Sansui Z-9000
What survives about the Sansui Z-9000 comes almost entirely from Sansui's own advertising pages in 1982-83. The headline claim, repeated in several publications, was that the Z-9000 was the world's only distortion-free receiver. Sansui said it got there with its "Super Feedforward" DC amplifier circuitry. High Fidelity (October 1982, p.7) carried that claim alongside the receiver's other selling points. It's an ad claim, so take "distortion-free" with a grain of salt. The feature list is real period record.
That feature list is long. The Z-9000 had a 7-band graphic equalizer, a reverb amplifier, bass/midrange/treble tone controls with center defeat, high and subsonic filters, two tape monitors with 1-to-2 dubbing, three-stage FM IF ceramic filters, and PLL circuitry. A spec chart listed FM signal-to-noise at 80 dB mono, FM THD below 0.005%, and a period price of $960. The same chart put the Z-7000 a step below. It was similar to the Z-9000 but with a 4-band equalizer, no reverb amp, and two-speaker switching.
No independent test reports, service manuals, or owner documentation have turned up in the Archive's search, so everything above comes from Sansui's own period advertising. The Z-9000 was clearly a loaded flagship-style receiver for its moment, and $960 in 1983 put it in serious company.
- Type: FM/AM receiver
- Amplifier: "Super Feedforward" DC design (Sansui's claim)
- Equalizer: 7-band graphic
- FM S/N: 80 dB mono
- FM THD: <0.005% (period listing)
- Price: $960 (period listing)
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