I am so excited and blown away. I have been struggling over the past few months about how to bump up my 2 channel stereo sound. Do I get a larger AV receiver, get an amplifier, mono amps, what?? Well, I stumbled into the world of vintage 1970's receivers-Pioneer, Sansui, etc. Not tubes but just as sweet. WOW, do these sound better than the digital stuff today and the power of these bad boys is unreal. I kinda went crazy and bought 4 of them off ebay so I'll keep 2 and sell the other 2. The sound is so warm and smooth and much more powerful. So I have found my solution and have found a sound that I forgot existed!!! I'm curious to see if others have any of these receivers for their 2 channel music....

Charles my first receiver of any substance was a 2ch 120wpc Pioneer SX-1080 that I bought new while stationed overseas during the mid-'70s and I just sold that thing at a garage sale about three years ago ... I've been absolutely kicking myself in the butt every since.

I've been thinking about getting my hands on another SX-1080 for old times sake but having the even better 165wpc SX-1250 would really be sweet.

Rick,
My wife goes to garage sales on the weekends so I've just added another item for her to look for-vintage receivers. Yea, I want a 1050/1080 or 1250/1280 or better yet a 1980. I bought a 950 and just hooked it up and it is sweet!!!! I also bought a Sansui 9090DB but haven't gotten it yet. I'll play around with them until I find the right one but for sure the sound is very different from my Yammy 657.

These old receivers look fantastic too! It's interesting how some newer receivers are trying to go back to this look. My dad had an old Marantz that I really wanted which he used to play music in the garage. He would have given it to me, but it was stolen.

I have a drop-dead gorgeous silver faced Pioneer SX-850 receiver nicely wrapped in my garage.

Here is a picture of this Pioneer beauty from my old house when it was in service.



Sounded great!

Upgraded with a Kenwood KA9100 amplifier, CA9ES Sony CDP, a pair of wonderful Dahlquist DQM 905s, and a customized Kenwood SW300 sub (Titanic 10" driver), a truly great 2 channel system, now doing car wash music service in my new garage.

I've got a Pioneer SX-5580 which is the Black faced European version of the SX-1050. It drives a pair of Vintage 1963 Acoustic Research AR3a speakers. Very, very good sound.

The best part of this has been my wife's response. I had this Pioneer 950 set to a Jazz station when she got home last night and she immediately noticed the smoothness and warmth of the sound. She said she couldn't put a word to it but the sound was so much better than usual. The words she finally came up with was "The music sounded like it was oiled"!! Can't wait for the Sansui 9090Db to get here.

Mmmmmmm. Lubricated Jazz.....

I guess that we have fond memories for audio gear, cars, etc. that we have owned in the past. Although I, too, have fond memories of my previous "toys," I think that my current ones are much better.

Just my thought.

Well Rat, sounds like you've never owned a Shelby Cobra, or a McIntosh tube amp and preamp. Some old stuff is as good as you remember it was.