I got hifi tunnel vision years and tried loads of high power amps that technically measure very well, and sound pretty good. What do I listen to now most days? A 70's Philips single ended 10watt germanium transistor amp and another 20watt amp consisting of just an opamp and a pair of sanken darlingtons per channel.

Another great review, Kelvin. The same goes for tuners; I'm an avid radio listener. Detail may be seducing at first, but where's the depth? And the soundstage? Keep up the excellent work.

Two days ago I took the plunge into digital amplification. Just the power amp (Acoustic Reality eAR 202). Pre-amp is Rotel and speakers Kef102 and 105. Having been an audio nutter for 35 years. I was immediately impressed by the number of fine details. Over all I do not find it as impressive as the amps I use on a regular basis. Lots of details, but the stage seems flat, and the sounds are all "In your face" so to speak. The bass however is great. Tight and fast. Thank you for the great audio content. Down to earth, and with gear most can afford.

Bluetooth is the troublemaker. Good Dac and a solid amp. In my case a lot of old amps! (own a few you have). It's all good either way!

Hell Ye a brand new audio term HUMANE !thanks man!

Hi another great video. As I remember that sansui did a great deal in its day was sr 222 . Regards mark

Details, details and details but a sterile "skinny" sound with no body and over $300.00, not for me. Just yesterday, at a street fair, I picked up a Pioneer SX3600 for $20.00, yes 20 $'s, in very good condition and working well. It's at my trusty tech for a cleanup and then I can add a streamer and connect it to just about anything for a fraction of the price. Of course, some "details" will be lost, but does it really matter? Great video!

Honestly, modern HiFi gives me "oversharpen photo taken by phone" vibe. While older amps give me "film photo" vibe. With natural smoothness. I believe that there's something (in older amps) that wraps all the instruments and gives an impression of wholeness of the sound. Instrument separation is smoother and gives it (spatial) volume. While modern amps instrument separation is much more pronounced but sole instruments sound flat. If I imagine how that sound looks like (Synesthesia) I imagine a modern-amp-soundstage as a pop-up book with all instruments 2D and paper cut-outs.

One thing to keep in mind ... Class-D is *NOT* digital. It got the designation as the next letter in the alphabet after A, AB, B and C. The way these amplifiers work is through pulse width modulation. The audio signal is used to modulate a high frequency carrier, by changing the width of the pulses. The amplified signal is then recovered by filtering out the carrier ... all done in the analog realm.

Its so true what you say about sound Quality. Specs mean nothing. I have the bigger brother of this Sansui, the AU417 and I honestly agree with you regarding your sound quality observations, it has a warm sound signature but it's still detailed in the mids and highs, with a punchy beefy bottom end. I've compared it directly to a Harman/Kardon, Yamaha and Cambridge Audio. The Cambridge Audio is the closest to the Sansui but still quite different, a slightly more 'digital' sound as you would put it. The H/K was super super smooth but it felt like some detail was missing. As for the Yamaha, it was a clear last, just a dry sound with chesty lower mids. It did not excel in any area. The worst part is, it has the best Specs and I bought the Yamaha purely on Specs, ....Big mistake, I learnt my lesson from that. I've now sold the Yammy and the H/K will probably be next to go.

i am a NAD fanboy but would be very interested to try an AU317 if i could find one in serviced condition, i always buy seviced and/or recapped models to ensure good working condition, also to widen the search Kelvin are there any alternative Sansui models that offer the same quality?

You should compare some new class AB amps like from Denon, Yamaha, Marantz with the vintage amps you have

Hifi, high fidelity ! Or lowfi, low fidelity.

For me modern hifi sounds like this- artificial and to perfect. It's like instruments are processed to much and vocals the same. On my vintage setups I just increase treble for more detail 😄

I think you have missed the point that the watt is a defined unit of power. If measured in the way I previously described, it will result in consistent value. What the manufacturers do is quote output power using a different standard that inflates the numbers. But look at how the power output is standardised as RMS into 8 or 4 ohm load. That measurement is constant today as it was 20 or 40 years ago. What you need to say is this amplifier is rated at XXX but sounds much more powerful. What you are referring to is the perceived sound level, which can be affected by many other variables .

High kelvin you should do a review on a WiiM pro streamer it’s not bad

The answer is a Tube pre paired with a class D amp. Best of both worlds, the grip and control of class D with the spacial harmonics and tube bloom on top

The venerable AU-317. Love this real life talk about HIFI, In "EARS WE TRUST!"

Thanks man. (I don't feel I know you well enough to call you Kelvin yet. ;) )

pretty vague stuff

I think you nailed it Kelvin. In my opinion you gave your audience an accurate expectation of class D amps. Including, that it's still suitable for many peoples tastes. Class D amps are the most efficient amps by far (hence the bigger power in a smaller case) , however the class D topology has some innate compromises I'm not willing to sacrifice. The power supply and the amp are switching at very high frequency. This creates a lot of high frequency noise, which requires a lot of high frequency filtering with coils (inductors) at the output. It just doesn't get any better than pure class A amps for sound quality (although the least efficient amps), because there are no compromises. Other that dealing with the heat. All decent class A/B amp have a certain class A bias. If A/B amps get a little toasty, typically it's a good thing, because it means the amp has a higher class A bias (level of pure class A, before needing to switch to class A/B ). 2 watts of vocals are often plenty loud, but bass needs much more power. Before I carry on with never ending tangents, I'm going to go, "bathe in the music".

