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  1. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    There are countless examples elsewhere on AK. I liked this one: https://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/connect-eq-expander-reverb-to-preamp.281053/ But personally, I'm a purist. No EQ, no processing, no reverb. I have those in my rack just for eye candy. My spec1 is wired directly...
  2. FireGuruMN

    What's Pioneer in your rig?

    Now I remember where the SX-880 came from. It was my last missing link before the 1980. Craigslist from my favorite vintage audio pusher. $325.00 in working condition. Apparently I'm not allowed to edit my own posts in this thread. Curious.
  3. FireGuruMN

    What's Pioneer in your rig?

    Just added the SX-1980 to my hoard and stacked them all up for a family photo. A little family history is below. Just going from memory (and the little post-its I put on equipment to aid my lack of memory) SX-580: ShopGoodWill for $60. It's in rough shape. SX-680: CraigsList for $200 with...
  4. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    I found them all! Woohoo!
  5. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    I'll let you know when I get it to the media room in the basement. For now its on the dining room table just so I can get on with other projects in the garage. I probably have to wait for my son to come over so we can 2 man lift it down the stairs. My bones don't work so well anymore.
  6. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    Just like all good projects. Two screws left over. Apparently they go on some switch places. I'm not dealing with it for now. And I ended up with one power knob (with out the plastic) instead of a mute knob. So I pulled on of of a SX-780 for now. I'll sort it out later. Just some beauty...
  7. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    In case you didn't believe me:
  8. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    Back to wood. I don't know what evil was unleashed on these trim pieces. Like it was dragged across a green floor 100 feet? I tried sanding them down but they got too small and the corners were rounded. And they are just blocks of wood so they got replaced: Left side are the now ones I...
  9. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    Time for some METAL!:rockon: Of course some of my heatsinks were broken. And some were bent. I was able to bend all my bent ones back to "straight enough" for the girls I go with. Yes, it is possible that they will break when you are trying to bend it back in to place. But if it breaks, it...
  10. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    A little glass work now. By some miracle the faceplate glass was not broken. But it was detached. So I scraped all the old blue off with a razor and polished it up and got ready to reattach it. I don't know what the brown goo was that they used to attach the glass originally. And I probably...
  11. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    Let the glue cure over night. There is a BIG difference between glue "setting up" and "curing". Always let it cure before working on it. I trimmed off the majority of the excess with a scissors. I find that the router gets angry if the bit is making contact on both sides. Then I used a...
  12. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    I had a pretty deep gouge out of one of the mitered corners. So I tried some JBWeld wood putty/epoxy/goo. I prepared the case by clamping a scrap of plywood with housewrap tape on it. Glue and stuff does not stick to this tape. I use it when pouring giant epoxy tables. So it must be good...
  13. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    And don't worry, my favorite electronics repair god has gone through the entire electronic package and made it all just as nice. Entire new power supply from Canada. New filter caps (I tested the old ones and they still have tiny ESR and correct capacitance. Cool). All sorts of new...
  14. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer SX-1980 Exterior Restoration

    A while back I finally bit the bullet and bought a Pioneer SX-1980 off ePray for too much money. It was sold as not working--for parts but "powers on". Which was fine with me. It showed up a bit later in far worse shape than the epray pictures. It was packed in a box the same size as the...
  15. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    I had to eq down the spike at 15k because it was peeling paint. I kinda like the spike at 100hz. I'll do a writeup of the drama building them some day. I was surprised at the low end from two 5" drivers and a passive radiator. I have an original pair in original cabinets but newer drivers...
  16. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Never wanting anything to go to waste, here is how the first version ended up: I've been doing more wood working this winter than amplifying. These started out as rotted out Polk Monitor 10's I got for free con CL:
  17. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    I was wondering that also. EQUIP WEIGHT SR303 4.3 KG SPEC 1 11.2 KG SPEC 4 24.5 KG RT701 19.5 KG PL-55DX 11.2 KG SG-9800 7.1 KG TX-9500 9.1 KG CTF-1000 12 KG THE RACK 25 KG (a guess) TOTAL 123.9 KG Translating to American: 271 lbs. Which is incidentally the same thing my bathroom scale...
  18. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    So I'm going with this layout (for now): It puts the preamp up high and that is where most of the user interface is (volume knob). Unless you are the type that maxes out the volume and controls the loudness with your streaming device. No, I do not advocate doing that. Something learned: the...
  19. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Oh my!:beerchug::banana::smoke::thumbsup: I'm going to swap the cassette and preamp. The timer is going under the amplifier. It will barely fit if I take the feet off. I ran out of room at the top. The amplifier could go down another unit if I took the feet off. If I had done a test run on...
  20. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Here is a detail of the casters. That's some pretty serious plastic so we will see how it holds up. One last step is to mount the rails. I needed two sections of rail because my rail was only 20 units long. So I added another 6 units on top. I used another section of rail to make sure the...
  21. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Sanding was super easy. I used a random orbit sander (big 6" porter cable) and 180 grit. That was good enough to smooth out all the imperfections in the joints and polish up all the other surfaces. I did not see any need to go to a finer grit. Even though this walnut from Rockler says it is...
  22. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    I'm pretty sure those washers are stamped metal and are hollow on the back side. That would be a disaster for scratching up the spec face plates even if you had plastic washers. I did look into a lot of server racks. I even considered applying veneer to the metal to get a wood look. But...
  23. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Tight joints. I'm so used to working on pine and rough framing Its nice to see joints that don't get all bent up when you assemble them. The top shelf and bottom shelf will be painted black for now. I might veneer them eventually. Or maybe Formica then in black. We will see how the paint...
  24. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    I built the bottom shelf our of plywood. This has to be strong because it is the primary lateral support to keep the rack from bending before you get all the amplifier equipment screwed in. I added a couple extra braces inside that are not shown in this picture. You will see them later. I...
  25. FireGuruMN

    Pioneer Spec Rack Build

    Oh no, Gonna need a bigger rack: Got this in CL for $200. Minty with original manual and that little fake plastic cassette thingy that you never get. Needs belts and maybe a clutch but its so pretty. I got to work on building this with real walnut. First router out slots for the metal...
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