I've tried TH600 with the vintage Pioneer SX-1010. With its 25 ohm impedance there is bit too much hiss for my liking when paired with the SX-1010. Doesn't sound bad but the hiss is a tad annoying.
I have an AU-D907 which is the Japanese AU-919. The AU-D9 has the same dna, but it's impossible to say how much of the design has carried through to this model. I had a look on AK and there wasn't much there. It seems rare, but rare can be a pain in the arse if it needs servicing.
The sound of the 907 is very neutral. A Sansui advert of the time used the phrase 'wire with gain'. It's also very quiet. I am able to use a Senn ie8 without much noise.
Now before you run off and buy the D9, stop and think. my 907 was my third purchase, already owning a Marantz 2385 and a SX1980. If the price is 480 aus dollars that's still over $470 US/ £309. Then again if it is in Aus, you will save hundreds of dollars in shipping buying an equivalent model from the US.
Headphone impedance alone cannot predict "how loud" it will be. For example, the HiFiMan HE-6 is rated at only 50 ohms. It's 83 dB sensitivity (efficiency) rating is much more telling...
It's really more the sensitivity of the headphone that is at issue here, not the impedance. If you have a very high sensitivity headphone, and your vintage amp/receiver has a bit of noise, you're likely to hear it. My recapped/restored SX-1980's are dead quiet, so I can run pretty much any headphone, but I had a Sansui G-8000 that simply had too much noise/hiss from headphones, so it got sold.
With the medium sensitivity LCD-3 or low sensitivity HE-6, this isn't really ever an issue unless the amp/receiver is so noisy it's about to go...
EDIT: yup, Palmfish has it right and beat me to it
All of you are right. I must have been listening to a track with a higher than normal background noise. Silent One mentioned the D7000 example and it is more efficient than the TH600 so I had to give this another shot. I plugged in the TH600 into my SX-1010 and while there is more hiss with than my Amphora it isn't that bad. With that said, I can't get above 10 o'clock before it gets too loud. Too bad I don't have the 737 around anymore. The 737 was pretty good with the HE-500 and less power than the 1010. Possibly better with non-orthos as well.
Headphone impedance alone cannot predict "how loud" it will be. For example, the HiFiMan HE-6 is rated at only 50 ohms. It's 83 dB sensitivity (efficiency) rating is much more telling...
As a previous owner of the sx1010, I will say it has one of the most powerful headphone outs of any vintage amp/receiver I've owned. And all of them with the exception of the sansui au-517, were totl monsters. It' not only could easily power my he-6 out of the headphone out, but it could even do it with the -20db button engaged. It hissed with my d7000 even with the -20db button engaged.
A lot also have the do with the quality of the preamp. I have a flagship ht receiver and I've tried almost all of my vintage gear in amp only mode using the receiver as a preamp as a point of reference as to how good the preamp on them were. With the sx1010 and a few others, there were never any hiss bypassing the preamp and using the ht receiver as a preamp. And at the same time, the headphone out of them were just as powerful.
The couple of exceptions were the 2330B and ka-907. The preamp in the ka-907 was just as quiet and the 2330B was nearly as quiet, but quiet enough that I could run my jh13 with barely hearing any hiss at all. Everything else, including my highly sensitive 40ohm w3000 were completely silent. The marantz 2325 also have a very good preamp, but not quiet as good as the 2330B.
I had the same experience with a sansui au-11000 as Skylab did with his g8000, and eventually sold it as well. The strange thing about that was, the -20db button had no effect on background noise. It only lower the volume, which is total different from the -20db on both the au-517 and 9090db. Both of those would significantly lower the background noise with the -20db button engaged.
Found a Sansui 2000 for sale. Cosmetically flawed but phono, aux and tuner (may need recalibration) work and is priced at $55...
To be honest, I have no idea what im doing but i want to get a vintage receiver.
I find it pretty hard to find information, subjective reviews, on vintage gear so i feel like pretty much you just ask on a forum and see what they say.
That does lead to conflict as I read that sansui were top of the line and they were fake top of the line (junk).
Also i read that sansui's have a warm sound signature as opposed to Marantz with a more bright and detailed sound. Is this generally correct?
also have a sansui 771 priced at $160. "good" condition.
Indeed. ClassicAudio is trying to sell one in very good condition for $1,500. Serviced a bit but, this lets you know (reminder) to pick the one on CL up
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