Sansui SR-929 Quartz-Servo Direct-Drive Initial Comments 15 Oct 2022

From the Vintage Knob & Vinyl Engine: 1976 to 1979 Large and very heavy beast made when LP was king, still not attacked by the prospect of digital tapes on one side or digital discs on the other. The SR-929 is a PLL Quartz-Locked direct drive turntable aided by an FG loop. The motor is made of a very beefy 20-pole rotor magnet with a 30-slot core (still not a brush-less / slot-less) ; it is powered by a toroidal transformer to limit flux leakage. The weight of the 929 mainly comes from the diecast composite resin base topped by a diecast aluminium motor base ; the particleboard cabinet is multi-layer lacquered with ultra-glossy black polyester resin - Sansui black. The four insulators are height adjustable and made of an ABS casing holding natural and butyl rubber cushions, and felt lining. The mat is slightly concave with "pyramidical projections on the periphery" - a bit difficult to keep clean but probably the most eye-catching mat ever designed ! The tonearm was no afterthought and was probably the most original part of the 929 : knife-edge support for the vertical plane, ball-bearing jewel needle-point for the horizontal plane. The bearing at the very top is a sapphire. The counterweight holds a rubber damping material wrapped around the traversing arm wand and the massive diecast arm base is made of zinc alloy. Plus or minus 3mm arm height can be adjusted alongwith lateral balancer and inside-force canceller ; tracking force readout is graduated in 0,05g steps... The aluminium diecast, tapered, headshell/wand connection hides gold-plated pins. As for almost all Sansui turntables, the SR-929 was partly engineered and/or built by Micro Seiki, the originals of which seem to be located between the DD-6 and the DD-7 ; the tonearm source however remains a mystery (SAEC ?). The looks, of course, were one of the main attractions back then and it should be noted that the original finish of the platter's entire surround block, hiding the strobe and red lights, was silver aluminium. Description Sansui is proud to contribute to the advancement of state of the art turntable technology with the introduction of the remarkable SR-929. It's newly developed quartz direct drive servo system represents a significant Sansui engineering breakthrough in keeping with our policy as a high fidelity only manufacturer to bring you the finest in musical reproduction. At last, within reach of ordinary music fans and audio buffs, there is now a turntable so accurate and so precise that it exceeds even the strictest professional standards of performance. Not only is it's speed very close to absolutely perfect, it's generated noise in relation to the audio signal is, in practice, immeasurable. Platter rotation constancy is amazing, with a deviation of less than 0.002% - that's less than 2 revolutions out of 100,000! And speed is unaffected by load changes, temperature changes, power voltage/frequency fluctuations and ageing. Sansui combines the latest quartz crystal accuracy with advance electronic servo circuits to achieve this in the SR929. The Sansui SR929 is the ultimate in direct-drive turntable perfection. Specifications Type: two-speed, quartz-servo, direct-drive, manual turntable Motor: 20-pole, 30-slot DC brushless type with built-in frequency generator Drive system: direct spindle drive, quartz servo controlled Platter: 302mm, 1.4kg, aluminium die-cast Wow and flutter: less than 0.028% WRMS Signal to noise ratio: better than 66dB Speeds: 33 and 45rpm Fine speed adjustment: +-3.5% Tonearm: statically balanced, s-shaped tonearm Effective length: 240mm Overhang: 15.6mm Cartridge weight range: 2 to 11g (11 to 21g with sub-weight) Dimensions: 490 x 173 x 381mm Weight: 17.1kg