Sansui Auto-Reverse Turntable - Closing the drawer on a HiFi legend

Sansui made some brilliant HiFi components - this wasn't one of them.
Also featuring a final word on the Laser Turntable and the fate of Sansui in the 21st century.

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[lowdefal]

listened to the speed comparison, realised my speaker channels were flipped. The channel that keeps on giving. Thanks Matt.

[TechStuff]

“It’s like a Crosley cosplaying as a Sansui” - best line in the entire video!

[jackmcslay]

Imagine someone trolling techmoan by donating a laser turntable

[youdud]

6:19 "And if I had that kind of money lying around, I could think much better ways to spend it."

Like having a full show with puppets?

[biggiejohn]

Kodak and Polaroid are suffering the same branding abomination

[TheRanblingjohnny]

Depressing example of "They don't make them like this anymore."

[home-space]

The membrane buttons were a pretty good sign that the quality wasn't going to be good. Cutting costs on buttons says it all. Another great video Matt.

[MONGIE]

Sad to see Nakamichi on the list also. They made some of the best cassette decks ever. I own 2 in perfect working order and they sound wonderful, something about the tone they give to recordings that's hard to beat. Sad to see once great companies go down.

[Kosh]

I'm A Sansui collector stereo gear myself(From their tube gear to the even cheap 80's plastic ones), and I was so enjoyed by your review on this turntable.that brand had and have so many fans around the world, you can see it on the Sansui forum at Audiokarma and on the many fan groups that it have on facebook, not any other stereo company had so much fans and lovers.

[reynaldolunajr.]

China, where old brand names go to retire only to find they are being turned back out on the street for the price of a Happy Meal.😅

[inthefireagine]

something I love about Techmoan is he fits the perfect niche that "How It's Made" Fit when I was a child. I didn't think I was gonna learn about old turntables an hour ago, yet here I am. It's perfect wind down content.

[asherael]

laser record players pretty much serve their entire purpose in archives, reading discs that can't be risked putting stylus to medium.

[veemacks]

Techmoan HQ ... the only place where you'll find more record players than actual records :-)

[gijsyo]

The separated channels speed comparison is almost pluffnub worthy

[SpaceWormMark]

Forget about Sansui, why are you bothering with your everyday crap turntable when you could be using a laser turntable. I forget the name of it, I think it's ELP or something like that. I hear the sound quality is absolutely stunning. Also, have you tried replacing the caps on the Sansui? I'm sure replacing the caps would be very helpful. You're welcome for those protips, someone who isn't a channel regular would just leave you in the dark.

[originalmossman]

At last! 33 years I've been waiting for an answer to this question, and here it is...

As a teenager in 1986 a girl took me home and the other thing she impressed me with was her dad's amazing stereo rack featuring a machine that not only inserted the record but could also play it track by track - both sides - like a CD.

It's been bugging me for decades that I didn't know more about it, but seeing this video reminded me it was Sansui and this is definitely the deck in question.

Funny you describing it as a bit cheap and tacky now since I'm sure it was seriously expensive when that girl's dad got it.

[curtisslone]

I remember seeing Sansui equipment at a local hifi shop with my uncle in 1979 or so. I was only 12 but I was amazed at the beautiful build quality of these glorious pieces. A few years later, when I had sufficient funds, I purchased a Sansui system from this retailer. I remember thinking that something was different, the components no longer looked as well built or high quality. I was assured by the salesman that Sansui was still top of the line. Being quite young, 14 or 15, I fell for the pitch and bought the complete system. I remember the turntable and cassette deck requiring frequent trips to the shop for repairs and I quickly became frustrated with Sansui and their shoddy workmanship. This was around 1983 and Sansui was but a shadow of it's former self. Eventually the entire industry would encounter this same fate. Once legendary brands like Pioneer and Marantz would manufacture and sell equipment that would have embarrassed them in their heyday. Things like this are just another reason to miss the 1970's.

[xanth]

Ooow the side by side comparison, that sounded like the band spent a few hours knocking back shots of tequila before playing

[StoneyK]

So there's still the most straightforward option of having a drawer loading turntable: A top loader mounted on a pull-out shelf.

[bpabustan]

I used to have a neighbor who had a full deck stereo component that has everything Sansui (I think they bought it in the early 80s), I was blown away by the sound quality and was amazed that I saw a linear tracking turntable for the first time.