Friday 14 June 2013

Sansui Ca-2000 Pre-amplifier & Ba-2000 Power-amplifier




The Sansui CA-2000 Control Amplifier.

Sansui had come a long way since they started as a small manufacture of transformers in 1947. By 1975 Sansui had introduced the CA-2000 and Ba-2000, this pre and power combo were slightly smaller than the 3000 series but what they lost in size they more than made up for with their elegant looks and lush styling.

 

Everything was silver at the time but the black and silver styling from Sansui remained and personally, I think it's far superior. Sansui were building some of the worlds finest audio equipment but sadly the company would later hit hard times and be lost for all eternity. That is until the very early 90's when they started to fight back but even though they had some good amplifiers they disappeared again. Now you can find their name on cheap lcd tvs and £10 dvd players.



The Sansui BA-2000 Base? Amplifier

Introduced alongside the Control Amplifier the 2000 amplifier was a great big hunk of 110watt solid state goodness. First class build quality, one huge toroidial transformer with two windings, one for each channel of the amplifier. Big vu meters on the front with selectable scale and they are back-light in that lush Sansui green.



The sound is sublime, its fairly warm and sounds so effortless. The Pre & Power combo is very "lush" sounding rather than "high-end" but, when mated with the right speakers, envelopes you, there is an overwhelming force making you tap ya foot, it seems only Sansui units have this "magic". I can play the same music on the same speakers but with a pioneer sa-9900 in the driving seat I feel nothing. No emotional response from the music, that is a serious negative and I shall be writing an article going into further detail soon.

By this point you may think I'm some sort of "Sansui FanBoy". Well, I am, but only because they have proven themselves worthy. Trio 600, Pioneer sa-9900, revox B750mkII, acuphase pre-power, the list goes on but nothing captures me in the music like these. I find the build quality exquisite, I really love the looks and the sound is sheer bliss. Sansui equipment has a serious fan base and all the high end amplifier models are well respected, Its just a shame their speakers don't deliver!

5 comments:

  1. hi i have got a sansui ca2000 and have noticed on the back there are two set of output post would that mean i could have two power amp or 4 mono blocks going through it

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    1. Hi, yes you have two pre-amp outputs on the back. You can control them with the output selector on the front. You may indeed use two power amps or four mono blocks. Sorry for the delayed reply.

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  2. Hello - I have the BA 2000 and CA 2000, and am currently running them through a pair of Magnepan IIIa. It sounds very good to me, but then again I've never tried another set of speakers. What would be some examples of good speakers to get the most out of the BA and CA 2000?

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  3. if you can get them the Acoustic Research AR 11 are great as are the 9L I also appreciate the AR 38s but I am partial to this era of AR. It is not the same now but this was the day.

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  4. Hi. Can you direct me about how to connect the whole thing. From cassette player to preamp to amp. I'm going to connect it for the first time.

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