I am selling my Sansui TU-9900 tuner. This is an excellent example of a superb tuner from the late 1970's. I have to sell eith
er my TU-X1 or this one.
I do not believe any new tuner will perform as well or sound as good as this old Sansui. It is freshly aligned and ready to provide immediate, long-term happy use.
For those unfamiliar with this tuner, here is a clipping from FMTunerinfo:
"The TU-9900 has 5 gangs and 3 IF filters, two of which have 4 stages rather than a typical ceramic filter's 2 stages, so it's like 5 filters if we count them in the traditional fashion. The TU-9900 is solidly built and our panelists who have used it praise its sound quality and DX performance, but David "A" rates it well below the TU-X1 for sound even though Eric (a non-audiophile) felt that it was "close enough." Our panelist Bob did some mods on his: "The TU-9900 has incredible potential. At first, it just did not open up sonically, but after trying a bunch of things, I nailed it. It is there now. I removed tantulum caps in the signal path. The big gain was replacing the TA-7136P op-amps, which were limiting the sonics in a big way. They are inline 7-pin units, so I had to put in 7-pin inline sockets, and custom modify a standard single op-amp to solder onto a 7-pin header. It was about three hours' work just to make the replacements, but well worth it. I also added six polypropylene caps, along with new power supply caps. With all the mods, the TU-9900 may be one of the top all-around tuners ever built. I have talked to many people who feel that a stock TU-9900 just smokes about everything out there for distant reception capability. If your unit does not astound you, it is broken or out of alignment. It will easily surpass a stock KT-8300 by a decent amount. I think the sonics were the holdback on the 9900s, but not anymore."
"The TU-9900 is very sensitive and selective in stock form, better than just about any analog tuner that commonly sells for under $500 on eBay. It also offers many nice features, including a calibration tone and scope outputs. Because it uses LC filters that are encased in metal and plastic enclosures, no one should buy a TU-9900 expecting to replace the filters, but our panelist JohnC says: "Aside from the power supply, the TU-9900 is very easy to work on and mod. Bill Ammons' op-amp boards make it very easy to change out the old op-amps and since you can leave 4 caps out of the audio output the cost, compared to using say Black Gates for those 4 caps, is actually a wash." See John's comparison of his modded TU-9900 to his modded TU-919 in the TU-919 writeup. Our contributor doug s. says, "I own a modded refurbished TU-X1, and I can say that its performance compared to the TU-9900's is only the tiniest bit better, with a bit more low end, and you really need to hear them side-by-side to discern differences." On eBay, the TU-9900 usually sells for around $450-700 but anywhere from $380-800+ is possible, depending on condition, the seller's track record, and fluctuations in demand. A mint one sold for $952 in 12/07 and the all-time record was $1,200 in 2/08 for one with the original box and manual (that's one pricey box). "
My tuner has had all of the FMtunerinfo modifications (
http://www.fmtunerinfo.com/DIY.html#TU-9900) performed and documented. These include replacing virtually every capacitor in the tuner with either polypropylene, or Panasonic FM or Blackgate electrolytics, replacing the original obsolete audio opamps with modern, far superior opamps, replacing many resistors in critical areas with 1% film resistors, replacing the power supply rectifier with HEXFRED diodes, and installing the superb Bill Ammons circuitry that provides a separate alignment point for stero separation in the narrow-RF bandwidth mode, rather than just aligning for spec in the wide-bandwidth mode and accepting wherever that leaves the narrow mode. All output connectors have been replaced with premium connectors and the captive power card has been replaced with a standard IEC connector. The tuner sits on vibra-pod feet and the inside of the case has had damping sheets applied, so it is about as acoustically dead as a sheet metal box can reasonably be made.
Following modification, the tuner went out to one of the finest alignment shops in the country for a complete AM and FM alignment. The master of the shop wrote back to tell me that this tuner is now quieter than his longtime reference. It is a superb-sounding tuner, clean inside and out. I do not know of any marred or scratched areas; except the bottom (underside) panel. The glass faceplate is clean, clear, scratch-free. All work described above is documented and I will also include the pdf files of the manuals and schematics.
Please feel free to contact me with questions or to make an offer. The unit is in southern Maryland, USA, and shipping weight will be around 30 pounds.
