Well, I was browsing on craigslist a couple of days ago, and I came across a listing for a pioneer sx-1010 receiver. I really hadn't heard too much about this particular receiver and wondered would it be worth it to drive an hour and 45 minutes to Huntsville to pick it up. I also wondered since it was a 1000 level sx receiver it it would be anywhere close to a sx1050 or 1080. To my surprise, there's quiet a bit of information about it on audiokarma. Not only is it up there with the 1050/1080, but it's actually a notch above those. The 1010 was acually the totl receiver in that particular year and was the receiver the 1250 replaced. So I spent half the night last night reading impressions and there were a ton of people who owns this and the 1250. At least half of them prefered it to the 1250 and all of them said it was a step up from the 1050. From my reading I also found that this receiver was the original "monster" receiver, and it was from this receiver that started it all when it came to 100+ wpc receivers. Also this receiver is even more rare than the rest of them. So I decided to see that the lady was asking since she was selling this as a bundle with other vintage gear for 850. She told me 200.00 and would accept 165.00. Wow!! I thought there must be something wrong with it. She later sent me a message telling me that it was in perfect working condition with only a couple of cosmetic blemishes, and untill very recently was kept in an entertainment cabinet for 20+ years. I really thought this was too good to be true, but it would be worth the trip to check it out. I took my he-6 with me to test it out to see if the headphone out was really as powerful as Skylab and Frank indicated. After plugging them in, my jaw litterally hit the floor. If anyone read my impressions in the he-6 thread, they will see I was one of the first going on about these needing a dedicated speaker amp to power these cans. I didn't think there was a "dedicated" headphone amp inexistence that could drive these to their "full" potential. I have listened to these on several powerful dedicated headphone amps including a very nice beta 22. Some could get a nice volume out of them, but non powered them to their full potential. So that's why I was so amazed that the headphone out could not only drive them to a decent volume, but drive them as well as a dedicated speaker amp. And I don't even have to go anywhere close to 12:00 on the knob either. The sound was amazingly clean, and this was using the lineout from my iphone4. There were a couple of minor things. The antenna holder was broke and there's a few small blemishes on the front left corner of the wood cabinet(and easy fix if I chose to). Other than that, it scratch free and looks very good. I haven't tried them with any speakers yet, but the headphone out alone is enough for me. I can't belive how good the headphone out is. It's by far the best solid state amp I've listened to for headphones; and I mean by a large margin. Frank, you and I haven't agreed on everything, but you and Skylab were absolutely right about this. Even with the couple of small issues, I kind of feel guilty leaving that lady's house with this thing only giving her 165.00. What!! 165.00. I have struck gold quite a few time with some really great bargins, but this is an outright steel for 165.00, and is the bargin of the century. It's an even bigger bargin than the 250.00 I got my fisher for. I can't wait to try this thing out with my other headphones and speakers. This thing is a beast. I struggled to carry this to my car. Pics to follow later.
