[Zida]

Someone is selling a fully restored Pioneer SX-1010 in my area for $600. Sometimes I wish I was more reckless.

 

[livewire]

$600 is a rip-off, if it hasnt had a documented recent major overhaul.
Value is in the eye of the beholder and what the market will bear.
Due to the popularity of the older higher end Marantz and Sansui iron, prices on the other
stuff such as Pioneers is following that trend.
 
These Pioneers, specifically the SX-1010 have typically been selling for $100 to $150
for the last two years. I follow the trends on ebay and the prices are heading up
probably due to sites like HF with members discovering the virtues of these oldies.
Added higher shipping costs have to be factored in due to their high weight.
That being said, shipping them is not a good option unless they are packed correctly,
They should be crated with edge foam or double boxed.
 
BTW, I got my SX-1010 for free from the original owner who had it mothballed in his garage.
It did need minor cleaning of the scratchy sounding controls. A spritz of Deoxit and all is like new.
I posted pics of it in this thread about fifteen pages ago, but did not offer any listening impressions.
I will say that it does sound awesome with my K702's.

 

[scottiebabie]

im sure glad u guys are finding so much goodness in the old stuff. they are were built in a different era & monsta receivers like these will never again be built nor duplicated. i have an ear to ear smile everytime i turn em on & now u guys have validated my hearing isnt exactly as wooden as i sometimes felt.
 
@Moodryn your 1010 for $165 is a screaming score & a half - i woulda broken my arm in the haste pulling out the wallet upon such a discovery! LOL. not sure about it bettering the XX50s or XX80s but it is very nice & an awesome deal. good for u!
 
@Zida if it were my money, $600 would be a very fair deal for a 1250/80 in minty condition. the 1010 is perhaps much underated but resale on it would not surpass the former duo IMO ofcos. if buying a collector isnt your thang, the lower x50/80 series wouldnt be far behind, if any, in sonic goodness. FWIWi have a hard time (& still do) distingiushing any differences btwn the baby SX450 & the more hardcore dedicated SA7500 amp so u mite wanna wait for a much more reasonably priced SX or SA.
 
inspite of all the Pioneer love goin on here, let me say that there are other gems waiting for "discovery". i hear the higher end Kyocera's have a more refined (ie.audiophile) sound while the monsta Kennies arent exactly chop'd liver. to be fair, the big Yamis have their own juicy goodness & the twin power'd Harman Kardons 930 while sporting only 50w a side, are considered extremely musical.
 
all these are viable alternatives esp as "headamps" as wattage no longer have any meaningful impact. much more important is their over engineered over built power supplies & the rest of the goodies these TOTL receivers sported as showcase products for their individual mfgrs. i sincerely hope this doesnt turn into just a Pioneer only Love thread as it would then be boring at the very least - not that theres anything rotten in the state of Pioneer as i own 2 & have no plans to sell them anytime soon.
 
as william cowper once wrote..“Variety's the very spice of life, That gives it all its flavor”. hehe
 
addon:FWIW while the 1010 mite not be worth the asking $600, a full documented shop refurb of any of these receivers can cost $200-400. a genuine rebuilt unit can provide another 30-40yrs of service so the aforemention 1010's asking price maynot be the "ripoff" as superficially thought.  while its true that many of these units sold for low prices, those deals may no longer be available. anyone following current pricing will find it very difficult to procure a...say 1250 for anything less then $500-600. im sure there are little old widowed ladies with these stored in their attics giving them away but i wouldnt hold my breath on scoring one either. for those that bought at current 'inflated" prices, its my humble opinion that there will be very little loss if any if one should decide to resell.

 

[Skylab]

Yeah it's not uncommon to see fully serviced SX1250's go for $1,000, based on what I have been seeing. And I've been looking for a Sansui G9000, but fat chance on that for a nice one in terms of a good price.

 

[sling5s]

 

Setton RS 220 Receiver

"Built in 1977 by Setton (a partner or subsidiary of Pioneer), this uncommon receiver is said to have been designed by Pierre Cardin, who has dabbled in things other than clothing."

I finally decided to put up my vintage Setton RS 220 Receiver.
I used to have a 70 's vintage Marantz but sold it on ebay and later picked this up.  To my ears, it's smoother than the Marantz. 
 

 

[moodyrn]

There's a couple of 1010s on eBay now. One is working for a buyitnow of 600(500 starting bid). The other one is non working for 300. I saw this before I decided to make the trip to get mine. Prices are going up, but it's not because of us. They have been trending that way for some time. There are several vintage sites that's been hyping these beauties up. Just visit audiokarma, they will tell you that you would have to spend thousands to duplicate the same sound. I don't know about that, but vintage gear has been getting hype for a while now. We are just late to the party.

