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August 15, 2020 9:50 am  #1


Antique Store Scores.

I love checking out the thrift and antique stores for deals and I got one yesterday.

When I walked into the store I saw a Harmon Kardon Receiver and asked how much it was and he gave me a ridiculous price and I said no thanks but he told me that in the back he has some as is units and I can test them.

What caught my eyes was a budget line Pioneer Receiver from the early 1970' s ( that is quite valuable now) and I think an even older Dynaco FM Tuner. The Pioneer worked well in my test and the Dynaco also worked well but the stereo light was not working and neither was the tuning meter. The guy told me I could have both units for $30.00 plus tax and I took them.

I have attached pics below of the two units. The Dynaco is set for mono in the pic but I have tried it in stereo and the light does not work but the Tuner seems fine otherwise.

I hooked up the Pioneer to another amp in my basement and also recorded an audio sample which is attached last.


Pioneer SX-525 Audio Sample


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August 15, 2020 2:58 pm  #2


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Love the weighted tuning knobs on those old 70's (and some early-80s) tuners. Chonky. Are you going to re-cap and then flip them?

 

August 15, 2020 7:18 pm  #3


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Chrisphen wrote:

Love the weighted tuning knobs on those old 70's (and some early-80s) tuners. Chonky. Are you going to re-cap and then flip them?

You know both units seem like they don't need much work except for the Dynaco stereo light and tuning meter problem. I am listening to a pre-recorded Bob Dylan reel to reel tape through the Pioneer right now and it sounds really good.

Much to the chagrin of my wife I keep most of this "junk" and will probably hang on to these. Some of this stuff I have had for years but the junk keeps piling on and many would probably regard it as junk but it's a fun hobby for me.

The caps on those early 1970's Pioneer recievers were excellent quality.



 

Last edited by Fitz (August 15, 2020 7:33 pm)


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August 15, 2020 10:15 pm  #4


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Neat! I had a nice vintage Kenwood tuner that I used in the kitchen (until I wrecked the tuning assembly trying to replace a bad capacitor). I replaced it with a digital Sansui...works well but just not as cool.
 

 

August 16, 2020 10:47 am  #5


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Chrisphen wrote:

Neat! I had a nice vintage Kenwood tuner that I used in the kitchen (until I wrecked the tuning assembly trying to replace a bad capacitor). I replaced it with a digital Sansui...works well but just not as cool.
 

I have never owned a Kenwood but I have read that they made good equipment and something worth hanging on to.

This morning I played around a bit more with the Dynaco tuner and was surprised that I was getting a stereo signal for the CKDO and AM 740 repeaters in the basement. I brought the unit upstairs and recorded a bit of Roger Ashby from CKDO and Jewell 88.5. I think Jody Thornton may be doing the station ID's and other promos for Jewell although they are not on the sample below. RA plays an early Burton Cummings track from the Guess Who and interesting to hear the Sam Cookisms on the track and think about the fact that in less than three years he would be imitating Jim Morrison on Friends of Mine. 

The sample below is CKDO up to 7:24 and then switches to Jewell up to 10:35 at which point something weird happened I switched the frequency dial to around Boom or maybe CHFI and I heard a track which I did not know but it sounded interesting. I had to Shazam the track and it was by Techno artist Redshape. I checked the Boom and CHFI playlists and they did not play the track and as you can hear on the sample it just slowly faded. Wonder what that was, a car wireless system but why would they be using such a busy frequency ?

Anyway the sample below for educational purposes for those interested in old analog tuners:

Dynaco FM 5 Tuner Test

 


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August 16, 2020 10:56 am  #6


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Where was this shop Fitz?
 


Cheers,
Jody Thornton
 
 

August 16, 2020 11:00 am  #7


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Jody Thornton wrote:

Where was this shop Fitz?
 

I will PM you Jody.
 


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August 16, 2020 3:14 pm  #8


Re: Antique Store Scores.

I had a Pioneer SX-980 receiver which I purchased with a set of AR-13 speakers and a Dual 504 turntable in March 1979. The receiver lasted 38 years. Turntable and speakers still sound as good as the day I bought them.

 

August 16, 2020 3:31 pm  #9


Re: Antique Store Scores.

maybe i shouldn't be encouraging addictions, but this was just posted on the CRN facebook page.. to be clear, the auction is for actual radios, not just photos of them

.Canadian Radio News35m Over 400 photos of vintage radios up for auction from an estate in Alberta can be viewed here:
https://www.montgomeryauctions.com/listings.asp?id=502
Better get that bid in real quick. Bidding is closed in 2 days

Last edited by splunge (August 16, 2020 3:33 pm)

 

August 16, 2020 3:52 pm  #10


Re: Antique Store Scores.

mace wrote:

I had a Pioneer SX-980 receiver which I purchased with a set of AR-13 speakers and a Dual 504 turntable in March 1979. The receiver lasted 38 years. Turntable and speakers still sound as good as the day I bought them.

That's excellent. I like it when I hear about people hanging on to this stuff.


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August 16, 2020 4:15 pm  #11


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Fitz wrote:

mace wrote:

I had a Pioneer SX-980 receiver which I purchased with a set of AR-13 speakers and a Dual 504 turntable in March 1979. The receiver lasted 38 years. Turntable and speakers still sound as good as the day I bought them.

That's excellent. I like it when I hear about people hanging on to this stuff.

Hey Fitz, do they both still have the classic cable input that was intended for Cable FM? 
Cable FM is long gone, but the T2 cable antennas still hook up to that port, bringing in an amazing number of radio stations!!

