[wualta]

True, although the example I had was just... good. To my ears, typical mid-'70s transistor sound, albeit from one of the better manufacturers of the time.

 

[RexAeterna]

The Yamaha CR series put a plastic plug in the headphone jacks that said, "Reserved for Yamaha Orthodynamics". A pretty amusing bit of marketing hype.   A few people on the ortho thread have the CR-620 and really like it with Yamaha orthos.

i never heard that before. that is interesting so i guess i be better off trying to find some yamaha orthos for this receiver? my amp tho is not part of the CR series since the CR series was made in the 70's. this R-9 was made around 1985 i think and actually has inputs for video equipment as well as audio but still an audio receiver first.

 

[RexAeterna]

well heres a quick pic of the yamaha R-9.

i tried to get best lighting as possible but for life of me couldn't get a nice shot to turn the way i wanted it. anyways it's better looking in person and is very nice sounding as well with lots of power. i think this was yamaha's flagship during the 80's. i'm not sure.

 

[mythless]

 
One of my latest acquisitions and despite the name, it's a well made receiver and sounds pretty good, a bit too much hiss with the HF-2 though, probably likes higher impedance headphones more.

 

[cifani090]

Quote:

 
One of my latest acquisitions and despite the name, it's a well made receiver and sounds pretty good, a bit too much hiss with the HF-2 though, probably likes higher impedance headphones more.

Too bad it has that "brand"

The guy i bought my Kenwood from said that his (wanted me to buy his, or the "steal" price of anothers on craigslist) Bose speakers and said they would be better than my B&W.
 

 

[Inkmo]

I have pretty noticeable hiss on all my headphones through my pioneer sx-828 - except for my fostex t40.  nice thing about the 828 is it has a -20db mute switch that addresses the headphone problem pretty well

 

[nbourbaki]

RexAeterna, that Yamaha looks great.  For the life of me I can't get a good shot of my B-2's.  The black makes it hard to get a good picture.  Was the the R-9 that was on sale in Canada?  Enjoy!

 

[mythless]

Quote:

Too bad it has that "brand"

The guy i bought my Kenwood from said that his (wanted me to buy his, or the "steal" price of anothers on craigslist) Bose speakers and said they would be better than my B&W.
 

Nothing really wrong with Bose, I have the 901 IV series speakers and EQ to go along with it.  Is it the best speaker I've heard, nope.  But, it's not the worst.  Sounds pretty good, but could use a refoam job and I am not really looking forward to do that just yet, lol.  And, it is really a neat bunch of equipment.  So many receivers and not enough speakers, hrmmmm.....Need to get a hold of some vintage Stax and Fostexs.
 

 

[scompton]

Stax are what go me buying vintage amps.  I wanted an upgrade from a T amp.  I realized the headphone out worked pretty good too.

 

[shipsupt]

@sphinxcv - I was honestly just getting the list started.  I was using this thread and some of the Ortho threads to start my research on some of the usual suspects.  The prices are all over the place on this vintage gear.  When Frank and others mentioned the Pioneer SX line it jumped out at me as very capable, had the features I wanted, and seemed reasonably priced.  The fact that the HPO out on these were praised was a very big factor in my decision as I preffered it to speaker tapping... just my preference.  I also don't have any current plans to drive speakers with it.  As luck would have it I found one right away on Craigslist for $50 and figured I couldn't go wrong... So my list creation got cut short.

So I picked up this monster today.  The good, it's clean inside and out, and the front silver face, dials, etc... are in perfect condition.  The not so good, the "wood" sides do have some cosmetic issues so it's not pristine, but for it's age it looks pretty good.  I'll do some work to clean it up and think about potential ideas to refurbish it.  The VERY good is the sound.  It's dead quiet with the orthos hooked up to the HPO and it is sounds wonderful.  Wow, the power!  I was struggling with the sound of my LCD-2's from my previous headphone amps, but beleive this '76 vintage gear has just changed that.  Yes, this 35 year old receiver seems to be the key for me to really appreciate my new orthos.  I've been listening since I got it home and it's just got me grinning from ear to ear.  A quick listen with the HE-5LE (which I found much better with my other gear) gave me a similar reaction.

I have to say that I was hesitant that this vintage craze was a bit of FOTM, but I am now a believer!

If there is any downside to this new aquistion for me it's that I have no idea where it's going to live at my place.  It's big and doesn't really fit at either of my listening spots.  But for sure it's going to find a place where I can get some serious listening time with it.

 

[Zida]

So I just got my Pioneer SA-8500 today. It feels like it's driving my HE-6 so well I don't know if I have to bother with going to the speaker taps, but I'll give it a whirl anyhow. My volume knob is only at 9:00 though

I've been looking forward to grabbing this amp for months and it finally happened. I sat down and enjoyed it (and it's great tone controls!) for maybe 4 hours before I decided to have a last look around craigslist and just found an SA-9100 for a great price. Oy. And I just haaad to find this thread, too [http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=105549].

This is getting silly, now.

 

[Frank I]

 
Quote:

@sphinxcv - I was honestly just getting the list started.  I was using this thread and some of the Ortho threads to start my research on some of the usual suspects.  The prices are all over the place on this vintage gear.  When Frank and others mentioned the Pioneer SX line it jumped out at me as very capable, had the features I wanted, and seemed reasonably priced.  The fact that the HPO out on these were praised was a very big factor in my decision as I preffered it to speaker tapping... just my preference.  I also don't have any current plans to drive speakers with it.  As luck would have it I found one right away on Craigslist for $50 and figured I couldn't go wrong... So my list creation got cut short.

