It was your videos and Andrews that tipped me to getting an sx780 when i started looking for a vintage pioneer. Now paired with a pair of klipsch chorus i speakers and 15" klipsch sub...i couldn't be happier and brings me back to my childhood listening to my dad's old stereo. Thanks Lenny, Andrew and team!
I have a Marantz 2325 that's been in storage for 25 years. I recently took it out and connected it up to my Polk tower speakers and honestly forgot the beautiful sound that this receiver delivers.
Lenny, you're a young man with an old soul. I bought my first stereo in 1975 and I remember all of these great units. I would have loved to go receiver shopping with you in 1978 when our ship was in Japan and nearly every one of these was at the Navy Exchange. Congratulations Spencer on your marriage. I've been married 46 years, and I haven't given up yet. LOL BTW I knew The Pioneer would pick up stations. I bought my first new car when I was stationed in San Diego, a 1979 Corolla and it came without a stereo. I mounted an under dash Pioneer AM FM Cassette player and I picked up stations from LA with no antenna. I never installed one.
Thanks for the video love the older units. I have a Kenwood KR-7600 bought used in early 80's still use it in our bonus room as our entertainment sound center.
If you're serious about collecting or restoring stuff you never pay that kind of price... you might fall into the category once or twice in your life because you know that's the receiver your dad had when you were a kid and it's spotless but else it works very differently. Otherwise you'd surely collect far fewer items than you could or you'd run out of business.
I have 3 Marantz's -- a 2230, 2235 and a 2270 -- plus a Kenwood KA-9100 that's not working but in the shop and might get fixed, and a cheap Realistic to boot. The 2230 is for my wife's office. She likes to listen with headphones. The 2235 drives a couple of Original Large Advents (walnut case with beveled edge) in the master bedroom. The 2270 drives a stack of Original Large Advents in our family room (walnut cases sitting on top of utility case versions). I love the OLAs driven by the Marantz's. Warm, vibrant but never fatiguing sound. I'd go with AR3a's if they weren't a pain to maintain. But I like my speakers soft (the modern ones tend to be way too responsive) and neutral, with a warmth coming through the amp and preamp. The Advents just need the surrounds changed every 15 or so years and are otherwise indestructible. When stacked, they sound like to me a bit like electrostatics except without the fragility and limited life span. The only problem with my vintage gear is it's spoiled me for anything else. I paid $4,000 to outfit my car with good stereo equipment but I never listen to it. The sound is too modern and accurate for my taste. I go into the rare hi-fi store where one can still sample stuff and I'm not impressed by gear costing tens of thousands. The amp and preamp need not be Marantz. Sansui and Pioneer both sound great. A lot of others too. If my Kenwood can be fixed, it will sound great. Even much cheaper stuff sounds great. The Realistic is muddy but still warm and beautiful. Of course I'm describing my tastes and preferences. YMMV of course.
For me this "80" series era of Pioneer became and has remained my favorite receivers for looks, build quality, power output and I just love the face the front is a thick aluminum extrusion with a real glass dial front, these are still to me the best looking vintage receivers but thats JMO
"That was 5 watts. And this has 270." What does that tell you? You do not need 270 watts to listen to music, even at a very loud volume. Of course it depends on your speakers, but most people would be fine with a receiver with way less than 100 watts.
Those prices seem a little ridiculous you can buy brand new mac gear for less. Not saying Lenny is ripping people off the market for vintage everything is kind of nuts.
@@longboardluv2 I know, right? Then you got Lenny admitting to chuckling behind the customer's back, "Woohoo, can't believe how much I sold that thing for." And don't get me started on the way they ramble on over options or specs they clearly no little about. I don't know how these guys do it. Must be a lot of fools with too much money on the east coast.
@@austinpowers6260 -- It is not inflation that is mostly causing the price on vintage stereos to increase. People have learned that stereo receivers of the 1970s are generally of a better quality, and they are in higher demand now.
RCA Speaker Connectors were not used with low level audio inter connect cables. They used 14 through 20 gauge by 2 conductor speaker wire that was soldered onto male RCA terminations. It was a cheap & easy solution for the minimal audio enthusiasts ability to hook up a speaker set. As quickly as possible without wiring them incorrectly.
I adore the sheer honesty of these old Realistic receivers. Sadly...I connected my 1979-vintage Minimus 7s to...a flashy SX-580 back in 1979. Over the years, I've wished I'd had the humility to just add the Realistic STA-7 (or similar) to the speakers and "solved" my stereo choice way back then. Today? I STILL have and use my Minimus 7s (with an old Adcom system), but the flashy SX-580 is long gone. I want to buy a low-power Realistic receiver to finally UNITE what should've been united 47 years ago. Someday... Mahalo for another trip down my own memory lane! Aloha!
