The Sansui 9090 Receiver or: How an avid vintage Marantz collector learned to love the bomb.
The ideal vintage audiophile scene is set; vinyl playing on a 70’s Thorens turntable, warm, deep, tube-like, velvety music floating through a dimly lit room. Soft bluish green lights glimmering from a hulking wood encased 70’s receiver. Yet, something is unsettlingly different; the music sounds deeper, richer, velvetier, it’s more tube like than normal. The music is playing at a lower volume, but you can feel the bass snap and thump in your gut, the mids are accentuated, but not distracting, the highs are crisp, not shrill – the music is just more lively – it’s not by any standard neutral, but it’s damn glorious.
Intrigued, you listen to music longer than expected, you hear and experience new things, you can’t believe the details you’re hearing when you play Paul Simon’s Graceland album, so you play it all over again. And again. But wait a moment, it’s not a vintage Marantz? What?
You’ve pledged an allegiance to the vintage Marantz brand – proselytize to friends, family, to anyone would listen… that the Marantz 22XX series was the standard that all others are measured against – and yet here you are, questioning your world, doubting your convictions.
What could possibly lead you astray?
The answer; a 1976, vintage Sansui 9090.
In the vintage 70’s receiver market, Sansui’s do not attract anywhere near the broad following that Marantz models have attained, however the Sansui’s often, dollar for Watt, command higher market prices with collectors. Why? we wanted to find out.
And so, began a journey that would drive a vintage Marantz lover, with a deep history of more than 15 Marantz 22XX series receivers collected, tested and loved, to challenge their devotion. While we were skeptical, we remained determined to explore and objectively give it a listen. This is a log of that journey – and we hope you find it helpful.
The journey of finding a Sansui 9090 began with the frustration of realizing that I may never find one at all. The term “rare as hens’ teeth” comes to mind, yet, we think even more rare. Finding our pristine Marantz 2285B has taken well over eight months – how long could it possibly take to find a Sansui 9090? We live in one of the top-ten most populated cities in North America – this should be quick and easy.
Wrong.
Compounding our challenge, we have one unwavering motto in vintage gear collecting that made our already difficult journey lengthier and excruciating than expected. That one unwavering motto that we live by; never buy gear that needs to be shipped. Never.
Having not sourced a single 9090 after several months of searching, (including within 3-hour drive), we lowered our target model acceptability threshold to a Sansui 8080 receiver, the 80 Watt per channel little brother of the 9090. Luckily, we came across a local one within a month’s search – a short 30-minute drive from our home. The Sansui 8080 receiver had been placed in a storage carton in the owner’s basement since 1990. Now, downsizing their home, they were emptying the basement. Some minor haggling (we play fair), and the deal was closed. While driving back home with the Sansui 8080 tucked into the back of our car, we were convinced that we would clean it up, test it, and play it for a few hours… and confirm, once and for all, our Marantz gear was better and just get all this ridiculous nonsense behind us.
And so, sometimes life doesn’t go to plan.
The first stop for any vintage gear coming into my home is the work bench – pop the top see what we have and hope for the best, in lucky circumstances it’s relatively clean inside and needs minor tweaking to get it up and running.
Before opening the cover, we like to do visual appraisal. The first visual impact of the 8080, is that it’s huge. Hulking, heavy, 44lbs and an eccentric kind of brutish mid-century industrial design — there is no delicate finesse here that you see in the later G model receivers. Sitting next to our Marantz 2275 receiver, our first impression from a design perspective is that Marantz Management teams obviously had made better hiring decisions for their industrial designers. While the original Marantz 22xx series is heavier, a bit brutish yet the epitome of classic mid 70’s HiFi design compared to the Marantz 22xxB models, which are a little more elegant and lighter in style, the Sansui seems a little clumsy from an industrial design perspective. Comparing the two facades side by side reinforces the difference. First, the Marantz 2275, while virtually covered in buttons and knobs from east to west – they are at least, standardized – all buttons same size, including the balance slider control handle, all knobs the same size and design format. This helps reduce the visual noise. Yes crowded — but at least balanced.
Now the Sansui is a carnival of different size and shape of knobs, mixed in with switches – thankfully the push buttons are all the same size and format. The initial reaction to the poor industrial design, strengthens our resolve that anything that looks so awkward, could not sound nearly as good as ANY of my Marantz models.
