It was your videos and Andrews that tipped me to getting an sx780 when i started looking for a vintage pioneer. Now paired with a pair of klipsch chorus i speakers and 15" klipsch sub...i couldn't be happier and brings me back to my childhood listening to my dad's old stereo. Thanks Lenny, Andrew and team!

Listing an SX-1980 for $15k USD doesn't make the SX-1980 worth $15k.

Lenny, you're a young man with an old soul. I bought my first stereo in 1975 and I remember all of these great units. I would have loved to go receiver shopping with you in 1978 when our ship was in Japan and nearly every one of these was at the Navy Exchange. Congratulations Spencer on your marriage. I've been married 46 years, and I haven't given up yet. LOL BTW I knew The Pioneer would pick up stations. I bought my first new car when I was stationed in San Diego, a 1979 Corolla and it came without a stereo. I mounted an under dash Pioneer AM FM Cassette player and I picked up stations from LA with no antenna. I never installed one.

I have a Marantz 2325 that's been in storage for 25 years. I recently took it out and connected it up to my Polk tower speakers and honestly forgot the beautiful sound that this receiver delivers.

Generally, Realistic receivers pull in FM stations very well by just employing the power cord as the antenna.

"That was 5 watts. And this has 270." What does that tell you? You do not need 270 watts to listen to music, even at a very loud volume. Of course it depends on your speakers, but most people would be fine with a receiver with way less than 100 watts.

This is the type of entertaining and informative programming that makes your store and your channel cool! Thank you!

Thanks for the video love the older units. I have a Kenwood KR-7600 bought used in early 80's still use it in our bonus room as our entertainment sound center.

I have a vintage Technics SA-600 system which sounds great. If you spend 15k on a 1980 you have more money than common sense.

The more knobs, buttons, switches and meters the better. I hate gizmos that need an app on your smartphone to control them.

$1500 for an SX-780 is criminal.

For me this "80" series era of Pioneer became and has remained my favorite receivers for looks, build quality, power output and I just love the face the front is a thick aluminum extrusion with a real glass dial front, these are still to me the best looking vintage receivers but thats JMO

I always love it when you bring out the big guns .. I have the Pioneer SX 780 and have no complaints❤

Okay, had to go out to my shop and blast my Pioneer 780 for a few hours!

Those prices seem a little ridiculous you can buy brand new mac gear for less. Not saying Lenny is ripping people off the market for vintage everything is kind of nuts.

I adore the sheer honesty of these old Realistic receivers. Sadly...I connected my 1979-vintage Minimus 7s to...a flashy SX-580 back in 1979. Over the years, I've wished I'd had the humility to just add the Realistic STA-7 (or similar) to the speakers and "solved" my stereo choice way back then. Today? I STILL have and use my Minimus 7s (with an old Adcom system), but the flashy SX-580 is long gone. I want to buy a low-power Realistic receiver to finally UNITE what should've been united 47 years ago. Someday... Mahalo for another trip down my own memory lane! Aloha!

Wow those prices!!! and 2270 is 70 wpc not 35... if I sold my gear for that I could retire! lol

Preamp in and out could also be used to put a signal processor (like equalizer) into the system without using your tape monitor.

RCA Speaker Connectors were not used with low level audio inter connect cables. They used 14 through 20 gauge by 2 conductor speaker wire that was soldered onto male RCA terminations. It was a cheap & easy solution for the minimal audio enthusiasts ability to hook up a speaker set. As quickly as possible without wiring them incorrectly.

The SX980 80wpc was one of the best of this series, it could be had for $500 and had some seriously heavy duty modern custom output transistors that sounded superb and easily exceeded their published specifications by about ten percent on average - I know I had mine tested by a friend who was an electronics technician.- even he was amazed at how stable it was under load on his Oscilloscope.

Where are the Luxman's? R-1070 is also a very nice receiver from the beginning of the DC-circuit era. And the year older, but beefier, R-1120.

I have an sx 880 i like, but still want to go sx 950 or larger. Depends on the speakers I end up with. thanks for keeping hifi alive. I also like the technics stuff, but hear they require more maint. (i grew up with an sa-505 and nice floor cabs in the 80's and 90's).

