Flason Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 Does anyone have info on old pioneer receivers? Looking for more 1st hand knowledge and not just the specs. A friend gave me a Pioneer SX1000TW that he brought back from Viet Nam around '70-'71. Lights still work, sounds OK, just get some crackle when adjusting either the volume or balance. How do I get rid of that cracking?, and is this thing a keeper? I'm looking at connecting a phono to it to use the LaScalas. Any opinions out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 The controls probably need cleaning. Rat Shack sells it in a spray can. Others are available such as Deoxit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NOSValves Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 Yup just open up the amp and spray the inside of the pots with some tuner cleaner or DeoXit while working them back and forth. Do all the switches and bass, treble controls the works. Let the unit sit for a few hours after and you should be good to go ! Craig Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flason Posted September 30, 2002 Author Share Posted September 30, 2002 Will try the spray from Rat Shak. Any thoughts on the quality of these old Pioneer receivers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Cornell Posted October 2, 2002 Share Posted October 2, 2002 Car Quest if you have one there sells CRC the best contact cleaner ive seen yet, ive sprayed boyh my SX950 and QX 9900, and are both working like new! Jim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PBklipsch Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 Flason take the case off and find the rear of the knobs,Get some wd-40 and spray them with this,turn controls back and forth a few tmes and your all set,Wd 40 will clean all dirt and dust away and then will evaporate,Others will not,You do not want a oil to stay wet inside your unit,and thats what others do.This will only collect more dust and dirt and cause more problems in time.This is only a good tip,But thats up to you ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lynnm Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 PB WD-40 is the worst substance you could spray into electrical controls!! Yes it cleans to a degree but the solvent will evaporate and most of the original corrosion will remain in the form of sludge. In addition WD-40 is an oily lubricant that will negatively impact the conductivity of the pots and since the oil does not in fact evaporate the controls will gum up in a New York Minute! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Cornell Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 CRC ELECTRONIC CLEANER QUICK DRYING FORMULA CLEANS AND PROTECTS ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT HELPS PREVENT CONTACT FAILURE LEAVES NO REIDUE NO CFCS EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE, so be unpluged I find this at car quest, look at the pic, of the can regards Jim WD 40 no way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ray Garrison Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 Flason, Bad news / good news. Bad news - the Pioneer is from a generation of equipment, particularly receivers, that first gave the Japanese audio industry a bad name as far as audiofiles were concerned. Starting in the very early 70's, the mass market brands like Pioneer, Techniques and theother "big names" entered into a war of escalation. They began increasing the power output of their receivers in an attempt to out-do each other. To keep the noise and distortion specs as low as possible as power increased, they applied ever greater amounts of negative feedback. To keep costs reasonable, they skimped on power supplies. Many of these things carried power ratings specing lots 'o power into an 8 ohm load, but would only meet that rating if you were driving an 8 ohm resister. Connect a speaker with a difficult impedence, and combination of very high levels of negative feedback and the undersized-for-the-rating power supply resulted in very high levels of intermodulation distortion and a fairly poor sounding piece of gear. (Yes, I know this is a *GROSS* oversimplification guys, please don't beat up on me, but the basic points are valid.) When the first American "high end" manufacturers started coming out with amps that had properly designed power supplies and feedback networks, even though they carried *FAR* lower power ratings (the early Mark Levinson ML2, for example), they sounded better because they were more capable of driving real world speakers. This was the source of the oft-heard, and false, remark that "class A watts" were much more powerful than "class A/B watts" that the salespeople at places like Tech HiFi were so fund of spouting. Good news - your La Scalas are a *MUCH* kinder load than the typical dynamic speaker of the early '70s was. As the La Scalas are incredibly sensitive, you will not be pushing the Pioneer outside of the linear operating envelope - unless you push up the bass tone control and really crank things. Into the Scalas, the Pioneer might very well sound very good. I'm fairly sure you'll find it rather noisey (mostly hissy), as it has a lot of bells and wistles that you probably don't need, but I wouldn't expect that to be too much of a problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyKubicki Posted October 3, 2002 Share Posted October 3, 2002 My best friend was in Nam at that time too and he picked up an SX1000, or was it the SX9000...at any rate, it WAS noisy. I used to ask him where the rattle snakes are when he turned it on. At that same time, he got me a Marantz 22, which is today in my cousin's home still playing. I think the Pioneer was replaced. Andy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whell Posted October 5, 2002 Share Posted October 5, 2002 Ray: You may be correct that you're oversimplifying the explanation of 70's equipment. There were some large Pioneer and Technics receivers that got nice and loud, but often had issues with overheating. On the contrary, there were also some darn nice SS products in the 1970's that came from the "mass market" companys. I own a couple of examples: A Kenwood KA 9100 integrated amp with two nice size power supplies, one for each channel, and "dual mono" contruction; and A Yamaha CA-810 Integrated amp with a decent power supply and a darn nice phono section, though the interior layout might give someone a headache if I ever had to get it repaired! Both have excellent sound for what I use them for, with the Yamaha having what I imaginne some might describe as warm, tube-like sound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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