I have an sx 880 i like, but still want to go sx 950 or larger. Depends on the speakers I end up with. thanks for keeping hifi alive. I also like the technics stuff, but hear they require more maint. (i grew up with an sa-505 and nice floor cabs in the 80's and 90's).
The SX980 80wpc was one of the best of this series, it could be had for $500 and had some seriously heavy duty modern custom output transistors that sounded superb and easily exceeded their published specifications by about ten percent on average - I know I had mine tested by a friend who was an electronics technician.- even he was amazed at how stable it was under load on his Oscilloscope.
Something that caught my attention was being able to use these as an external amp. For the life of me, I can’t figure out if I can use my old Onkyo TX-NR1000 as a external amp.
My very first receiver was a 20 watt Sherwood...think it was the 7110 model..something like that. Man, that thing kicked some serious asss! Could never turn it past 4....that bluish backlighting...ah!
I have Sony TA700es amp - brought it for £300 of eBay about 8 years ago...I needed a service , that cost me £1,200 ...Yes, could have brought a new one for that ( but would not have 3 tape inputs and monitoring - I have a Aiwa XKS 7000 and a Studer B67 ( also just serviced total cost £ 3,500 ) when I asked why the Sony amp was so expensive - he told me that as Sony used the best parts , he did the same - which is probably why is sounds awesome...Vintage all the way !!!
I am a big fan of Vintage products, whether it's electronics, cars, motorcycles, or clothes, but the price of a 1970s receiver like Pioneer 1980 model 15000 dollars is really ridiculous. One of my interests in Vintage products is that you can compete with a new and up-to-date product at a very reasonable price... but recently the 70s receivers have become unnecessarily expensive while the 2000s or late 90s receivers are very cheap, There are those that you can hear a very good sound from, and it is not necessary to pay 150 dollars for a very basic receiver from the 70s, while you can buy a Denon Surround receiver from the 2000s with excellent sound for 50 dollars. At least in Europe, I don't know how it is in US.
First off, Good to see Spencer back in the video. Second, I love my vintage Marantz receiver. It looks really good in the wood cabinet, but not fond of the extra weight and size it adds to the receiver. It makes the connections a little more hard to connect plus limits the placement on tighter racks, Third, I am not sure I would spend $15,000 on a vintage receiver with all the current pieces available like Accuphase, Luxman and McIntosh in that price range. Fourth, Great Video as always! I don't miss any of them!!!!!
2 TT on the Marantz 2270 is to allow playing mono LPs with a mono cartridge and playing Stereo LP with Stereo cartridge and not have to swap cartridges and have to go through adjustments
There is a lot of nastalogia and coolness factor built into the prices. I have a 2270 that I find very cool to look at despite the long FM Scale I never use. Decent investments at this point. Then again, everything has gone up.
Hello, I am bringing a Technics by Panasonic Sa-=500 back to life. On the back their is a place for two 5.0a fuses. Can I use a 5.0a-250v, 1.25mm fuse?
What you didn’t address is the sonic difference between brands! Sansui is much brighter sound. Only brand brighter is Yamaha. Marantz is not as bright…. And Pioneer to my eyes…. Much less bright with a solid mid and bass sound. Pioneer has the better sonics to me. Lastly , McIntosh has an even more solid, less tinny sonic expression. The Mac 4100 receiver which sells around 1500-2,000 is a great sounding unit, with 5 knob eq, variable loudness, and consistently puts out 105 wpc ,clipping at 110 wpc. It’s a great bargain. Lastly the sx1980 wasn’t the greatest sounding of Pioneer receivers. The 1250 Sounded better and it’s born out on scope traces. Plus the 80 series had hot spots where boards burned at aluminum heat sinks. It may be most powerful and heaviest .
Hey guys, I would love to hear your thoughts on Hitachi receivers, specially the HTA 4 since I have one and I want to know if I made a good investment. Thanks
By 1978 I had owned the Sansui, Marantz 2265 and a Final Pioneer SX1280 with a Great set of JBL L100s , which is What I Own Now From JUST AUDIO! Spencer or Tom Had that thing on a Pallet wrapped Awesome!! Next will be a A12 or a 280 From you guys big price increase for the 4000 will be my End Game!!
I have a restored Pioneer SX- 780 / knobs arent plastic - my unit had all knobs polished, warm LEDs installed, many replaced caps, even the STK power supplies were replaced, and a new cabinet hand sanded and polished. Why are you selling for $1500.00 when I got mine for $400.00? Theres even a brand new one from Japan - completely new in original box on eBay for $2000.00.
Kinda irrelevant to this but most of my audio equipment is Pioneer. Not "vintage" but OLD. I bought my original system 35+ years ago. Only thing left of that is the tower speakers with 12" woofers. Added another set of tower speakers sometime later with 15" woofers. Then I replaced the head unit with a more modern one with HDMI inputs and shit. Realized that wiring the TV to a receiver was more of a pain in the ass than it was worth because of the numerous button clicks it takes to make the system actually work and now I just use the digital audio input from my TV to the receiver. I had to replace the cones on the 12" woofers several years ago because they split from the housing. That was a MAJOR pain in the ass BUT they still sound and work fine.