I have 3 Marantz's -- a 2230, 2235 and a 2270 -- plus a Kenwood KA-9100 that's not working but in the shop and might get fixed, and a cheap Realistic to boot. The 2230 is for my wife's office. She likes to listen with headphones. The 2235 drives a couple of Original Large Advents (walnut case with beveled edge) in the master bedroom. The 2270 drives a stack of Original Large Advents in our family room (walnut cases sitting on top of utility case versions). I love the OLAs driven by the Marantz's. Warm, vibrant but never fatiguing sound. I'd go with AR3a's if they weren't a pain to maintain. But I like my speakers soft (the modern ones tend to be way too responsive) and neutral, with a warmth coming through the amp and preamp. The Advents just need the surrounds changed every 15 or so years and are otherwise indestructible. When stacked, they sound like to me a bit like electrostatics except without the fragility and limited life span. The only problem with my vintage gear is it's spoiled me for anything else. I paid $4,000 to outfit my car with good stereo equipment but I never listen to it. The sound is too modern and accurate for my taste. I go into the rare hi-fi store where one can still sample stuff and I'm not impressed by gear costing tens of thousands. The amp and preamp need not be Marantz. Sansui and Pioneer both sound great. A lot of others too. If my Kenwood can be fixed, it will sound great. Even much cheaper stuff sounds great. The Realistic is muddy but still warm and beautiful. Of course I'm describing my tastes and preferences. YMMV of course.

First off, Good to see Spencer back in the video. Second, I love my vintage Marantz receiver. It looks really good in the wood cabinet, but not fond of the extra weight and size it adds to the receiver. It makes the connections a little more hard to connect plus limits the placement on tighter racks, Third, I am not sure I would spend $15,000 on a vintage receiver with all the current pieces available like Accuphase, Luxman and McIntosh in that price range. Fourth, Great Video as always! I don't miss any of them!!!!!

Something that caught my attention was being able to use these as an external amp. For the life of me, I can’t figure out if I can use my old Onkyo TX-NR1000 as a external amp.

2 TT on the Marantz 2270 is to allow playing mono LPs with a mono cartridge and playing Stereo LP with Stereo cartridge and not have to swap cartridges and have to go through adjustments

My very first receiver was a 20 watt Sherwood...think it was the 7110 model..something like that. Man, that thing kicked some serious asss! Could never turn it past 4....that bluish backlighting...ah!

The 1980 is quite something. A real EPIC piece of Hi Fi. Wonderful.

I remember the 780's had a "transistor pack" or something that was known to go out early under extended heavy load

Sorry but pricing (or market value) for 780, 2270, all above those for that matter, is so out of reasonable that it's disheartening.

Was this a fair test? I bet the 1980 was given a lot of love and an FM alignment and the poor little STA-14 was suffering from the 70's!

What binding posts did u guys use on that Sansui?

You should do a video of those receivers and show what the DB difference is at top volumes.

Who pays those prices for used stuff?

Also you guys should do a video on Denon hifi they made some nice stuff in the early 70s

a ceramic cartridge is not (necessarily) for 78rpm records, I have a grado ceramic cart that has an elliptical stylus.

I have Sony TA700es amp - brought it for £300 of eBay about 8 years ago...I needed a service , that cost me £1,200 ...Yes, could have brought a new one for that ( but would not have 3 tape inputs and monitoring - I have a Aiwa XKS 7000 and a Studer B67 ( also just serviced total cost £ 3,500 ) when I asked why the Sony amp was so expensive - he told me that as Sony used the best parts , he did the same - which is probably why is sounds awesome...Vintage all the way !!!

Hey guys, I would love to hear your thoughts on Hitachi receivers, specially the HTA 4 since I have one and I want to know if I made a good investment. Thanks

My Marantz 1060 30WRMS also had a main in/preout

There is a lot of nastalogia and coolness factor built into the prices. I have a 2270 that I find very cool to look at despite the long FM Scale I never use. Decent investments at this point. Then again, everything has gone up.

A sx-780 for 1500 usd? What a joke.

Love the vintage amp's.

By 1978 I had owned the Sansui, Marantz 2265 and a Final Pioneer SX1280 with a Great set of JBL L100s , which is What I Own Now From JUST AUDIO! Spencer or Tom Had that thing on a Pallet wrapped Awesome!! Next will be a A12 or a 280 From you guys big price increase for the 4000 will be my End Game!!

Hello, I am bringing a Technics by Panasonic Sa-=500 back to life. On the back their is a place for two 5.0a fuses. Can I use a 5.0a-250v, 1.25mm fuse?

Please review Akai aa 5000s year 1966 amplifier

Panasonic SE 2680? Any thoughts?

I am a big fan of Vintage products, whether it's electronics, cars, motorcycles, or clothes, but the price of a 1970s receiver like Pioneer 1980 model 15000 dollars is really ridiculous. One of my interests in Vintage products is that you can compete with a new and up-to-date product at a very reasonable price... but recently the 70s receivers have become unnecessarily expensive while the 2000s or late 90s receivers are very cheap, There are those that you can hear a very good sound from, and it is not necessary to pay 150 dollars for a very basic receiver from the 70s, while you can buy a Denon Surround receiver from the 2000s with excellent sound for 50 dollars. At least in Europe, I don't know how it is in US.

