Sansui 9090db vs Mcintosh 1900

I agree with Yogiboy. I live near a retired Sansui tech and he HATES working on 9090's. They are known to have a few reliability issues and I believe there were (5) versions so they are difficult to work on. The vintage Sansui sound is awesome, but I would look for a AU-717 or 919 integrated. The MAC is a very nice sounding unit!

I concur: plus the Mac 1900 is nearly sublime if used within its power range, closer to 70wpc vs its stated 55wpc. I have had my MAC1900 for 10 years and love its sonics and its way with Nashville's classical FM station: never knew FM sounded so good until I got the Mac.

Issues: the On/Off switch (UNAVAILABLE) is also the volume pot, and if the switch fails you are stuck with turning her on with a surge protector. The volume pot is almost always noisy on these vintage units and cleaning with DeOxIt works for a few months, but the noise returns (only noisy during manipulation, silent when settled).

Repaired (or tried to) several Sansui units over the years, and came to the conclusion that Sansui gear was not exactly designed to be serviced.

If you can spend a bit more, buy a complete, warrantied MAC1900 from Audio Classics and be done with it (the 10 ohm carbon bias resistors of the vintage McIntosh units WILL HAVE aged (measuring up to 15 ohm)and the bias will be higher than spec, so have them replaced with 1% metal film and fuggedaboudit). The way to tell if the bias resistors have changed value: the amp sections heat sinks will be warmer than room temp at normal use, and hot if run hard. My MAC1900 never gets above slightly warm at full power run all day.

Unless you need or simply want a Monster receiver..8080 or 7070s can be had for much less and still retain sonics, cosmetics, and build...the DB series was for dolby fm...which never gained ground...just my .02