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A visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo

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Posted on October 3, 2015 at 12:34:40
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000




A business trip took me to Japan a few weeks ago and I had a chance to stop by the electronics district in Tokyo, Akihabara. I've done this quite a few times and I've developed a few places that I like to visit. One of them is Sun Audio, who makes some well known SET amplifiers. I own one of their Sun VT-25 amps, which I bought on a trip back in 2000. I still use it and think it's a great bang for the buck amp or it was for the price that I paid back then. Adjusting for inflation, prices today seem about 2x higher than what they were 15 years ago. I guess the cost of materials has gone up a lot in recent years.
When I stopped by Sun Audio this time, I ran into the owner, Mr. Uchida. The shop looked very much like it has over the years, with a small space packed full of amplifiers, speakers, and parts for the DIYer. Compared to my last visit, which was probably 5 years ago, Mr. Uchida has designed a new series of amplifiers that he seems quite proud of. They are a set of transformer coupled parallel single ended monoblocks. The SV-2A3TSX is a 2A3 PSE monoblock and the SV-TE/50TSX is a PSE 50 monoblock. Uchida-san seemed most taken with the PSE 50 monoblocks and was playing those while I was there. He was using these to drive some Altec horn speakers, perhaps Valencias but I'm not completely sure of the model. He played some jazz and a video of the Eagles Hotel California which sounded very realistic. He was using NOS 50 tubes but seemed to also like the Psvane 50s, which he showed have almost identical construction to the NOS tubes. He said they sound a bit more "solid", by which I think he meant solid date and that they needed more time to break in. These amps don't show up on the English Sun Audio webpage but one can read a bit about them on the Japanese page.
http://www2.big.or.jp/~sunaudio/
I found them to be a good step up from the simpler design of his old 2A3 and VT-25 amps, which are still available. But of course they're about twice as expensive, so they should be better. I thought it worth mentioning these amplifiers since they don't seem to have gotten much attention in the west.

---Gary

 

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RE: A visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo, posted on October 4, 2015 at 14:08:48
HiFiOd
Audiophile

Posts: 707
Location: Oakland, Califonia
Joined: May 30, 2001
 Thank you for sharing, would love to hear some of these sometime.

 

Thanks for sharing your visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo !... nt..., posted on October 4, 2015 at 16:30:48
Interstage Tranny
Audiophile

Posts: 3063
Location: Eastern
Joined: October 4, 2006
 no topic but thanks again...

 

i also brought the vt25 in 2000!, posted on October 5, 2015 at 09:08:30
merdy
Audiophile

Posts: 1625
Location: New paltz,ny
Joined: July 25, 2001
 you must have been the other gaijin that brought the amp i remember it fondly and my time there,looks like not much has changed yes the altecs are valencias
btw it was the first amp i sold on the asylum trader but i had to have a 45 amp a friend was selling ,it was kawai
Silence is golden duct tape is silver

 

RE: i also brought the vt25 in 2000!, posted on October 5, 2015 at 18:56:26
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000
 Cool. I don't think I've met another person owned a Sun VT-25. Within their limited power range, they're just great. I've got them driving some Reference 3A mm de capo speakers right now and they do quite well. Eventually need to get my horns back up and running, at which point they'll become horn amps again.
---Gary

 

i brought my vt25 in 1998, posted on October 6, 2015 at 06:30:07
bouncy ball
Audiophile

Posts: 1221
Location: British Columbia
Joined: July 26, 2003
 Direct order from Japan, It was my very first kit build. I really like this little amp.

 

Other Akihabara suggestions?, posted on October 7, 2015 at 12:08:08
caffeinator
Audiophile

Posts: 1729
Location: Pacific Northwest
Joined: August 22, 2003
 I am heading to Tokyo next month and might have time to visit Akihabara. Can you offer suggestions of interesting places to visit? I'm not likely to be buying; just want to see what's notable, new or otherwise worthwhile.

TIA,

David

 

RE: Other Akihabara suggestions?, posted on October 8, 2015 at 06:54:28
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000
 When I was there, Uchida-san of Sun Audio gave me a little booklet announcing a special event next week (10/12 and 10/13) celebrating the 20th anniversary of an Akihabara group of shops that specialize in tube audio, high efficiency speakers, and DIY. It has a list of 50 shops and a map showing their location. I'll scan it and post it later.

Until then, you should take a look at the page that Pete Millett has posted about his adventures exploring Akihabara and other DIY locations in Asia. It's really well done.
http://www.pmillett.com/parts_in_asia.htm
Things are changing all the time in Akihabara, so some of his information might be out of date. But the pictures and maps are really useful. Otherwise it's hard to get oriented.
---Gary

 

RE: Other Akihabara suggestions?, posted on October 9, 2015 at 12:54:14
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000




Here's a map and a link to the list of stores.
---Gary

 

RE: Other Akihabara suggestions?, posted on October 9, 2015 at 12:55:44
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000



Here's the list of stores.
---Gary

 

RE: Other Akihabara suggestions?, posted on October 9, 2015 at 12:59:04
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000

Higher resolution list of stores here:
---Gary

 

RE: A visit to Sun Audio in Tokyo, posted on October 10, 2015 at 02:56:45
Frihed89
Audiophile

Posts: 15703
Location: Copenhagen
Joined: March 21, 2005
 Did you ask him why he uses NFB (global?).

 

RE: NFB, posted on October 10, 2015 at 07:27:13
Gary B.
Audiophile

Posts: 76
Location: No. Cal.
Joined: January 9, 2000
 Frihed,
That's an odd question since I don't think that Sun Audio uses global NFB in their amplifiers. I've seen schematics for the 2A3, VT-25, and 300B amplifiers and none of them use global feedback. I haven't seen schematics of the new amplifiers, so I can't comment on those.

And getting back to your original question, I didn't have a prolonged conversation with Uchida-san and the topic of NFB did not come up. I don't speak Japanese, so all of the comments from Uchida-san were translated by my japanese friend who joined me for the visit. So we spent more time listening to music and less time chatting.
---Gary

 

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