I have a pioneer SX 70 how much would you charge me to modify it that you did with yours mine I got for 300 bucks

Kinda irrelevant to this but most of my audio equipment is Pioneer. Not "vintage" but OLD. I bought my original system 35+ years ago. Only thing left of that is the tower speakers with 12" woofers. Added another set of tower speakers sometime later with 15" woofers. Then I replaced the head unit with a more modern one with HDMI inputs and shit. Realized that wiring the TV to a receiver was more of a pain in the ass than it was worth because of the numerous button clicks it takes to make the system actually work and now I just use the digital audio input from my TV to the receiver. I had to replace the cones on the 12" woofers several years ago because they split from the housing. That was a MAJOR pain in the ass BUT they still sound and work fine.

It doesn't matter to me if the stereo knobs are plastic or metal. What counts is the feel. My finger tips react favorably to reeded plastic knobs than to smooth bland metal knobs. Knobs that are metal and reeded is a bigger plus.

I have a restored Pioneer SX- 780 / knobs arent plastic - my unit had all knobs polished, warm LEDs installed, many replaced caps, even the STK power supplies were replaced, and a new cabinet hand sanded and polished. Why are you selling for $1500.00 when I got mine for $400.00? Theres even a brand new one from Japan - completely new in original box on eBay for $2000.00.

I had a 50 Watt Realistic at one Time, for the Moneyit was Awesome, but you Forgot the 72 Lloyd's 4 Channel Reciever Turntable and 4 Crap Speakers, but my Steely Dan Can't buy a thrill 4 channel album was perfect for that set up, spent 200 bucks for the Whole Deal from Pacific Stereo!!!

Thanks for another awesome video. I’m that JVC guy that keeps aggravating you guys, just kidding. I did just purchase my first ever receiver. I have tons of JVC / Victor integrated, power, and preamps. Even also some Laboratory Spec. Anyway, the receiver is a Pioneer sx 1080 and now I want the sx 1280, but the 1980 is way out of my league. My question is how do you clean and get that luster on the metal face of the sx 1980 you exhibited?

Brought back some memories with that STA-14. $1500 for a SX 780....................

what are those yellow JBLs back there ???

What would a sx 828 cost

It would be interesting to see how the old school Pioneer SX 1980 compares to a modern-day McIntosh MAC 7200 with DAC2 upgrade. That is the only thing I can think of that is currently produced that comes close to being just as high end. Sadly, most things of today are not built to the same caliber of the Pioneer, or the Sansui, even the Yamaha R-N2000A IMHO would be more of a great bang for the buck offering versus an all-out assault on what the company is capable of. These things are what I like to call lost tech, the parts, building materials, and manufacturing processes I am sure most companies would consider way too expensive to implement today.

At this point in time I wouldn't buy anything like that for the performance or the power. As for the looks in this showdown SANSUI for me really is the top, I can't imagine how much of a display piece can that be in a dimly lit room.

All the pioneers have aluminum knobs with plastic inserts

Holy good

I have a very nice Pioneer SX-780 that keeps blowing a fuse. Someday I’ll figure it out.

how could you not understand `2 turn tables!!!??? awesome rs

What you didn’t address is the sonic difference between brands! Sansui is much brighter sound. Only brand brighter is Yamaha. Marantz is not as bright…. And Pioneer to my eyes…. Much less bright with a solid mid and bass sound. Pioneer has the better sonics to me. Lastly , McIntosh has an even more solid, less tinny sonic expression. The Mac 4100 receiver which sells around 1500-2,000 is a great sounding unit, with 5 knob eq, variable loudness, and consistently puts out 105 wpc ,clipping at 110 wpc. It’s a great bargain. Lastly the sx1980 wasn’t the greatest sounding of Pioneer receivers. The 1250 Sounded better and it’s born out on scope traces. Plus the 80 series had hot spots where boards burned at aluminum heat sinks. It may be most powerful and heaviest .

I can see the big high end, rare receivers going for big money (not that I would pay) but an entry-level receiver is easy enough to find for $50 or whatever. There is just so much good stuff from the 80s-90s with lots of power for cheap, people just want to spend money on aluminum faceplates.

I think with Pioneer SX-1980 you can use A B and C together, it just has to have the speakers in 4 ohm. The Pioneer has 4 22,000 mf Capacitors. Like some these days the system is 270 Watts in 6 channels. It was said for a brief moment the SX-1980 could bump to 460 Watts Per Channel, and I believe it can. I own one. I had this in 1981 and was bought in DC at a place called German HiFi Audio. I paid at that time around 780 dollars for it. I paid cash. But I need it repaired as the power board is out and I need some work to rebuild it. Do you repair there? The outside looks mint for how old it is. I ran 2 pairs of Bose 901s Series IVs.

I had that exact Pioneer receiver growing up in the late 70's...cost me $350.00

Marantz 2270 is 70 watts per channel not 35. Slow your roll a bit.

13:29 Don't lift it or hold it by the black part of the grill in the back, they break easily.