I had a 50 Watt Realistic at one Time, for the Moneyit was Awesome, but you Forgot the 72 Lloyd's 4 Channel Reciever Turntable and 4 Crap Speakers, but my Steely Dan Can't buy a thrill 4 channel album was perfect for that set up, spent 200 bucks for the Whole Deal from Pacific Stereo!!!
It doesn't matter to me if the stereo knobs are plastic or metal. What counts is the feel. My finger tips react favorably to reeded plastic knobs than to smooth bland metal knobs. Knobs that are metal and reeded is a bigger plus.
Thanks for another awesome video. I’m that JVC guy that keeps aggravating you guys, just kidding. I did just purchase my first ever receiver. I have tons of JVC / Victor integrated, power, and preamps. Even also some Laboratory Spec. Anyway, the receiver is a Pioneer sx 1080 and now I want the sx 1280, but the 1980 is way out of my league. My question is how do you clean and get that luster on the metal face of the sx 1980 you exhibited?
I can’t tell the secrets 😂 thanks for watching and glad you are enjoying. We don’t use the new deoxit faceplate cleaner, but I’d recommend that cause their products are great
I can see the big high end, rare receivers going for big money (not that I would pay) but an entry-level receiver is easy enough to find for $50 or whatever. There is just so much good stuff from the 80s-90s with lots of power for cheap, people just want to spend money on aluminum faceplates.
It would be interesting to see how the old school Pioneer SX 1980 compares to a modern-day McIntosh MAC 7200 with DAC2 upgrade. That is the only thing I can think of that is currently produced that comes close to being just as high end. Sadly, most things of today are not built to the same caliber of the Pioneer, or the Sansui, even the Yamaha R-N2000A IMHO would be more of a great bang for the buck offering versus an all-out assault on what the company is capable of. These things are what I like to call lost tech, the parts, building materials, and manufacturing processes I am sure most companies would consider way too expensive to implement today.
At this point in time I wouldn't buy anything like that for the performance or the power. As for the looks in this showdown SANSUI for me really is the top, I can't imagine how much of a display piece can that be in a dimly lit room.
let me known that the highest priced paid for a Pioneer SX-1280 is 5k THIS IS EVER!! I have an eBay store and have history going 3 years back. So 15k is 3 times more than any other sold on that platform. Not to say that maybe one has sold for 15k but these prices are extremely inflated.
Am I going bonkers or was somebody taking flash photos during the recording of the video? It got pretty distracting during what to many of us is a religious experience - the kind where you concentrate for record periods of time without 'waking up' so to speak.
I would love to see a video showing the 10 WORST quality stereo component manufacturers from the 1970s. There was a lot of mediocre and subpar garbage being pushed by the stereo retailers back then. I bought a component system in 1978-1979 and I researched a lot before purchasing. But many people did not do their homework and bought crap stereo stuff.
@@karenfyhr2363 the most expensive Pioneer SX 780 to sell on eBay in the last 3 years is 1,600 but there was only one. However there are dozens of them have sold for $800 or 900
@@karenfyhr2363 well yeah it kinda is cause the 780 is the most common pioneer ever made and just ten years ago you could find them for around $100 on average
I had the G8000 once. It sounded great, but I couldn't stand the wires coming out of its ears. No matter how nicely you compact them into those channels is still didn't look as nice as being in the back. Big flop in my opinion. If the SX 1980 had that, it would not be as desirable as it is, guaranteed.
It's like hearing that my Keds were actually well made. Who knew I didn't the Pro Keds afterall. (Damn kids calling me poor) The kid in the 6 family apartment building had The Realistic good stuff??
Not real crazy about the speaker and input plugs sections. Who in the world would put these on the sides of a receiver? Just killed the looks of such a nice receiver. Just my .02
Honestly i kinda understand why you did get so much hate for that famous modification video. HDMI, WIFI and all that modern stuff doesn't belong into a 50 years old vintage gear. And if people share their opinion on forums won't necesarily makes them "keyboard warriors"... But it's just my opinion. And an SX-780 for 1500? Man, that's wild...
And there I thought you were going to actually compare what they sounded like (as you did with some speakers a while ago) - what they look like and how they're made is a reflection of their price but not necessarily their value for money sound wise - shame.
1:47 CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO FINNALY KNOW THATS THATS A HITACHI. RADIO SHACKS LIKE SEARS. HITACHI MADE 90$ OF THIER EQUIPMENT. AND 10% PIONEER BUT THAT IS A HITACHI SO ARE ALOT OF RADIO SHACK
