There is some dispute as to where it all began with component boomboxes. There is no dispute however when it comes to, arguably, the first component boombox that combined the most home stereo features on the market for the dollar at its arrival. This unit is known as the Sansui CP-7. This unit was released in early 1983 and was sold through 1984 and consists of the CP-R7 Tuner Amplifier, CP-F7 Cassette Deck and CP-S7 Speakers and accessories. The CP-7 comes in two flavors, silver (more of a satin nickel) finish with brushed stainless trim and chrome accents, or a black finish with piano black gloss highlights and brushed black stainless trim. The unit of our focus today is the silver model.

Features:

The Sansui CP-7 was loaded for bear and left nothing to want for its era. Although some competitors boasted equalizers, or other frills, Sansui, in its tradition of being at the forefront of innovation while keeping it simple, figured less is more. On the CP-R7 tuner-amplifier section you have the normal accoutrement of bass, treble and balance controls, inputs for a turntable, auxiliary input for a CD or other device, tape monitor (more on this later), and tuner functions. Terminals to connect an external antenna are also included. They also included a loudness function to boost low frequencies at lower volumes. A neat feature is that the tone and balance controls are hidden behind a neat little door since you won’t be fiddling with them much anyway.



Now for some useful neat stuff you did not see with most of its contemporaries. This little gem boasts a backlit liquid crystal display digital tuner and timer. Of course this has been done before, but in this configuration it stands alone. It is a Phase Locked Loop (PLL) quartz design and has twenty (20) memory presets (five per band), switchable display (frequency/time), and two shortwave bands to complement the AM and FM sections. The tuner is also switchable between 9 kHz and 10 kHz steps via a switch on the back panel making this truly a world machine. The timer is typical fare with sleep and wake functions and supports timer recording with the cassette deck.



The CP-F7 cassette is a full logic controlled unit that supports normal, Cr02, and Metal cassettes. Other than the expected functions we’re accustomed to is a three track music search function (AMPS-Automatic Music Program Search in Sansui speak. Everyone has a spin on this.), Dolby B NR, and record mute and beat cancel functions. The deck supports timer recording an includes an option to operate microphones in stereo while playing back or recording. The glaring omission here is a level control for the microphones. The cassette deck can be operated as a standalone unit with playback and record connections and transported by using the supplied handle.

The CP-S7 speakers are in a wooden cabinet containing a four inch full range driver with a rubberized foam surround for long excursion throws. And get this, a passive radiator! Yes there are others in the portable realm, but I challenge anyone to execute it in such a good looking fashion. To the unknowing they expect a tweeter but lo and behold…a conversation starter for sure.

A handle and side brackets are included. A nice feature is the switch inside the battery compartment to select either AC power or DC power. This helps to keep the unit from sucking our D cells dry once the unit is turned on. A super nice bonus is that battery sleeves were included to speed and ease loading and unloading of batteries.



Technical & Testing:

The CP-R7 tuner-amplifier is a powerful little beast. Rated at 13 watts per channel, they really underrated this thing. On the test bench using 1dB at signal applying load my technician strongly felt that this unit actually was putting out around 20 watts! This may actually support the theory that Sansui always underrated their amplifiers (during their heyday) and it must run in the family. (Maybe the baby brother CP-5 is really 13 watts?) Total harmonic distortion is rated at 5% and there is no reason to doubt this as the amplifier section was smooth as butter. There definitely was family heritage and pride built into this little powerhouse. There is no large heatsink to be found inside the unit. It does use the steel bottom plate to divert heat and is well ventilated from the top. Despite having no gung ho heatsink, the unit never got more than mildly warm under heavy load, so any fears were quelled. A blunder, in my opinion, is lack of push/pull clips on the amplifier, or speakers for that matter, if you break the speaker wire you’re out of luck.



The tuner section is strong and locks on like a Rottweiler on a steak. There’s excellent stereo separation on the FM band and AM signals are clear as can be expected for AM. Frequency steps in 9kHz or 10kHz increment via a switch on the back. Depending where you are determines where you set it lest you think the tuner is bad. Shortwave was good also. Keep two AA batteries available for the tuner/clock memory or plan to reset everything if you unplug the unit.