Bladerunner is my favorite movie. I've never seen 2

Thanks Kelvin- straight to the point. I much prefer my old school valves and nad 3020. God bless you

So the Wiim sounds like an amp with the “loudness” button? Even though the Sansui is not a tube amp, warm and not shrill. Maybe next time mention the music used, thanks!

why would you need a bluesound node to test theWiim amp? Does it not already have a built-in streamer ?

It's always about the sound, of course. But the Wiim app has all this equalization and I gather people have fiddled their way to pretty good sound. Did you try any of that?

Hi kevin, i really enjoy your take on vintage, hi fi. In the end the message is to buy what you enjoy listening to, not what anybody else tells you to. But one thing that annoys me is your referring to watts being measured differently today. I think the confusion comes from manufacturers who used different methods to measure or quote power outputs such as peak or pmpo. Most reputable manufacturers have always used RMS figures. These have been measured by RMS voltage output into a fixed resistive load with a maximum distortion level of 0.01 percent. This power measurement method has remained constant it is no different today than it was in 1970. Sorry, this is just one of those common misunderstandings of the science of audio that i find irritating.

🙋‍♂️ THANKS KELVIN,FOR AGAIN MAKING COMPARISONS BETWEEN OLD AND NEW KITS 🤔💚💚💚

Thanks really good video.. I put a nice rotel power amp from around 1999 .. up against a class a ..Sony power amp from the early 80s .. the Sony is darker sounding.less detail.but has alot more depth and scale than the rotel.. I prefer the sony

EQ in the bathroom?

Strange - In this comparison, you are also describing the difference between my new 217 Sansui and my favorite San 4000. Run dead flat on tone , the 217 sounds tinny compared to the richness of my 4000.You come closer backing off the 217 treble 2 notches, the 217 bass is fine. All in all ,the 4000 is just more realistic, warm and enjoyable then the 217. The 217 compares well to my 5000 and pioneer units - nice unit. I seem to have a special 4000. myonly criticism of the 4000 is it does not seem to have the Punch of other units - but the Punch is actually a bit of distortion. Am dying for you to find a good 4000 and see if mine is typical.

Another great review , you should bring out a quick vid midweek as well Kelvin 😁

Thanks.Good channel.

I have this amp sounds better once room correction is used and using a rega turntable as my source.

Detail is useless without harmonics, tone, PRaT, grip, transients, depth, scale, dynamics. It sounds like it’s the same sound as the wiim streamers, detailed and thin.

Good afternoon from Toronto Kevin☕️ Great quick breakdown of what they all bring to the party. Personally ,I run the Wiim Pro feeding a Denafrips DAC …and it’s damn nice . Very hard to make a great streamer and equally hard to make a great pre amplifier and amplifier…for that price . So I guess (IMHO) get a Wiim for the streamer and the software/app and get a beter chain of DAC and amplification. Cheers 🍻

As long as anyone buying it takes the first step into realising what better equipment can do, it sounds like a great product. If you are amazed by what 350 can do, Imagine what 1000 can do etc...

Allways genuine truthfull❤

U don't need to switch your picture from big too small, please keep it the way it was before.. No need for these effects... We love your channel the way it is..

Curious that you didn’t utter the word WiiM once. I agree cheap Class D sounds digital and lacks dimension.

Hi Kelvin, I have more then10 vintage amps Leak tube, Sansui 221, Nad ....with Harbeth and Rogers speakers using Iphone 4. I like the sound. I tried new Leak amp with dac and sent it back. Tried IFI nano dac, sent back.Why you are still keeping blue sound node 2.0 streamer DAC …as it just 5 percent better from Iphone5 as you sad in one video? Thanks

Sounds like class D 😅

I don’t want it brilliant 😂 , I don’t want it either kelvin

Great review as usual 😊

Russian reviewers very like this amp

the sansui looks great

Kind of in a similar comparison to these units (but admittedly much more of a budget range), I bought an Aiyima A07 after seeing great reviews for it. I also bought a 1974 Rotel RX 202 receiver a couple of weeks later. I preferred the Rotel and kept it, sold the Aiyima.

Wow ... interesting. No problem with you disliking the WIIM Amp. But a lot of people will disagree with you. The question is... is it because the Sansui is what you're used to hearing and the added detail of the WIIM feels a bit uncomfortable? ... I love vintage stuff, I've had plenty in my day. But with the modern Class D ... especially amps based on the TPA3255 chip ... I find the accuracy of them very pleasing. Older amps are understandably slower than modern ones, in terms of "slew rate" (the max speed at which the output voltage changes) and lack a bit in "transient response" (the maximum output from short pulses, like snare shots). This does tend to make them sound a bit gentler to the ear, which is understandably more pleasing. But the new guys are far more accurate with less distortion, hence the increased detail. The devil you know vs the one you don't?

I followed your advice and am now the happy owner of the Sansui au317 Nad3020 & Rogers. Thanks Kelvin, always interesting reviews

Detail = elevated treble.