Next, the Sansui 8080 “wood” case is actually a press wood case coated with some plastics and a layer of cheap quality wood vinyl veneer. Additionally, most of the lights don’t work, while the unit overall is very clean and virtually scratch free – it just looks old and tired.
Time to look inside.
First impression, it’s more spacious inside than most Tokyo apartments. Build quality, and materials (lots of metal housings), outclass the same watt/year Marantz models. A larger physical footprint gives designers more room to place internal components, less crowding should in theory, reduce unintended cross noise between internal components. Additional benefit — removing the housings for replacing tuner and signal lights is a breeze, the operation literally takes a couple of minutes, and doesn’t involve the frustration /challenges experienced when handling this same task on high Watt Marantz 22XX models (original, or 22XXB).
It required very little care a bit of cleaning with compressed air, this unit had very little dust inside, and then some Deoxit spray into the controls. Plugged it into my work bench speakers – worked like a charm. Time to bring it to the main stage with my full HiFi setup.
From work bench, to the main stage
Our two favourite Marantz models, normally holding main position in our listening room, the Marantz 2285B and the Marantz 2275 — sidenote, while we liked the much sought after Marantz 2270, it really can’t hold a candle to the 2275. We decided to place the Sansui 8080 next to the Marantz 2285B so we could do some head to head testing and comparisons. Input equipment included a vintage 1976 Yamaha YP 701 turntable as well as a Thorens TD 160B MK II with SME 3009 tonearm. Speakers are vintage, 1979, Mordaunt Short Signifer and the DAC /Streamer is BlueSound Node 2i. With the gear connected to the Sansui, we pulled out some records and expected a short test and then we would put things back to normal.
Things didn’t go back to normal.
The experience with the Sansui 8080 prompted us to question our unwavering belief that Marantz models reigned supreme in vintage gear — it also sparked a rapid series of acquisitions of different Sansui models to experience more of this unique Sansui sound.
The Sansui models we purchased in subsequent weeks/months in addition to the Sansui 8080:
- Sansui 7070 — Pretty damn good, if you can’t find an 8080, buy it.
- Sansui 6060 — We were curious. but, not worth the effort. Small fish, sounds good, but not remarkable, threw it back into the market.
- Sansui 8080DB — while we enjoyed it, loved the two turntable inputs, which the original 8080 doesn’t have. Could not discern an audible difference compared to the non-Dolby Sansui 8080. The faceplate condition was a bit rough, so we let it go after couple of weeks.
- Sansui G5000 — thoughtful and funky industrial design, sculpted volume and tuner knobs (the subsequent generation G receivers eliminated this costly touch, likely for cost savings), but sonics were a bit too bright sounding, we let it go.
- Sansui AU 9500 — Really enjoyed this amplifier, solid, clean sound — but lacked the gut impacting bass and color of the 8080. Did remind us of the Pioneer SA 9500 we had owned and loved.
- And Finally, fast forward a few months. We traded our much beloved Marantz 2285B for mint condition Sansui 9090.
Why we love the bomb.
Sansui 9090 — the good (great), the bad (can be overcome) and the ugly (but yet, adorable).
We challenged ourselves to summarize our experience with the Sansui in three key areas — so we chose; the good, the bad and the ugly. We also decided to include comparisons of these three key areas with our favourite vintage Marantz models mentioned above — the 2285B and the 2275. Why these models you may ask? They may not stack up Watt for Watt against the Sansui, yet we prefer the 2285B and 2275 to higher Watt Marantz models we’ve owned and listened to — including the 2330B — which was good, not nearly as good as the 2285B or 2275. Between the 2285B and 2275, we prefer the warmer deeper more musical sound of the 2275 over the brighter 2285B, but each have their charm.
For a deep dive into our assessment of the vintage Marantz 22XX series versus the Marantz 22XXB series see this story.
From good, to great.
The Sansui 9090 is better than good — it’s actually great. If you’re a vintage HiFi lover, find one and buy one. Wait, if you’re an audiophile, high end HiFi lover, find one, buy one. The sound is so unique and so engaging it’s worth the investment. This receiver has a magical deep, velvety and rich sound quality that we have not been able to find in any of the vintage gear we’ve purchased — including other Sansui models, with the sole exception of the Sansui 8080, which comes very very close.
