The Golden era of Japanese integrated amps, are we missing out?

Thanks sonetduo for these more than instructive and captivating remarks..

My own experience is majority of people does not even know how good what they have sound like because of lack of cleaning methods for vibrations, room treatment,and clean electrical grid and also clean source...Without this 4 problems solved, at least partially, I does not like myself what I already have... The reason is simple, what I own sound astoundingly good because it was vintage legendary good product to begin with, but they does not sound good enough to me at first...I make solutions for these 4 problems and after that I was amazed by my gear, and the Sansui in particular( caps all changed to begins with by a good tech)…


Your sound is what you get if the toom is treated, the vibrations under controls, the electrical grid of the house under watch and controlled, and the source clean... Nevermind your gear...

That says a lot about mythic gear and sound...Thanks for the anecdote Jetter...

If you want to say that Sansui power supply are cheap you are wrong.... If you say now that some power supply from other amp are bigger...This is a truism...

Conclusion: you can refrain from generalization or exclude Sansui of yours...

I forget to say that the Sansui AU 7700 I own is rated 55 watts at 8 or 4 ohms....

By the way the reputation of Sansui was linked to his quality transformer... I copy that from internet :

Background of Hashimoto Electric - Who is Hashimoto Electric?   Why?  

Hashimoto Electric Co., Ltd, started its business in 1958 as an OEM transformer manufacturer. From its beginning, Sansui Electric was one of Hashimoto’s main customers.

In 1979, when Sansui decided to focus on assembling finished products rather producing parts, Sansui decided to cut-off its entire transformer business.  It was the shocking news in the entire industry because Sansui’s transformer business was very successful one. Further more, the transformer business was Sansui’s foundation and its roots, and Sansui decided to span off its entire business including patents, blue prints, personnel, sales/marketing/distribution systems, and even the right to use Sansui brand name.

The company who inherited Sansui’s entire transformer business was Hashimoto Electric. Ever since, Hashimoto Electric produced transformers for Sansui with Sansui logo on them. Some transformers used for Sansui’s very high-end models might have come from other manufacturers with limited special contracts; however, the most of Sansui transformers were supplied by Hashimoto Electric.

When Sansui decided to reissue the famed AU-111 in 1999, Hashimoto Electric was one to reproduce the power and output transformers with the exact original specifications. Although current Sansui does not own any production plants or Sansui does not manufacture any hi-fi units, Hashimoto still produces replacement Sansui transformers for the maintenance market.

Around the year 2000, when Sansui decided to retreat from the hi-fi business, Hashimoto decided to manufacture own high end tube transformers with its own brand name. By utilizing Sansui’s years of tube transformer technologies, Hashimoto further improved the technology and came out with various brand new models; 12 power transformers, 7 choke coils, 15 output transformers, and 6 various kinds.

Mr. Ishiguro who used to work for Sansui as a transformer engineer and being transferred to Hashimoto still work for Hashimoto today. About a year ago, Mr. Ishiguro proudly mentioned to me that Hashimoto has inherited a special DNA for Sansui. This DNA was from the original Sansui; not from Sansui whose business philosophy was altered by bean counters, nor from Sansui whose business was taken over by foreign investors.

This DNA was directly created by the Sansui founder, Mr. Kozo Kikuchi. Mr. Kikuchi’s business philosophy was, “Let our products speak for themselves.” Sansui used be a tremendously ideology oriented company, and Mr. Kikuchi chose to loose money before sending unsatisfactory products to the market.  

As if he were working for the old Sansui, Mr. Ishiguro proudly mentioned to me that Hashimoto’s tube transformers are far advanced than those from anybody else. Because Hashimoto’s transformers are designed to work together and compliment each other, the best sound will be achieved by using all Hashimoto transformers on a project. Without a firm brief and confidence, nobody could make such a statement. Further more, I could foresee a common denominator between these two gentlemen – enormous pride and no compromises on their products.

As Sansui used to be, Hashimoto needs good marketing strategies and marketing efforts, especially to market its own branded products. It is common for technology oriented companies to come in short for reaching out to the right customers. Therefore, this is the exact reason why we are introducing Hashimoto Electric to the world via this site, and reaching out to every hi-fi enthusiast who loves the sound of tube amplifiers.

http://www.tube-amps.net/Hashimoto_Background.htm

 

 

If you read this description of the power supply for the Sansui you will correct your generalization:
https://audio-database.com/SANSUI/amp/au-7700-e.html


And the technician that repair mine measure at least 80 watts for this 55 watts amplifier... 

Dont apply to the Sansui power supply... And probably to few others also...Impossible to generalize I think...

On the net, I dont remember where is the video tough, you can listen to a match between the best tube amplifier sansui ever designed( the Au 111) and, after like 20 years of experiment the  best S.S. amplifier Sansui designed especially to be like his tube amplifier with exactly the same sound...After that you will understand why the Sansui sound is detailed and organic, and why the Sansui afficionados are the most fanatic of afficionados… I know I am now one of them... 

I own two Sansuis, the AU 7700 and one Au-X701 of the Alpha series...For a low price these queens of audio give me a natural musical experience that is astounding...To really crush them and upgrade them will cost me tremendous amount of money...The Au -7700 is so flexible with all his possibilities and controls that it is irreplaceable at any price...No modern amplifier can make possible all that is given when you use it, none at all...And the quality of sound is so great that upgrading it does not come to mind...I pity the owner of anything else under few thousand bucks...


But remember after this rant that all my audio and electrical grid is heavily tweaked for cleanliness then I listen to the true potential of these amplifiers...And trust me these Sansui are TOTL even by today standard...