The cassette is a solid sounding unit with a frequency response of 30-16,000Hz with Dolby on using normal cassettes. The use of Cr02 and metal brings the high end up to 17,000Hz and 18,000Hz respectively. The use of Dolby greatly improved sound on cassettes pre-recorded in Dolby B. The unit was not designed with Dolby C. (At the CP-7’s release it was not in wide spread use except on high end expensive decks.) Recording in Dolby produce warm sounding distortion free recordings that would rival some mid-line home decks. Of note is the ribbon connector for the cassette. This allows a neat connection of the supplied deck to the amplifier which is great, tucking extra cable in through the battery door. The Sansui was the first to do this as its contemporaries required the use of sloppy RCA cables and required a cover on the back to conceal the mess while in transport. The one lacking feature of note that is sorely missed is playback and record connections on the amplifier. This means that you could hook up a deck through the auxiliary input but you cannot record. From any source if using this amplifier alone. Break your ribbon cable, uh-oh. (JVC would later address this with the PC-55 giving you ribbon and RCA cable options.)

Power with the required 8 “D” cells (alkaline of course) revealed that as with most units of this type you sacrifice power when using batteries. In a sense, this unit operates like the Telefunken 1M in that on mains power it’s a killer, and on batteries, it’s still a killer, with a much smaller knife. The difference is that you must switch it to operate on battery or 12V external transformer. On batteries at reasonable volume it ran for about three hours or so before it started losing stations and distorting under load before quitting from a lack of juice. (OK I admit I pushed it a few times on favorite songs but who wouldn’t?!) The unit on AC runs on both 120/240v and voltage is selected from a switch in the back.

Ergonomics:

Tiny buttons everywhere! If you're ham-fisted or have sausages for fingers you’ll be highly irritated. I am a fan of knobs but I must be forgiving for such a clean design. The tone and balance controls are irritating to get to behind the door but once set; you shut it and don’t think about it. Tuning is somewhat of a hassle also since it does not roll over and even if you press down it locks on the first strong station. Lift and press to continue. Of course that’s why you have pre-sets. No station surfing here.



The carrying handle is a convoluted contraption but works well as it is integral to the speaker mounts. The speakers slide on once the brackets and handle are mounted and are locked from the top with a plastic (!) clip and screw. The smoothest setup champ when locking pieces together for any portable compo goes to Sanyo with the C7 & C9. Weight is not going to be discussed as a problem here since you'd have to be an idiot to think these were anywhere near light in weight. These are home systems with handles, period. 23lbs. without, 28lbs. with batteries.

Overall Sound:

First let’s get this established. This unit, like most of its kind was not designed for earth shattering bass by its speaker design. (The JVC PC-5 and Marantz PH-32L released around the same time and which would be considered it’s direct, and probably only rivals by design, are another example.) My listening area was about six feet away to stay in the sweet spot and the unit was at ear level. That being said, this unit gets so much out of so little. The speakers that is. They are rated at 20 watts/4 ohms (That may explain the amp!) and incredibly clear, hitting all notes very nicely, and transitions smoothly. I really had to work to get it to distort. Not really sure how much the small passive radiator helps but the sound is surprising for four inch speakers. I played Sara Barellies-Love Song (Alt. Pop), Fleetwood Mac-Dreams/Black Magic Woman (Classic Rock), Rock Master Scott & The Dynamic Three-Request Line (Rap), Davy DMX-One For The Treble (Rap), Marcus Roberts-Deep In The Shed (Jazz), and Toby Keith-As Good Once as I Was (Country). I was very pleased with the sound and it is apparent Sansui put a lot of effort into using its experience in home audio into this unit. There was plenty of bass, more than I expected. Hooking (with a mod to plug standard wires into the amp) to my Infinity SM-60’s really allowed the unit to shine. As noted before, this little blockbuster seems to have limitless reserves.

Highs: Killer Looks, Unique Features, Surprising Power, Strong Tuner

Lows: Tape Connection Missing at Amp, No Push/Pull Clips, Contrived Handle Setup, Stop & Go Tuner

Recommendation:

I recommend one if you can find one. Now if I can get that black one….



Sansui CP-7 with Sansui CP-99W





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*TPR* :
As an example for an EXTRAORDINARY 1st Class Review ...it got a place in the BBDB.

Wow oldskool69

I love that unit! Looks great! As much as you wrote about it, you realy must be in love with it (or her?) ... hope you'll get the black one also ...


TOM

Wow Oldschool!

thats a great example of a review !

Thanks a lot to share with us!!!

Excelent review !!
About underating amplifiers was true. Sansui wanted customers feel happy about their systems that exceed they have read in the manual.
I have a receiver rated to 90+90, but measuring it shields 97+97W. Other amplifiers like x17 series handle about 15% over it's rated power, while keeping THD extremelly low.

This portable is incredible !!!!!. Some areas remeber me about the 77 series, like the turner layout, but the 77 was VFD display (fluorecent).
Sansui's audio know-how is soo large, I guess tit's nearly a perfect product.

Enjoy it

Very nice review, Skippy! It's almost like you've been hanging around Arkay!

quote:

Originally posted by Fatdog:
Very nice review, Skippy! It's almost like you've been hanging around Arkay!