It’s not for everyone, it certainly is not for those searching for transparency, or “authentic reproduction”, but we’re still not sure what that exactly means — or how anyone objectively validates it. Please stay away from this receiver if you shun or mock tone controls and loudness switches - it will not please those who prefer their music neutral. But for those who want their music played to be lively, vibrant and engaging — regardless of volume level — this beast is for you. It juices and textures the music. It makes you want to hear more and more. And that’s more than fine for us.
Now, comparing and ranking it against a Marantz 2275 is difficult, while comparing and ranking it against the 2285B is easy. We’ll start with the easy; hands down it’s better than the Marantz 2285B. We’ll give the nod to the 2285B in terms of “clarity” — but it’s inferior everywhere else — and music is about everything altogether — not just one thing. We did side by side same listening room testing between the two receivers with the same speakers and input devices. While we always loved the Marantz 2285B — in a direct comparison it’s a wallflower compared to the Sansui, the 2285B just sounds dull. With the Sansui, the bottom end snap and thud and the rich textured bass and mids just come alive. Also, the soundstage of the Sansui is spectacular —the music, even at low volumes, sounds richer and grander.
The Marantz 2275 gives the Sansui a good run for the money — it competes at all levels sonically — from soundstage, to warmth and texture. Without a head to head test against the Sansui 9090, the Marantz 2275 would be our main stage vintage stereo – it’s better than any other vintage Marantz we’ve owned (close second was the Marantz 2235B). However when we play Paul Simon’s Graceland album on our vintage Thorens TD 125 MKii — particularly “Crazy Love” on the Marantz 2275, and then on the Sansui 9090 — you just can’t “unhear” the differences you heard. Where the Sansui 9090 completely beats the Marantz 2275 is in the snap and thump of the bass you feel in your gut, and how it mixes that bass with the mids and high just so…. and it just makes you smile.
The bad. Boom boom, out go the lights
We’ve now been living with the Sansui 9090 for about a year as our main player and there are a few things that we consider as the bad — and how to overcome them.
First the boominess — this beast has powerful bass, with some music it can become overwhelming and too boomy — with virtually any and all music played at louder volume, (anything past “10 o’clock”) it becomes very boomy unless you adjust tone controls and turn off the loudness switch. Thankfully, the 9090 has turnover frequency controls for Bass and Treble — adjust the turnover to your preference, experiment with the loudness button and you’ll find your sweet spot. If you’re looking for a vintage stereo that is “set it and forget it” for all your music — the Sansui 9090 is not for you. If you like adjusting tone controls to get that perfect blend of bass, mids and treble — it’s sonic nirvana. With that being said, we primarily listen to jazz music, and we rarely need to adjust tone controls from one artist to the next – when you vary music types, you’ll be knob fiddling.
Our next bad, rather we’ll list it as a minor annoyance, there is only a single phono connection for turntables — how is this possible? The next generation Sansui 8080DB and 9090DB support two phonos. We would have loved to have two phono inputs. (Yes we have too many turntables)
With the boom boom — out go the lights. The common weakness with the 8080 and 9090 series is the soldering of the tuner dial lights, and in many cases the signal strength and tune meter lights. Many vintage Sansui 9090 buyers think a quick change of lights will fix the problem — but in the vast majority of cases the wiring needs to be resolder to the tuner light boards. That is not a major issue — but still best left in the hands of someone who knows how to solder properly — not us.
The Left and Right VU Meters each have two bulbs that provide that nice even bottom lit soft warm yellowish glow. We have rarely seen a 7070, 8080 or 9090 with all of those bulbs working. Our 9090 was freshly serviced when we swapped our Marantz 2285B for it — and the VU meter lights worked perfectly — for about two months, then one failed. We’re living with it having experienced what it takes to repair.
Replacing the VU meter lights is a major service hassle akin to brain surgery — maybe more complicated. Prior to purchasing our 9090, we had brought our Sansui 8080 to our favourite vintage technician to replace the dead bulbs in the Left VU Meter. Accessing the VU meters from inside the stereo requires removing several boards. The technician found a helpful YouTube video that showed how to do it form a faceplate approach. It required removing the full front faceplate and glass and takes a few hours of delicate surgery to get the job done. A job not for the faint at heart, or the inexperienced. One note is the placement and strength of the bulbs should be identical to original spec. We noticed that after our Sansui 8080 was returned that the VU Meter lighting as a bit brighter — still the warm yellow glow — however you could now see shadows of the meter needles, which you do not see with original spec bulbs.
