It is great how you deliver the info. CRC on the tuner only! I learn a lot watching you and Trevor over on Trevor's Bench. I have saved a ton of receivers from the heap. Im getting into Tuner alignments now. Have tweaked a few oscillators successfully, but now have my scope and tools together.
I worked at a stereo store in the summer of 1980 while the SX-3500 (or models very similar) were for sale new. They looked so cool with those blue fluorescent power meters and (on the nicer models) the FM digital readout. However, within a year or two, Pioneer changed their product line completely. The new receivers were physically smaller and did not have the shiny metallic trim of the earlier models. And even the lowest power receiver had microprocessor control of the tuner with electronic presets. It was a dramatic change.
Years ago, deoxit relieved me of every single pot in my guitar amp - same vintage. The stops must have been made of that same plastic, it just got soft and failed. Nothing but isopropyl alcohol for me now, as specified in many old tektronix service manuals.
IPA can dry out plastics and rubber which will cause them to crack, this is why i cringe when i see people cleaning pinch rollers with it. where possible i take POTS apart and renew their tracks with an ordinary lead pencil
I have the most beat up sx3700 that still functions. Shes missing all her knobs, except tuner, phono button is smashed out, needs help but she still puts out! lol
@ 17:30 I wish you at least showed us what the "special tool" was to adjust the trimmer cap. Those of us that have some alignment tools could at least have a better clue as to if we needed to get another one.
A refreshing change from all the "King Charles III" BS we have here at the moment, top quality fella. why the hell didnt pioneer fit a plastic cover to the tuning capacitor?
I could be wrong but I've been dripping 91% ipa into my knobs lately. It seems to work perfectly and retain the greese so there's still a resistance when the knobs turned
Thanks for all the info! I've learned a lot from you over the years and have successfully repaired numerous pieces of equipment. I've had excellent luck with SX-3500's and 3900's, but for some reason every Pioneer SX-3800 I come across has been a complete nightmare. From what I can tell, the outputs tend to fail really hard and there seems to be several problem areas throughout the receiver. If you have the opportunity, could you please make a video about fixing one?
Hello. Could you help me out. I have a pioneer SA 408. Left channel is getting alot of "earth loop like" sound coming out to speaker on outlet A and no sound out on outlet B
I think it was really evident by the time they got to the 80 series. Then this series and the D series, then you saw the terrible mid 80s single and two digit sx series. Yuck. Then when all the vsx and black face units arrived you could tell Pioneer had left the chat as far as build quality
I have to give Pioneer a little credit. I have a black plastic receiver I saved up and bought in middle school around 1995. I've literally put that thing through hell and back as a kid and I've never had a single issue with it
@@branhicks I bought a pioneer SX 1300 back in the day when I was a teenager, of course all of the good quality 1970 units were before my time so I did not pay attention to them. I think I ended up frying the output transistors from running it too hard.
