kardon Dual power receiver is rated at about that and has much more power than a Denon reciever that I have that is rated at 100 wpc.

I also have a QSC amp that is rated at 130 wpc at 8 ohms from 20 to 20K that is way more powerful than most amps that are rated significantly higher. It all really depends on the equipment.

Sansui is well known for their vintage tuners. Soem are great (TU 717, 719, 919) and others are junk.

Here is the big question - was the equipment higher end when it was new or lower end? If it wa shigh end long ago, it still may be excellant equipment (Like McIntosh, Dynaco, etc.)

Chris

[nicholtl]

Tom, as luck would have it, my father bought, and still owns, that EXACT same Sansui component stack from back in the 80's!! It wasn't "ultra" high-end, but it certainly wasn't for cheapskakes either. Every time I go home to Hawaii to visit my folks, I listen to the system and enjoy it thoroughly.

It's just unfortunate that on top of it sits a Bose Lifestyle system... But that's a can of worms I'll leave sealed.

I've never tried the Sansui components with Klipsch speakers, but with the RF-35's (you were considering those, right?) sensitivity, I highly doubt there will be any problem with the Sansui amplifier section driving them. As far as I can tell, the components produce a rich, sweet, and fairly warm sound. I think they would mate quite well with the Reference series.

[PrestonTom]

Tom,

Congratualtions!

No need to upgrade the equipment right away. Listen and enjoy.

However, I would encourage you to get a CD player. There is so much available on this format.

No need to spend a lot of money on a CD player. For less than $200, I would recommend a Dennon or Harman Kardon, or even a SONY (however not their bottom line models). You can spend more money , but the benefits will become elusive (the technolgy has gotten quite good, so newer is frequently better)

Once you have some well-recorded CDs, I would encourage you to spend some time on tweaking the placement of the speakers and listening chair. This can make a profound difference, more so than swapping amps etc.

Enjoy,

-Tom

[Tom In Montana]

Hi everyone. Thanks for the helpful suggestions. I did buy a

Yamaha CDC-685 CD changer and picked up my RF-35s an hour ago.

Now I'm beginning to panic because I have no manuals to follow and the

Amp has a lot of cryptic legends on the back plus something

regarding the speaker hookups ; ie:

"caution speaker impedance 8 ~ 16 ohms". And I sure don't want to

fry these new speakers. Is this a normal caution? Can I hurt

anything? Any suggestions? I am going over to the Sansui forum to

see if they can help too. I appreciate all of you and would

welcome any suggestions. Thanks again.

[Bill H.]

Tom,

that is just the standard verbage......you will be fine. Just make sure you hook up black to black,

and red to red. Your Sansui will amaze you.........

I ran a 70 Sansui with my Klipsch and it sounded wonderful! Post Pictures when you can.

Welcome to the madness!

[Tom In Montana]

Thanks very much. I am a bit nervous. I went over to the Sansui forum

and asked for referrals to a manual source where I might buy

needed documents. If anyone can help me in this regard as well I would

be grateful.

Thanks, Tom

[SCOOTERDOG]

I ran my La Scala's through most of the 80's driven by a boat anchor of an amp by sansui.

I had know problems, it was actualy pretty warm sounding, I loved it.

scooter

[garymd]

Welcome.

Use the 8 ohm speaker connections if they are marked separately on the amp (they should be). Using the others won't hurt anything in case you're worried. The positive to the positive (red to red) and the negative to the black on the amp's 8 ohm connections. For the CD player, there should be an "Aux" input. Use that for the CD player (right to right, left to left or red to red, black to black) although the "Tuner" connection should work fine also. There's virtually no way to hurt your speakers.

Good luck!

[Jimmy James]

Older Sansui stuff is some of the best to ever come out of Japan, or

any where else for that matter. One of the biggest sleepers ever

is the 2000 series. I prefer the 2000X. So over built for

it's RMS it's ridiculous, heavy as hell. The sound is beautiful,

very Mac like and the tuner section kicks ***. You can also pull

the hooks on most real Sansui receivers and use them either as an amp

or just the pre-amp section. And the best part is that they came

with adjustable bias and DC off-set! Half the guys in the world

running vintage sand amps don't even know what they really could sound

like, or how good, there's so much DC at the taps and the output pairs

are so out of sync!

