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Sansui is a Japanese manufacturer of audio and video equipment. Founded in 1947, it was very successful in the 1970s, and is much diminished since about 1980.
Founded in Tokyo, Sansui manufactured initially electronic parts but by the 1960s had developed a reputation for making serious audio components. They were sold in foreign markets through that and the next decade. Sansui's amplifiers and tuners from the 1960s and 1970s remain in demand by audio enthusiasts.
As the 1980s began, however, sales were lost to competitors (Sony, Pioneer, Matsushita's Technics). Sansui began to lose visibility in the United States around 1988, and then focused on manufacturing high-end components in Japan. The company began to manufacture high-end television sets and other video equipment, but ceased exportation. In the late 1990s, the company's brand was used on video equipment manufactured by other companies. The current manufacturer of the rebranded sets is Orion Electric Co., Ltd., based in Osaka and Fukui, Japan. Its U.S. subsidiary markets products under the Sansui brand, among others. Sansui is thus a mere "umbrella brand" at present.
Corporate name: Sansui Electric Co.,LTD. (山水電気株式会社, sansui denki kabushikigaisha)
External links
Company website
Audio Enthusiast site
Audio Enthusiast Forum
Extra Information
Current mass video product manufacturer
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