Here is an interesting thing we ran into recently. A very nice woman came into my store with a very dirty, rusty Pioneer SX-750 under her arm. The Pioneer SX-750 is a great little receiver, it is nearly bullet proof, well built, sounds great and is fairly easy to work on. However, this piece was rusty, very dirty and frankly, I was not sure I wanted to work on it. The customer stated that it has been living in a crawl space under her home for the last 30 years!
The customer was very nice and asked if I would check it out real quick and let her know what I thought before we assumed it was a lost cause. So I proceeded to set it up on the bench, while she watched and safely fired it up, hooked it to a scope and gently turned it up. At first it was not passing signal, which is what I would expect, however there were also no dead shorts so I exercised the controls a bit and lo and behold! We had signal in both channels. I then ran it up to full power and got 70 watts out of a piece that is only rated at 50 WPC.
Modern gear typically has a lot of digital chips and micro processors to make them work. While disuse, dust and moisture are the enemy of all electronics, try leaving your A/V system under the house for 30 years and see what happens. This example is a perfect illustration of why vintage is the way to go for quality sound, sturdy gear and years of enjoyment.
At Stereo Lab we work everyday to bring back these pieces and keep them alive for you to enjoy. We often have the very best of the era, Pioneer, Marantz, Sansui and the rest. Come visit our store in Columbus, Ohio.