Uh, although I think highly of Skippy as he was really looking out for me find one...I'm no Skippy!

Yah Fatdog,GEEEZ get with the program man!

that was fatdogs first screw-up EVER !!

quote:

Originally posted by redbenjoe:

that was fatdogs first screw-up EVER !!

Must be the snow in Tennessee.

forgot to thank you for that great review, oldskool --
but you forgot the appropriate POEM !!!

Ehh, great review their Freddie!

quote:

Originally posted by redbenjoe:
forgot to thank you for that great review, oldskool --
but you forgot the appropriate POEM !!!

Han Solo called Chewbacca, Chewie,
Gum on a sidewalk is gooey,
If you spit it sounds like ptooey,
To all the haters a phooey,
For no matter the name, sticky controls,
Or sound games to achive the perfect chi,
Much respect goes out to the other makes,
But no box gets my love like Sansui's!

Nice review! I wonder how it does up against the panasonic 100? hummmm I need to get one to find out!!

quote:

The timer is typical fare with sleep and wake functions and supports timer recording with the cassette deck

Oldskool, now THAT'S how one should write a review! I love the way you added pictures along the way to support what you were saying. Well done!!

(BTW the black one looks much better... I hope you can find one!)

Excellent review, really fun to read! I am going to enjoy mine even more!

Hi Oldskool, Does this have a 3 head deck, as James kept looking for the reference to the below ... >

quote:

tape monitor (more on this later

Always In the Hunt for more anything Sansui's!
Z5000X, Z3000X, Z7000X, CP-77W, I have

james is the ONE---
who can tell us -- how it compares to the C100

Wow, that's an excellent and thorough review. Does she cook breakfast too?

Great review, thanks for the effort.

quote:

Originally posted by redbenjoe:
james is the ONE---
who can tell us -- how it compares to the C100

I actually have a Panasonic RX-C100 to compare against. And get ready for more reviews and comparisons. All of my units will be put through the same rigourous overview plus compared to their contemporaries based on my blessed history of getting to listen to so many of these. If I do not actually have the equal by design (example: My CP-99W vesus JVC PC-W350) I will use my experience hearing the unit (PC-W350) as I remember it. If I don't have one in actual minds memory to compare against I will use comparable stats on the units and focus soley on sound of the one I do have.

That's a really beautiful unit and an A+++ review!I'm more than pleased your review has a place in the BBDB.Reviews would be the missing element in the software.Please write more!

Thanks to all for the kind words. I really want to try and take a more professional style to my reviews and be informative and honest as possible. One thing you can all count on is that I will tell you if a unit has warts or not as there is no perfect box on the planet. I was really lucky to have a freind around to place a controlled load on the unit to measure it's true potential. It is also why I love these compo systems so much. Especially by the Sansui, Marantz and Pioneers of the world. What they did no has done or matched since in literally taking a home audio unit and putting it into the smallest configuration possible. More to come... And thanks again, it's my privelege and honor to post here.

quote:

Originally posted by DecentMan4you:
Hi Oldskool, Does this have a 3 head deck, as James kept looking for the reference to the below ... >

No three head deck. This would have been cost prohibitive for a boombox. Just a solid well built deck.

quote:

Originally posted by MasterBlaster84:
Wow, that's an excellent and thorough review. Does she cook breakfast too?

Nope doesn't do breakfast but will gladly scramble Ira's eggs!

great review Oldskool!! When did the PC-55 come out? I assumed this would be the competition for the CP-7? The Sunsui reminds me a lot of the Yamaha C8?

quote:

A neat feature is that the tone and balance controls are hidden behind a neat little door since you won’t be fiddling with them much anyway.

I don't know if the other designers out there will agree, but from a design perspective, I can only deduce that this was due to the fact that every other control on the front is either an incredibly small button or discreet slider. Thus, having 3 larger (they have to be larger to get a decent purchase on) dials would have completely messed up the look!

Fantastic review, really insicive and erudite... keep them coming!!!

quote:

Originally posted by peter griffin:
great review Oldskool!! When did the PC-55 come out? I assumed this would be the competition for the CP-7? The Sunsui reminds me a lot of the Yamaha C8?

The PC-55 was released in mid to late '84 if my memory serves me correctly and sold throughout '85. The Yamaha PC-8 is actually the reworked clone to the PC-55. Your hint here is the location of the controls on the PC-8 vs. PC-55. (Thanks if this is a member photo of the PC-8. )

quote:

Originally posted by beatbox:
Fantastic review, really insicive and erudite... keep them coming!!!

Thanks! I will probably post a review monthly. This will give enough time to thoroughly test units and have a good listen to them. I also will be doing some comparisons also.