If the bad is simply minor annoyances that can be fixed — then the bad is not so… bad.
The ugly. Beauty and the beast.
The moral of the 18th century French fable, La Belle et la Bête, (Beauty and the Beast), is that we should value inward characteristic versus superficial qualities, including good looks. That’s a great analogy for the Sansui 9090. It’s defining beauty, without question, comes from within. We love vintage HiFi design. Therefore we love the Sansui 9090 — even if the design is clumsy— maybe that’s what makes it so mid-century quaint. As per my mention Sansui 8080 earlier, the 9090 has an even grander carnival of buttons, switches and knobs. The Marantz 2275 has a more balanced design, we believe the 2275 sets the standard for early to mid-seventies HiFi design.
The Marantz 2285B, while a superior balanced industrial design, it sacrifices the mid-century aesthetic and charm, and is an early signal of the upcoming industrial design style of the 1980’s. What’s interesting is both the 2285B and 2275 look spectacular in the original WC-22 walnut cabinets as well. The 2275 looks majestic and at home, while the juxtaposition of the more modern design 2285B with the mid-century wood cabinet is beautiful. The 2285B was launched when Marantz was just introducing the next generation, more modern and streamlined optional walnut cabinet/ wood case, the WC-122. If you’re interested in the WC-22 we have a story you may appreciate.
There are many positive and redeeming qualities of the Sansui 9090 industrial design:
- The real wood top/side cover is beautiful. Only the 9090 and 9090DB came standard with a wood top covers – Lower Watt models has cheap thin Wood pattern vinyl. Unlike the Marantz WC-22, Walnut Cabinet, or Wood Case which was optional, and bulky in comparison — the Sansui top cover/wood case is very proportionately designed to the receiver. One functionality design of wood cover we feel compromises the design; on each side of the cabinet, there are “arches” to allow you to fit your fingers under the cover to remove it, this diminishes the aesthetics from a side view.
- The top inset metal grill vents sits generally flush to the wood, within a reasonable variance, and provides a nice “mid century modern” juxtaposition to the wood cabinet. More so than the Marantz WC-22 metal grill, which has a 60’s style about it.
- The original incandescent lighting of the Tuner face, Tuner Signal & Tune Meters, and VU meters are complementary, even if different coloured, and not overwhelming. However, if they are upgraded to LED, the tuner dial display becomes blue and not as complementary. Stick to original incandescent if you care about design/style.
- We much prefer the power pushbutton on the 9090 versus the 9090DB. The 9090 power button is round and metal and matches all of the other push buttons across the face dial. The 9090DB introduced a rectangular plastic button which is a bizarre addition adding to an even clumsier assembly of shapes — as the 9090DB adds Dolby buttons and switches and additional push buttons across the tuner dial face. Another note comparing faceplate and switches of the 9090 to the 9090DB; the 9090 has Loudness and Mono as switches versus push buttons on the 9090DB – the layout is more natural and the addition of the Dolby knobs/dials and extra push buttons on the faceplate look like, an afterthought, compromising an already challenging design aesthetic.
- It floats! For such a heavy physical design, the Sansui 9090 does have a floating feeling about it. The receiver feet are deeply inset from the front and sides – so they become almost invisible, giving the unit that “lighter” look, considering its heft. In comparison the Marantz 2285B and 2275 in the WC-22 cabinets, the feet are less inset and more visible and the feet are longer so cabinet sits a tad higher — the minor height difference and feet placement make difference, and this is accentuated when looking at the receivers from a sitting position. We’ve experimented with feet placement on the WC-22, deeper inset and lower height and it makes clear difference. Another note on the 9090 feet – they are massive. Like four large oil platforms for feet – just another over-engineered hidden statement from Sansui.
Our Sansui 9090 has now held the main stage for almost a year — owning the record of the longest any vintage stereo has remained our daily player. Earning that top spot also makes it our standard we measure against – Each of our new vintage acquisitions is now tested and compared to the Sansui 9090.
And as the fable goes — we too have learned to look beyond good looks. We have grown to love the Sansui 9090 and appreciate its unique design, love it for its amazing sound it delivers from within— it has become a permanent mid-century funky design statement piece in our listening room.
We hope you enjoyed this article and it provided some new insights into vintage Sansui stereos — we’re happy to hear from you and please do follow us on Twitter for micro vintage reviews and shootouts. @HiFisetup
Copyright 2020 Mark Scott, HiFisetup
