QS: Sansui QSD-1 4-Channel Synthesizer/Decoder

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Quadrockasaurus

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2010
Messages
238
Location
Melbourne - Australia
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... :rolleyes:


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".

Sansui QSD 1 - Front1.jpg
Sansui QSD 1 - Rear1.jpg

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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...that's ebay for you,...$362.45 is a pretty good price for one of these...amazingly, not a lot of interest, only 5 bids...I guess most expect these to go nut's based on their previous sales. I did. With those three U.S. units hovering around $2K I would have expected this one to go for a lot more than it did...But you've always got a chance for a bargain when an auction ends at 8am on a Sunday Morning... :)

There was another Aussie QSD-1 that ended a week or so ago starting at $450 which no-one bid on. Somewhat surprising. I thought there were more Quad fans down here. Then again...I considered bidding on that, but changed my mind.

The new Reality Designs "Involve" decoder is a bit of a game changer here and I'd suspect a lot of people will hold off paying big bucks on a QSD-1 to see how this one turns out.

P.S. I added a reference to the Oz auction result to my OP.
 
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