 

Last edited by Radiowiz (August 16, 2020 4:20 pm)


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

August 16, 2020 7:25 pm  #12


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Radiowiz wrote:

Fitz wrote:

mace wrote:

I had a Pioneer SX-980 receiver which I purchased with a set of AR-13 speakers and a Dual 504 turntable in March 1979. The receiver lasted 38 years. Turntable and speakers still sound as good as the day I bought them.

That's excellent. I like it when I hear about people hanging on to this stuff.

Hey Fitz, do they both still have the classic cable input that was intended for Cable FM? 
Cable FM is long gone, but the T2 cable antennas still hook up to that port, bringing in an amazing number of radio stations!!

 

Actually those ports came a little after these two pieces. The first receiver I had with one of those was a 1984 Sony model but you could still hook up cable to such tuners or receivers using one of these. I still have two of these adapters because some antennas come with a cable like connector point:


 


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August 19, 2020 3:01 pm  #13


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Those sliver faced Pioneer receivers where really nice. Classic unmistakable looks with the blue backlit dial. Until the 1980's they were very well built. However, many of the supposed low noise sanyo capacitors deteriorate and become resistive allowing some DC to leak through. They should be replaced. Also certain transistors used in the amplifier become noisy and could short ruining the rest of the transistors in the chain. There is plenty of information on this on the Audio Karma site under Pioneer.  

I have owned several of these over the years and recapped a few. If you are interested in keeping it, I respectfully suggest you replace all the electrolytic and tantalum capacitors as well as the offending transistors. There is a fellow in Kitchener that specializes in restoring classic audio. He restored my SX-1010 and it works flawlessly. Last time I checked the waiting list was 6 months to a year.
 

 

August 19, 2020 3:19 pm  #14


Re: Antique Store Scores.

darcyh wrote:

Those sliver faced Pioneer receivers where really nice. Classic unmistakable looks with the blue backlit dial. Until the 1980's they were very well built. However, many of the supposed low noise sanyo capacitors deteriorate and become resistive allowing some DC to leak through. They should be replaced. Also certain transistors used in the amplifier become noisy and could short ruining the rest of the transistors in the chain. There is plenty of information on this on the Audio Karma site under Pioneer.  

I have owned several of these over the years and recapped a few. If you are interested in keeping it, I respectfully suggest you replace all the electrolytic and tantalum capacitors as well as the offending transistors. There is a fellow in Kitchener that specializes in restoring classic audio. He restored my SX-1010 and it works flawlessly. Last time I checked the waiting list was 6 months to a year.
 

Thanks for the tips and I will keep them in mind but it's hard to find the right techs and wow that 6 mo wait time.

I should mention that I think that perhaps one of the reasons I was able to score that Pioneer was because the speaker terminals in the back were initially set up incorrectly. They have these plugs which were mis-aligned and it took me two days on the Steve Hoffman forum to figure out the problem. I suspected there was something off when I tested at the store but did not think it was a major issue. I took a pic of the mis-aligned terminals as below but have corrected them now:



 


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August 19, 2020 6:15 pm  #15


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Charlie wrote:

I had a Pioneer receiver exactly like that one.  Bought it in the mid-70s at Fairview Electronics, because I heard their ads all the time on CFNY.  Worked great forever.  I also bought a pair of speakers by ESS ('Sound as Clear as Light!).  Wooden cabinets, not very big, but heavy.  Aqualung never sounded so good.

Actually you are confusing CFNY with CHUM FM. CFNY at this time or maybe slightly later was CHIC FM and playing album sides but could only be heard in Brampton. I heard them just once over the air near the airport. Later perhaps around 1975/76 they were carried on Cable FM in my area and I listened to them on that until their power increase and change to CFNY in 1977 when I could actually hear them over the air.

The Fairview Electronic ads were on CHUM FM in the 1970's and I can't remember off hand if they continued during Pete and Geets tenure in the 1980's at CFNY.
 


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August 19, 2020 6:30 pm  #16


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Charlie wrote:

I had a Pioneer receiver exactly like that one.  Bought it in the mid-70s at Fairview Electronics, because I heard their ads all the time on CFNY.  Worked great forever.  I also bought a pair of speakers by ESS ('Sound as Clear as Light!).  Wooden cabinets, not very big, but heavy.  Aqualung never sounded so good.

Fairview Electronics. 1038 Albion Rd, in Toronto's west end. I have no idea why I remember that. I think Peter Griffin read the copy in their ads.

 

August 19, 2020 6:42 pm  #17


Re: Antique Store Scores.

mace wrote:

Charlie wrote:

I had a Pioneer receiver exactly like that one.  Bought it in the mid-70s at Fairview Electronics, because I heard their ads all the time on CFNY.  Worked great forever.  I also bought a pair of speakers by ESS ('Sound as Clear as Light!).  Wooden cabinets, not very big, but heavy.  Aqualung never sounded so good.

Fairview Electronics. 1038 Albion Rd, in Toronto's west end. I have no idea why I remember that. I think Peter Griffin read the copy in their ads.

Yes and I am pretty sure I have at least one of those ads on an air check on my web site. In fact I even have an ad for a competing store voiced by David Pritchard where he says you don't want to listen to two guffaws monkey around about electronics. Not hard to tell which two guffaws he meant.

Dale has some Fairview Electronics ads by Pete and Geets on his site as well.

EDIT:

Here is the David Pritchard AD
 

Last edited by Fitz (August 20, 2020 8:42 am)


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August 20, 2020 9:33 am  #18


Re: Antique Store Scores.

Just for fun, I checked to see what sits at 1038 Albion Rd. now. An apparently empty building that once was the home to Villaview Electronics, which according to their sign, specialized in camcorders, tv's, vcr's, cd's and microwaves.