 

[Frank I]

You can have any of the Pioneer overhauled from between 175-375 total and I ask myself even if I invested another 350.00 for a total of 530.00 I have truly a receiver of art that is better than any headphone SS amps I have heard or owned including my favorite the Concerto which was 710.00 this puppy as Scottie said rebuilt will outlive me and I will not ever get this quality again . Its perfect plus you also have a nice tuner to boot and can drive full range speakers if you choose to.

 

[moodyrn]

I agree Frank. One thing you have to look at, even if you spend upwards of 600.00 for a refurb, just ask yourself how much would I have to spend on an amp to get something that sounds this good? The answer would be....a lot more than 600.00. And the tuner is exceptional. Not only for sound, but I haven't hooked up an antenna yet, but I can still pull in just about every radio station in my area.

 

 

[scottiebabie]

Skylab u'll lov the big 'Sui G fo sho! If memory serves me, I thinks it's jus a tad cleaner than the more ol school 9090 much like I find the AU517/717 cleaner than the other 'Suis I've heard.

Since u now hav amps up the yinyang u can afford to wait it out til the perfect score blows in. Do keep a lookout for the big Kennies too as u mite be very pleasantly surprised. Goodluck

 

[RexAeterna]

yea. not just receivers and integrated amps but speakers as well. the vintage power amps tho don't get as much notice tho since they are just for driving speakers but are very powerful and meant for very very large rooms. having a vintage sansui power amp of 330wpc is total overkill if your not living in an insanely large area or using it for parties. you can drive headphones too if you do little soldering to be used in the speaker outputs but not many are willing to rip apart their expensive headphones.

it's only the big sansuis,marantz and pioneer that been getting hyped a lot since they are the big heavy weights and sought after receivers. lot of big kenwoods as well get underlooked but lately been getting more popular. thing too bout i love about some of these well built units is they can drive 2ohm and 4ohm speakers no sweat and can drive electrostatic speakers as well with enough voltage swing. it's true they don't make them anymore like they use to. it was also much cheaper back then as well due to better economics. in order to get a nice stereo amp of same built structure  as late 60's to early 80's you need to spend easily over 1000 and even then it might not live up to your 50 dollar sansui you found at a thrift store or so forth due to different tapeogly curcuit design. most designers back then treated their design as artwork. thinking of a perfect curcuit is like michelangelo thinking of a painting. it was all about art. yea a perfect amp would basically would just be all wires and curcuits with no picticular sound to it of it's own but it doesn't hurt to have different taste of your art dose it? 

 
 
Quote:

There's a couple of 1010s on eBay now. One is working for a buyitnow of 600(500 starting bid). The other one is non working for 300. I saw this before I decided to make the trip to get mine. Prices are going up, but it's not because of us. They have been trending that way for some time. There are several vintage sites that's been hyping these beauties up. Just visit audiokarma, they will tell you that you would have to spend thousands to duplicate the same sound. I don't know about that, but vintage gear has been getting hype for a while now. We are just late to the party.

 

 

[BmWr75]

Quote:

Yeah it's not uncommon to see fully serviced SX1250's go for $1,000, based on what I have been seeing. And I've been looking for a Sansui G9000, but fat chance on that for a nice one in terms of a good price.

Skylab,
 
I have a lead on a Sansui 9090DB in the Chicago area for $300.  Supposed to be in decent cosmetic shape and good functional condition.  If the guy won't ship it, are you interested?  Let me know.
 
BmWr75
 

 

[Skylab]

Thanks for the offer, but I already have a 9090 in good condition. If I were to go for another Sansui it would need to be the G9000, and it would have to be in great shape.

Scottie I may look into one of the big Kenwwods too, like you said if I find one local and in great shape at a nice price! I'm definitely not in a hurry anymore, lots of these to play with, more interested in finding the exact right score, just as you said.

 

[musicman59]

Hi guys,
I got a Luxman LV-105 Hybrid integrated amplifier in great cosmetic conditions and perfect operation. Unfortunately I need to sell it because I found a Threshold T50 that I want to buy for the HE-6.
If somebody is interested you can see it here:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110668072357&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT#ht_850wt_1141
http://ads.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/cl.pl?intatran&1306624067
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

[mythless]

Kenwood's stuff have become quite strong in their following and certain models are highly sought after, I say maybe 35% are sought after and the rest are really undervalued like their receivers.  However, their supreme, or their older 3 digit amplifiers or their dual transformer gear as well tuners are highly sought after.

 

[rgs9200m]

I spent my formative audio years parked in front of an AR receiver I bought new long ago, driving Dynaco A25s with an AR turntable w/Shure V15. My 1st phones were Superex ProB-Vs (the green ones).
Loved that system (at least my really young ears did).
This led to my lifelong affair with with gear.