Can Vintage Stereo Receivers (Pioneer SX-1050) compete with today’s Stereo Receivers?

Hi-FiGuy said:

http://www.pacificstereo.net/

Look here for repairs.

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Wait time = 48 months!
No price quote.

NorthStar said:

No, it's just a YouTube video I found after you mentioned your wish of the 1080.
I liked the tune and it showed the 1080 front face reasonably well.

I posted couple links yesterday about restoration of the vintage 1050 and approximate cost. It can be roughly between $300 and $400 depending.

I like vintage audio equipment, it reminds me of first love experiences when I was in my teens. ...Girlfriends; number one first love...Roxanne. Her dad was a high profile doctor surgeon, he died in a car accident when I was 15-16, and while courtising his daughter. I could write a book, or two, but not here, not now.

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Thanks for price tips.

I wish I had those sorts of book worthy romantic memories! Instead I remember the poverty I experienced after splurging on that Pioneer, my first good piece of audio gear. I couldn’t afford speakers for it at first. Was rescued by some workmates who had obtained blueprints of the Bose 901s that were revolutionary at the time (yeah, I know, don’t gag). One of the engineers at HP where I worked had taken apart Bose speakers and equalizers, drawn up blueprints, sourced parts from same vendors as Bose, etc. Those blueprints got passed around the workplace a bit and luckily came to one of my workmates. So my brother and I and a big bunch of workmates (I was the only female) got together and over a couple of weekends made speakers and equalizers. I had a wonderful time. Those unlovely, particle board beasts were “it” in my living room until I bought my Quads in the 80s. Sadly, the Pioneer never had proper speakers to show off with because I set it aside at that point. It hasn’t been much used since.

Hi-FiGuy said:

As Homer Simpson once said,Doh!

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Thank you, Homer. My sentiments exactly!

NorthStar said:

Awesome read, you made me smiling too, right from your opening.

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paul79 said:

I don't agree with this at all.... Particularly when speaking about a SX series Pioneer. I have been restoring vintage audio for over 20 years.
The switches are excellent quality in these, and rob little if anything if cleaned properly. You can bypass the tone controls, which is the most damaging to the signal integrity IMO.
I have never had a problem sourcing electronic parts that fit and work better than the original most times.
With some upgrades, the SX-1050 will satisfy most anybody that is looking for a vintage 2 channel system. Totally worth restoring properly, and will AT LEAST compete dollar for dollar, even if you put $800 into the restoration.

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I am so pleased to read this; thank you Paul for chiming in. I am about to take the first step in the restoration process, a good listen, as is. Next week I have an appointment with my audio repair fellow to solder on a wire to my regular speaker wires so they can do double duty. That is, work in the Pioneer’s bare wire sockets and be able to switch to my regular amp’s more typical ones. And I plan to listen for as long as it takes to decide whether I want to restore.

As an aside, I was astonished to see an SX-1250 sell for $2000 today on eBay. I saw three SX-1050s for between $875 and $1000. Not bad.

I just had to come back and report that I put my old Pioneer into my TV AV system and I am super pleased, actually thrilled, with the improvement it has made. I still can hardly believe it sounds so good. I was pretty worried it might sound old and creaky and it just doesn’t! It actually started out with a bad omen because the Pioneer proved too wide to fit into any of the compartments in my stereo console (!), but I persisted and I am so glad I did.

I also didn’t quite stick with the original idea to just do a straight swap between the Audiomat Arpege and the Pioneer because the Arpege displaced quite a nice Musical Fidelity A3cr Preamp. I couldn’t help coveting the Musical Fidelity’s remote control and so I decided to use the Pioneer just as an amplifier and let the Musical Fidelity do all the Preamp work. That turned out to be surprisingly simple.

The dialogue was almost the first thing we noticed. It was so much brighter and clearer and easier to understand. Musically, it was just so obviously better! Brighter and clearer and much more musical with a definite sense of plenty of reserve power if needed. It sounds terrific with the new Oppo UDP-205 that I was just so fortunate to get from Oppo at about the same time. At first I thought it was overly bright, but now that the Oppo has broken in, it has proved a perfect match for it too.

In retrospect it was a lucky thing to see the article posted here about the blind performance contest between two vintage receivers and a modern AV receiver. It was really motivating to read that the Pioneer SX-1980 was such a clear winner over a modern unit and it gave me the courage to try my SX-1050 out.

https://www.iavscanada.com/receiver-shoot-out-vintage-vs-high-tech/

Most people like the SX-1250 better than the SX-1980 anyway and some even prefer the SX-1050, so I wasn’t too worried. I’m sure I could spend quite a lot of money and do better than the Pioneer but I’ve decided it’s more than good enough. It’s a keeper. If it goes down, I will definitely have it restored.

The one slightly sad thing in all this is that the Arcam SR-250 AV receiver is so clearly outdone and it now functions just as an ultra expensive video switcher. The Musical Fidelity is the Audio switcher. I needed a cheat sheet to keep everything straight so I have a laminated card that does all the cross referencing. It’s crazy because to turn everything on is quite a ritual. First the Musical Fidelity, then the Pioneer. Then turn on the Arcam and mute it. Then decide on sources and make sure sound and video are coordinated, Sounds a bit crazy but it’s actually working just great.

I want to update this thread to report that I have had my SX-1050 refurbished! I LOVE the audio quality results. It initially seemed a little bright but either it has mellowed with burn in time or I’ve grown accustomed to its ”personality”. It excels at making dialogue very clear, but I also love its musical expression. It beats my AV receiver by miles.

I am using it in my TV stereo system where I purchased the ARCAM SR-250 to do duties as an Audio Video Receiver. Since I’m a two-channel stereo dinosaur, I jumped at a chance to buy a two-channel AVR. I was immediately disappointed in the audio quality. The audio just didn’t compare to that of a typical audio stereo receiver. I set up and lived with a couple of different workarounds now happily set aside and replaced with the Pioneer. I just route all HDMI cables to the Arcam and I route the audio via RCA composite cables to the Pioneer.

i did have to invest in a couple of gadgets to accommodate my laser disc player and my Roku. The Roku comes with only HDMI capability so I bought a gadget that splits the audio from the HDMI and allows me to route audio to the Pioneer. I have a second gadget that converts the S-video from my laser disc player to HDMI and also allows me to split off the audio to the Pioneer like I do with the Roku. Luckily the Pioneer can accommodate all four of my sources, DISH DVR, OPPO DVD, VHS/DVD and Roku via Aux, Tape 1, Tape 2 and Adapter though it takes a little mental gymnastics to push the right levers when switching between sources.

The one downside was the cost. I took it to my local dealer who quoted me a price between $300 and $400 to refurbish it and yet I was presented with a bill for $1200. Yes, a shocking development but I wound up paying it. I notice unrefurbished SX-1050s selling on eBay for around $1200 so I can get my money back if I wanted to but it does remain a sore spot.