👍

The Pharmacy doesn’t sell your medication anymore..??🙄😄☝️

All beautiful & nice 💕 reseveir

$1500 for a 780? lol.. Someone hasen't loooked craigslist or ebay in a long time. Paid $250 for mine 5 years ago.

It's like hearing that my Keds were actually well made. Who knew I didn't the Pro Keds afterall. (Damn kids calling me poor) The kid in the 6 family apartment building had The Realistic good stuff??

Is anyone interested in a pair of hpm 100 in very good condition had the sx 1250 was it worth anything

Is that Spencer?

The pioneer is so beautiful.

Back in the day the Pioneer SX1980 cost $1,500.00 brand new

Warriors!

I would love to see a video showing the 10 WORST quality stereo component manufacturers from the 1970s. There was a lot of mediocre and subpar garbage being pushed by the stereo retailers back then. I bought a component system in 1978-1979 and I researched a lot before purchasing. But many people did not do their homework and bought crap stereo stuff.

Don’t know if the videographer was aware that on the sansui the camera was off target !!!

Am I going bonkers or was somebody taking flash photos during the recording of the video? It got pretty distracting during what to many of us is a religious experience - the kind where you concentrate for record periods of time without 'waking up' so to speak.

The gold digging scabs none audiophiles are trying to hi-jack the stock on these vintage memories of ours.

Honestly i kinda understand why you did get so much hate for that famous modification video. HDMI, WIFI and all that modern stuff doesn't belong into a 50 years old vintage gear. And if people share their opinion on forums won't necesarily makes them "keyboard warriors"... But it's just my opinion. And an SX-780 for 1500? Man, that's wild...

Cool, except there is no such thing as a vintage $15000 reciever 😂😂😂

let me known that the highest priced paid for a Pioneer SX-1280 is 5k THIS IS EVER!! I have an eBay store and have history going 3 years back. So 15k is 3 times more than any other sold on that platform. Not to say that maybe one has sold for 15k but these prices are extremely inflated.

Not real crazy about the speaker and input plugs sections. Who in the world would put these on the sides of a receiver? Just killed the looks of such a nice receiver. Just my .02

Love the gear and the videos but your prices are way over priced, $1500 for a 780, that's ridiculous

21:32. ALSO SO YOU CANT SMAS YOUR RCAS

i prefer a $150(dolla) sa-700 from technics, in mint condition, what used to be it´s price till autum 2017

You're in New York, right? Eight grand for a Sansui Receiver? Fifteen G's for a Pioneer? I'm in Chicago, and I'm not sure prices ever get that high. I just checked eBay and couldn't find a single legit sale of a Pioneer 1980. I was just recently at one of the best places in Chicago(he doesn't accept repairs shipped to him) for audio repairs, actually, they do only full on restorations. The owner will not do piecemeal repairs where another issue might show its ugly head later. He is so meticulous about the repairs that he does; no modifications of any kind and even things like screws, and fuse holders have to be original outside of known bad components and worn powercords, things like that. Two more 1980s came in that Saturday for service and I think both were inherited units. Kind of surprised me to see that many in one place. I'm not into vintage; not into the appearance or sonics which at best, not so great. 1980s have a sort of dull mushy sound plus many design issues. Now the Pioneer 1250 is another story. That's the best of the Pioneers. Much easier to service. Its symmetrical amplifier layout helps create a clearer soundstage something engineers, and designers in the eighties started to realize.. Maybe $400.00-$500.00 to do all the repairs and it will last another twenty years.

My Yamaha B-1 amp weights 125 pounds ,,I can't lift it

$1500 Pioneer SX-780.....😂😂😂

Don't talk about realistic. I just bought a realistic sta. 2080 in mint condition. It sounds easily as good as anything I've ever had if not better.

20:44 As a person with extremely sensitive speakers, I will never understand why on earth you like a steped volume knob.

I had the G8000 once. It sounded great, but I couldn't stand the wires coming out of its ears. No matter how nicely you compact them into those channels is still didn't look as nice as being in the back. Big flop in my opinion. If the SX 1980 had that, it would not be as desirable as it is, guaranteed.

$1500 for a sx 780 i don't know about that seems a little overpriced to me

1:47 CAN'T WAIT FOR YOU TO FINNALY KNOW THATS THATS A HITACHI. RADIO SHACKS LIKE SEARS. HITACHI MADE 90$ OF THIER EQUIPMENT. AND 10% PIONEER BUT THAT IS A HITACHI SO ARE ALOT OF RADIO SHACK

I'll take my SX 750 over that STK driven SX 780 anyday

19:40 BUTTONS FOR DAYS. MORE LIKE CHARACTER FOR DAY. YA

Lenny you are the greatest! Great shop great show! RIP Network Television, we got Lenny Just Audio TV Show!