Sansui: Japanese Hi-Fi Equipment
Sansui Electric Co., Ltd. is a Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment. Founded in Tokyo in 1947, Sansui initially manufactured transformers, but by the 1960s had developed a reputation for making serious audio components. Sansui’s amplifiers and tuners from the 1960s and 1970s remain in demand by audio enthusiasts.
In 1971 Sansui introduced the Quadphonic Synthesizer QS-1, which could make simulated four channel stereo from two channel sources. Sansui developed the QS Regular Matrix system, which made it possible to transmit four channel Quadraphonic sound from a standard LP. The channel separation was only 3 dB, but because of the human way of hearing it sounded relatively good. In 1973 Sansui introduced the more advanced QS Vario Matrix decoder with 20 dB separation. Unfortunately the SQ system developed by Columbia/CBS was the most popular so called matrix system. But later QS decoders could also play SQ records. Some Sansui receivers could also play the most advanced four channel system – CD-4/Quadradisc by Japanese JVC and American RCA. Most big record companies used either SQ or CD-4, but Decca used the Sansui QS system.
Sansui: the short history
The original page, written while Sansui was still trading, describes it in the present tense. The company's later history is short and sad: sales collapsed in the 2000s, Sansui went out of business in 2014, and the same year Grande Holdings acquired the rights to license the name outside Japan.
Wikipedia also fills in the early years. Kosaku Kikuchi began with a radio parts workshop making transformers in Yoyogi, Tokyo, in 1944, founded the company on 3 June 1947, and began making amplifier kits and finished tube amplifiers in 1954. Sansui's first stereo tube preamp and power amplifiers appeared in 1958, and the black-faced AU series in 1965.
Sansui's transformers outlived the company: the Finale Audio F308 in this archive was built around output transformers from a Sansui 500A.
| Founded | 3 June 1947, Tokyo |
|---|---|
| Founder | Kosaku Kikuchi |
| Origins | Transformer workshop, 1944 |
| Tube amplifiers | From 1954; first stereo models 1958 |
| AU series | From 1965 |
| Closed | 2014 |
Questions collectors ask
Did Sansui make tube amplifiers?
Yes. Sansui began selling amplifier kits and finished tube amplifiers in 1954 and introduced its first stereo tube models in 1958.
What was Sansui QS?
A matrix system for four-channel quadraphonic sound. Sansui's QS-1 synthesizer came in 1971, and the QS Vario Matrix decoder with 20 dB separation in 1973.
Sources: Wikipedia: Sansui Electric.