[Tom In Montana]

Hey everyone; it's a good day up here, a little snow, 14 degrees, low

wind, and my system with the new RF-35s is beginning to warm my

heart. []

Got everything hooked up this morning and the Tuner/Receiver and Amp

boxes seem to be performing well. :music: The Tape Player however

has a loud cycling hum or noise that sounds like the tape drive is

engaged but neither post is rotating. So I powered it down. The Amp has

inputs for both a Tape 1 and a Tape 2. I do not see an AUX port(s). So

I ran the two leads from the new Yamaha CDC-685 into tape 2. R channel

works but L channel very faint unless I depressed the selector switch

and held it in. Then both sides seemed equal. Since the Tape Player

needs some attention(I can't stand there with my finger on the switch

and tend to chores... [] ) I ran the CDC into Tape 1 and it performs beautifully. Any thoughts would be appreciated...

So, I do have sound and this Amp must be strong because even though I

knew the Klipsch RF-35s were very efficient this Amp is coasting at the

low, low, low end. The plate on the rear of the Receiver/Tuner

says 10 Watts. The Amp says Voltage 110, Power 205 Watts. Is that about

standard? Sounds like alot to me. (since my wife

is home now recovering from serious back surgery I played about 3

minutes of Mannheim Steamroller just for a test and then put on some

"feel good" music for her.) I can't wait to really test it out on Jazz,

Classical, etc.

Thanks for your help everyone. And I would appreciate input re:

the tape player and Tape 2 selector switch if you have ideas.

[Tom In Montana]

Older Sansui stuff is some of the best to ever come out of Japan, or

any where else for that matter. One of the biggest sleepers ever

is the 2000 series. I prefer the 2000X. So over built for

it's RMS it's ridiculous, heavy as hell. The sound is beautiful,

very Mac like and the tuner section kicks ***. You can also pull

the hooks on most real Sansui receivers and use them either as an amp

or just the pre-amp section. And the best part is that they came

with adjustable bias and DC off-set! Half the guys in the world

running vintage sand amps don't even know what they really could sound

like, or how good, there's so much DC at the taps and the output pairs

are so out of sync!

Thanks for the response and input James. I'm beginning to warm up

these components already. Would you mind translating your last sentence

for me? I am a newbie and don't speak the language too well yet. [:$]

Does my Amp at 205 watts mean anything to you? And regarding your

statement about "You can also pull

the hooks on most real Sansui receivers and use them either as an amp

or just the pre-amp section." Is this why the Receiver box says 10

watts on it? Meaning it could push small speakers by itself?

Thats interesting.

[Tom In Montana]

Tom, as luck would have it, my father bought,

and still owns, that EXACT same Sansui component stack from back in the

80's!! It wasn't "ultra" high-end, but it certainly wasn't for

cheapskakes either. Every time I go home to Hawaii to visit my folks, I

listen to the system and enjoy it thoroughly.

It's just unfortunate that on top of it sits a Bose Lifestyle system...

But that's a can of worms I'll leave sealed.

I've never tried the Sansui components with Klipsch speakers, but with

the RF-35's (you were considering those, right?) sensitivity, I highly

doubt there will be any problem with the Sansui amplifier section

driving them. As far as I can tell, the components produce a rich,

sweet, and fairly warm sound. I think they would mate quite well with

the Reference series.

Thanks Nicholti; WOW! a personal testimony that I really enjoyed

receiving. Nice to know someone else has the same system and that it

performs well. If you read my post above you'll see the RF-35s seem to

beg for more and I'm on the lowest possible setting because JoAnn, my

wife, is resting and now isn't the time to experiment. I think I

am going to be very pleased............at least for awhile.[]

I am learning more every day and hope I can find a source for the

owners manuals and schematics. If I can't find them soon do you

suppose your dad could have them copied for me? I would gladly

reimburse you/him for all expenses and for the help. There

is so much about these components that I need to learn and understand.

It sure would be helpful.

[lwhaples]

Tom, Good to hear from you. Glad to hear your system is on it's way and that your wife is home recovering.

Larry