Don't discount area flea markets, pawn shops, and if you can wait for it to warm up a bit yard sales. I ended up fixing the two receivers I picked up myself, but it's not a super complicated process. Simple soldering, with loads of information and people willing to help online. Good luck

Really? Both my pioneers have discrete bridge rectifiers, although they use silicon body diodes. SX-434 and SX-680

It's very possible that the Pioneer could even close the gap further with your Oppo given a little refresh. I was very impressed with the Pioneer 434, and the 680 I rehabbed is even better.

The bay, or making your own. Pioneer doesn't sell them anymore. There are a couple of threads dealing with these plugs on AK

              Very happy with the results so far.  Still need to redo the veneer on the case.  Thinking I may try real wood veneer instead of the factory vinyl veneer.  

Beautiful amp indeed

Ok intrigued to say the least.  Let's hope you have a successful ride.

Oh I know it's not exactly the same, and never meant to imply it was.  There's more oil in the radio shack stuff so using less is ideal.  It hasn't ruined any pots for me.  Maybe I've just been lucky.

This stuff from RadioShack does work well.  http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3511774&locale=en_US#   RadioShack branded deoxit basically.  Even uses the actual active ingredient in deoxit from caig.

Could be a pot that has some bad spots.  If it's a big bother to you warranty, try cleaning yourself, or replacing yourself are all options.  I've seen some pots act up a little if the mounting nut is tightened too much.  Just a thought.  GL with whatever you decide 

It's possible you have a dirty or bad potentiometer. I'm guessing changing the volume causes you to get static/pops?

A quick look at the schematic shows 0.22 ohm 2W resistors on the headphone out

Missed out on a Kenwood 8010 that popped up on cl, but I'll find something soon I'm sure. Until then carry on

After getting my SX-434 sounding like it should, I want even more power. Even though the 434 has a slightly warm sound, I'm ready to explore the bigger offerings in vintage receivers

I've dipped my toes in the vintage receiver pool, and I'm happy to say I'm impressed even with a low end model. I picked up a Pioneer Sx- 434 for peanuts at a flea market, and after an amp board recap plus a transistor swap for a noisy channel I'm hooked. I'm thoroughly impressed with the sound...