Sunday, April 1, 2012

Sansui B-2101

Missed the amp after it last seen day light ... about 2 years ago!
Front view with meters on

Front view with meters off

The B-2101 is a 200W RMS per channel power amp with the X-Balanced technology. Basically a scaled-up version of the power amp section from the Sansui AU-G90X e.g 8 transistors per channel vs 8 transistors for both channels on the G90X.

My other Sansui power amp, the B-2102 is prety much the same as the B-2101, except the reservoir caps are smaller at 8,200uF instead of 10,000uF. Other non-audioable difference was the DISPLAY OFF on the B-2102 does not really switch off the display but disables the audio feed to the electronics. The B-2101 and B-2102 sound pretty close to the other.

I normally partner the B-2101 and/or B-2102 with the Sansui C-2102. There are slight differences between the C-2101 and C2102. The C-2101 has more capacitors on the Parametric EQ motherboard (LHS if looking from front).

I had recapped it a few years back as the unit was taking over an hour to sound proper. In addition, the caps the in the PSU board had leaked, other caps on the power amp boards looked like they could do with a replacement after many years of service. Used the following EC(s) - Nichicon and Rubycon on the PSU board; Panasonic FC and FM on the driver and power amp boards. Some ceramics and polys were replaced with Wima(s) on the power amp boards. All replaced caps are of original values.

From top

Top view without cover

Close-up of one of the power amp sections

Close-up of one of the driver boards

In the past I had performed a test between the B-2101 vs the Meridian 557 in a all Meridian setup. The 557 excelled at vocals though the B-2101 has a wider dynamic range.

Uploaded the following brochure of the B-2101 as the information is scarce on the internet.

 




Can't wait to setup horizontal bi-amping with the B-2101 and B-2102 after the superb results with bi-amping the Quad 303(s)!!!

Now where did I put the B-2102 - was not in the storeroom where I was expecting it to be???