Quadrockasaurus
Senior Member
If you have any more photo's or comments to make on this quadraphonic unit please feel free to post them in this thread....
Sansui QSD-1 4-Channel Synthesizer/Decoder
Rarity: SCARCE
Average Sale Price: $1K +
Often sells above $1000U.S. As I'm writing this, three are listed on ebay at between $1800 & $2000..!!
One sold in March 2012 in the U.S. for $1325.00.
Update: Just thought I'd maybe add that the typical average above might vary dramatically depending where you are in the world, with an Australian multi-voltage QSD-1 going for $362.45AU in September of 2012...
Probably the ultimate vintage QS Synth/Decoder (..after the monumentally rare QSD-1000). A step up above the already great (QSD-2 based) QS synth decoders built into the QRX-x001 receivers. The QSD-1 works/decodes across 3 frequency bands instead of one in the QSD-2 and the decoding considered to be smoother.
The unit below is mine...A multi-voltage version I picked it up fairly recently and paid much, much less than the average I've listed. I haven't tested it proper yet as all my Quad amps are either currently not working properly (dead channels)....or just simply not working...
Seeing I can't offer an "in use" assessment of this unit...I'll just quote QQ member "Gimmie 4" from post 9 of this thread,...Sansui QSD-1 Decoder...from a few years back...
..."I owned a QSD-2 for a couple of years. Worked pretty well but I could always hear it steering the positions of sounds when other sounds would influence the decoding. I heard the same unstable imaging effect with a friend's QRX-9001 receiver, not surprised since they shared pretty much the same single band decoder. When I got my QSD-1 I immediately noticed HUGE improvement in the stability of the synthesized 4 channel surround. Rock solid imaging! Things stayed put and didn't drift around! Much more than a just a subtle difference. My friend with the QRX-9001, after listening to the difference, got rid of the receiver and bought a QSD-1".
The voltages this multi-voltage unit can be set for are 100/120/220/240V 50 or 60Hz -
According to the Serial Number build code, my unit was built in 1975.
P.S. Note that there is currently a modern Synth decoder (Reality Designs "Involve" decoder) that's been mentioned recently in QQ that may challenge this Sansui unit (..and maybe the QSD-1000) for supreme QS & QS synth decoding, and it works in 5.1 as well I believe. It's still being tested and tweaked as of mid-late 2012 and not yet commercially available. If it works out....expect the prices for the QSD-1 to drop dramatically.
Sansui QSD-1 4-Channel Synthesizer/Decoder
Rarity: SCARCE
Average Sale Price: $1K +
Often sells above $1000U.S. As I'm writing this, three are listed on ebay at between $1800 & $2000..!!
One sold in March 2012 in the U.S. for $1325.00.
Update: Just thought I'd maybe add that the typical average above might vary dramatically depending where you are in the world, with an Australian multi-voltage QSD-1 going for $362.45AU in September of 2012...
Probably the ultimate vintage QS Synth/Decoder (..after the monumentally rare QSD-1000). A step up above the already great (QSD-2 based) QS synth decoders built into the QRX-x001 receivers. The QSD-1 works/decodes across 3 frequency bands instead of one in the QSD-2 and the decoding considered to be smoother.
The unit below is mine...A multi-voltage version I picked it up fairly recently and paid much, much less than the average I've listed. I haven't tested it proper yet as all my Quad amps are either currently not working properly (dead channels)....or just simply not working...
Seeing I can't offer an "in use" assessment of this unit...I'll just quote QQ member "Gimmie 4" from post 9 of this thread,...Sansui QSD-1 Decoder...from a few years back...
..."I owned a QSD-2 for a couple of years. Worked pretty well but I could always hear it steering the positions of sounds when other sounds would influence the decoding. I heard the same unstable imaging effect with a friend's QRX-9001 receiver, not surprised since they shared pretty much the same single band decoder. When I got my QSD-1 I immediately noticed HUGE improvement in the stability of the synthesized 4 channel surround. Rock solid imaging! Things stayed put and didn't drift around! Much more than a just a subtle difference. My friend with the QRX-9001, after listening to the difference, got rid of the receiver and bought a QSD-1".
The voltages this multi-voltage unit can be set for are 100/120/220/240V 50 or 60Hz -
According to the Serial Number build code, my unit was built in 1975.
P.S. Note that there is currently a modern Synth decoder (Reality Designs "Involve" decoder) that's been mentioned recently in QQ that may challenge this Sansui unit (..and maybe the QSD-1000) for supreme QS & QS synth decoding, and it works in 5.1 as well I believe. It's still being tested and tweaked as of mid-late 2012 and not yet commercially available. If it works out....expect the prices for the QSD-1 to drop dramatically.
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