Sansui QR-500 (circa 1972–1974)
What little is known of the Sansui QR-500 comes from period advertising and a brief specification listing. No standalone review or service manual appears to have survived. The QR-500 was a 60-watt (per channel, presumably into 8 ohms) AM-FM four-channel receiver, part of Sansui's early QR series that also included the 100-watt QR-1500. An ad in Studio Sound (March 1972, p.13) listed the QR-500 as one of "four great ways" to get into 4-channel sound. It touted the built-in QS Synthesizer Decoder, which could synthesize four channels from ordinary two-channel sources and decode genuine QS-encoded records.
By 1974, a specifications listing gave the QR-500's rated power as 60 watts per channel, both channels driven into 8 ohms at 0.3% THD. IM distortion was 0.3% and hum and noise was 80 dB (IHF). IHF music power was listed at 220 watts. FM sensitivity was rated at 1.9 µV. The receiver had a multi-system four-channel speaker selector and vario matrix, plus four front-panel VU meters, one for each channel. Dimensions were approximately 23⅝ inches wide, 8 inches high, and 14¹¹⁄₁₆ inches deep. The suggested retail price was $699.95.
Beyond these few facts, almost nothing is documented. It is unclear how long the QR-500 stayed in production, how many units were sold, or how its measured performance compared with competitors. The QR series was Sansui's early commitment to the QS matrix format in the first wave of consumer four-channel audio. The QR-500 sat toward the middle of that line, with more power than the entry-level models but less than the flagship QR-1500. If you have an owner's manual, service notes, or bench-test results, the Archive would welcome a contribution.
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