Mallette Posted March 11, 2017 Share Posted March 11, 2017 Hey, being nice to people and this Regional Music Heritage Center thing is a GOOD gig! Got to be friends with a guy from Houston who is the son of a major figure in local jazz history, and helped him sell a building he had downtown for twice he was thinking it was worth. He stopped by today and left some awesome tapes from his dad, a couple of them engineered by PWK, for me to transfer. AND he said he'd stacked some old audio gear up from I was welcome to. He's on his way out of town, so I ran down and grabbed the new owner who is the local brewpub guy and he takes me to the building. Below is the loot. Not cleaned up at all yet except the warehouse dust that my clothes wiped off. NEVER had heard of those Pioneer CS 903s. Bit of research suggests they are love'em or hate'em. It's quite possible the "hate'em" bunch are the horn haters...don't know yet. But the love'em crowd is rock n' rollers. Looks like the bring 3-400.00 on Ebay and such. Fascinating early use of LED meters on them and push button EQ for Normal, Soft 1, Soft2, and Crisp. Users say they are bullet proof up to 400 watts or so. Looks like the other "prize" is the SX 3800, which gets straight 5 star reviews and has a phono preamp rated at -115db S/N. Also, preamp out...gotta love that! A Pioneer Dynamic Expander. I remember them, but was always a DBX guy so I've never used one. Looking forward to giving it a try. Yamaha YP-B2 TT, looks pretty pristine. Modest, but decent TT from what I can tell. May give it to my brother. An oddity...Pioneer AT-50 Audio Timer. Has four outlets you can set to turn on/off. Probably won't use it for audio but could be handy for some other things. 10 band EQ Sansui SE-7. Attitude has always been that any music or speakers need such a thing need replacing...but might do some good with the Pioneers. Anyway, good fun, no cost except for likely back pain tomorrow. Speakers were probably 50 lbs each and the Pioneer receiver just south of 40. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frzninvt Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 My first receiver when I was like 16 or 17 was a Pioneer SX-3800 I had a pair of AR-18a's hooked to it, later a buddy gave me a Marantz 3300 preamp to hook it. The Pioneer RG expander is highly regarded and will make a nice difference. Some nice vintage pieces there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
totalcomfort Posted March 12, 2017 Share Posted March 12, 2017 Don't you love when audio karma kicks in. Nice older gear, make someone a great vintage system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Cleaned the SX-3800 up. Looks almost NIB. Read up on the Yammie...15WPC. Pretty low power for SS, but the users LOVE it for being tubey and clean. Also touted for exceptional imaging. As those Pioneer CS-903s are the only low efficiency speakers I have I think the Yammie will find a place with some Fraziers which should make a good match. I am thinking the CS-903s may be useful for PA/Rock and such at RMHC events. Just have to play around a bit...but that's the fun part. I've a couple of Crowns, one 600wpc and the other 1200wpc that should pretty much drive the Pioneers to the max. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Rats. Plugged headset into the SX-3800, punched speakers out, and turned it on. Sounded awesome on FM for about 30 seconds then went silent and main display dark. Fiddled a bit...then smelled the magic smoke. Can only hope it's a power supply cap or the like. No big noise in the headset...just sudden silence. I know about bring up old tube stuff on autotransformers but I guess this stuff is old enough now for that to be a good procedure with vintage SS as well. Just hope I can locate the damaged genie bottle and get the magic smoke back in. No trouble shooter...if I can't see the offending part I can't fix it. Hate to think of this beauty as trash...but can't hall everything around awaiting a competent tech that's almost impossible to find. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 So, figured "WTF...see if I can fry the Yammie." Similar, but no smoke. Sounds great for about 10 seconds then a hum starts to build that overcomes the audio. I kill the power. Tried it several times, same result. I am assuming in my ignorance this is also likely a cap just north of "bad." Was able to trace the "magic smoke" in the Pannie to a bout 5 caps on one of the boards mounted to the heat sink, but I can't get it far enough out to really look for visible failure sings. It appeared I MIGHT be able to remove the transformer and get more space to examine...but that will have to be later as I am just too busy to mess with either of these at them moment. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mallette Posted March 12, 2017 Author Share Posted March 12, 2017 Methinks the specs on the CS-903s a bit overblown. 20-40khz...probably not. 99db efficiency...probably not. 16" woofer certainly LOOKS impressive. Certainly no speaker engineer, but the size of the enclosure and dual port design suggest if they EVER get to 20hz it's hardly and 99db efficiency. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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