So I picked up this monster today.  The good, it's clean inside and out, and the front silver face, dials, etc... are in perfect condition.  The not so good, the "wood" sides do have some cosmetic issues so it's not pristine, but for it's age it looks pretty good.  I'll do some work to clean it up and think about potential ideas to refurbish it.  The VERY good is the sound.  It's dead quiet with the orthos hooked up to the HPO and it is sounds wonderful.  Wow, the power!  I was struggling with the sound of my LCD-2's from my previous headphone amps, but beleive this '76 vintage gear has just changed that.  Yes, this 35 year old receiver seems to be the key for me to really appreciate my new orthos.  I've been listening since I got it home and it's just got me grinning from ear to ear.  A quick listen with the HE-5LE (which I found much better with my other gear) gave me a similar reaction.

I have to say that I was hesitant that this vintage craze was a bit of FOTM, but I am now a believer!

If there is any downside to this new aquistion for me it's that I have no idea where it's going to live at my place.  It's big and doesn't really fit at either of my listening spots.  But for sure it's going to find a place where I can get some serious listening time with it.

 

Glad you like it. I still am amazed at what comes out of the SX650. I also have cosmetic issue and if I can get someone to build a new wood case for me it would be worth it as the sound is clean and I have no issues with the receiver. All three of my receivers are fun to listen too and sound very very good. Powerful and graceful in one receiver is something to appreciate.
 

 

[sphinxvc]

Quote:

@sphinxcv - I was honestly just getting the list started.  I was using this thread and some of the Ortho threads to start my research on some of the usual suspects.  The prices are all over the place on this vintage gear.  When Frank and others mentioned the Pioneer SX line it jumped out at me as very capable, had the features I wanted, and seemed reasonably priced.  The fact that the HPO out on these were praised was a very big factor in my decision as I preffered it to speaker tapping... just my preference.  I also don't have any current plans to drive speakers with it.  As luck would have it I found one right away on Craigslist for $50 and figured I couldn't go wrong... So my list creation got cut short.

So I picked up this monster today.  The good, it's clean inside and out, and the front silver face, dials, etc... are in perfect condition.  The not so good, the "wood" sides do have some cosmetic issues so it's not pristine, but for it's age it looks pretty good.  I'll do some work to clean it up and think about potential ideas to refurbish it.  The VERY good is the sound.  It's dead quiet with the orthos hooked up to the HPO and it is sounds wonderful.  Wow, the power!  I was struggling with the sound of my LCD-2's from my previous headphone amps, but beleive this '76 vintage gear has just changed that.  Yes, this 35 year old receiver seems to be the key for me to really appreciate my new orthos.  I've been listening since I got it home and it's just got me grinning from ear to ear.  A quick listen with the HE-5LE (which I found much better with my other gear) gave me a similar reaction.

I have to say that I was hesitant that this vintage craze was a bit of FOTM, but I am now a believer!

If there is any downside to this new aquistion for me it's that I have no idea where it's going to live at my place.  It's big and doesn't really fit at either of my listening spots.  But for sure it's going to find a place where I can get some serious listening time with it.

I'm checking out a 780 in a few hours, looks pretty clean, and the seller said the HPO works.  Might just come home with it.  

 

[RexAeterna]

RexAeterna, that Yamaha looks great.  For the life of me I can't get a good shot of my B-2's.  The black makes it hard to get a good picture.  Was the the R-9 that was on sale in Canada?  Enjoy!

i'm not sure really if it was sold in canada or not. only thing i know i think the r-9 is the flagship model of the series. it's also first above 100w receiver i owned that i enjoy a lot. it gets really hot in class A mode tho.i always wanted to try to get a yamaha B-2 but can't find any locally.

 

[Inkmo]

Hmm, maybe I oughta check out a pair of these new-fangled orthos, since I have an old school Pioneer SX myself...
 
Quote:

@sphinxcv - I was honestly just getting the list started.  I was using this thread and some of the Ortho threads to start my research on some of the usual suspects.  The prices are all over the place on this vintage gear.  When Frank and others mentioned the Pioneer SX line it jumped out at me as very capable, had the features I wanted, and seemed reasonably priced.  The fact that the HPO out on these were praised was a very big factor in my decision as I preffered it to speaker tapping... just my preference.  I also don't have any current plans to drive speakers with it.  As luck would have it I found one right away on Craigslist for $50 and figured I couldn't go wrong... So my list creation got cut short.

So I picked up this monster today.  The good, it's clean inside and out, and the front silver face, dials, etc... are in perfect condition.  The not so good, the "wood" sides do have some cosmetic issues so it's not pristine, but for it's age it looks pretty good.  I'll do some work to clean it up and think about potential ideas to refurbish it.  The VERY good is the sound.  It's dead quiet with the orthos hooked up to the HPO and it is sounds wonderful.  Wow, the power!  I was struggling with the sound of my LCD-2's from my previous headphone amps, but beleive this '76 vintage gear has just changed that.  Yes, this 35 year old receiver seems to be the key for me to really appreciate my new orthos.  I've been listening since I got it home and it's just got me grinning from ear to ear.  A quick listen with the HE-5LE (which I found much better with my other gear) gave me a similar reaction.

I have to say that I was hesitant that this vintage craze was a bit of FOTM, but I am now a believer!

If there is any downside to this new aquistion for me it's that I have no idea where it's going to live at my place.  It's big and doesn't really fit at either of my listening spots.  But for sure it's going to find a place where I can get some serious listening time with it.