Just scored my first vintage receiver

[MikeJ]

Won buy it now Pioneer sx-434 for 50 bucks including shipping. Seller discribed it as minty. I felt I should start out small in the Vintage audio craze and go from there. Any suggestions for speakers, cassette/cd player. Just what kind of performance can I expect from this 15 watt dynamo.

 

[Aldo]

Hi Mike, you've just invested in a fine line of receivers. Some people refer to the SX-434 as a great little bedroom receiver. But don't let that fool you, it'll be some of the sweetest 15 watts you'll ever hear. I have a SX-434 that gets circulated through the house, it has plenty of punch and lots of SX-appeal too! Here's hoping the UPS manglers don't make a mess of it before you have a chance to bask in the glow of a blue dial! Good Luck.

 

[B3Nut]

The 434 is a great little unit. I grew up with a 535, next unit up. Drove any speaker we ever threw at it, even Maggies, to decent levels without straining.

This is my favorite Pioneer series, great little units that know how to play music. I have an 838 that I love, unfortunately it's out of service due to cap and DC offset issues.

ENjoy your new find, what kind of speakers are you going to run with it?

TP

 

[Pickoid]

Uh-oh. This is how it starts.

My first vintage receiver was an SX-434 I bought on eBay just earlier this year. I thought, well, this is the smallest Pioneer, it's the cheapest to buy and the cheapest to ship. I bid foolishly - I later learned that the the picture the seller used was not of the actual receiver. It was packed crappily; it's a miracle it arrived in one piece with all the pot shafts intact. It had some red pearl nail polish spilled on the face, had dial lamps and the FM stereo indicator lamp out. Volume knob was scratchy, and the tape monitor switch was touchy.

But, I cleaned it up, learned how to De-Ox the pots and switches (and boy are they hard to get to on this little sucker). I replaced all the burnt-out lamps. I used a razor blade to scrape the nail polish off the tuner face and polished it out with Novus polish. I even touched up some of the worn trim with a little chrome silver model paint. It's in my bedroom now with some Minimus 7's and makes mighty sweet music. I play CDs and DVDs through it and listen to the radio.

My experience with this little guy started a literal obsession that has led me to collect some decent vintage pieces for VERY little money and has got me back into enjoying music, big time. My flirtation with MP3's (have over 60gb on my computer) almost killed my enjoyment of music altogether. And I have SO much more to learn.

I have never really used any speakers with mine except the Minimus 7's. The FM tuner performance is very good. And it is such a beautiful piece of gear, with the blacked-out face and soft blue lighting. Looks great at night. I also like the fact that it has no vents on the top of the case, so no worries about stacking stuff on top of it. Mine has a table lamp and a phone on top of it.

So, welcome to the club. If you have any bit of obsessive-compulsive nature in your personality (as I do), it will likely not be your last piece of vintage gear...

 

[Crotalus]

Congrats on your purchase. My first vintage buy was a SX-535 and once you see that blue glow you'll wonder how you ever lived without it! Believe it or not even at 22 wpc, my 535 sounds better with larger speakers than the smaller bookshelves, so don't worry about having to limit yourself.....experiment with different setups and have a great time.

 

[shrinkboy]

while on the topic of speakers, isn't the sx-424 from the lineup that requires the little speaker adapter jobbers?

shrinkboy

 

[gyusher]

Speaker adapters

isn't the sx-424 from the lineup that requires the little speaker adapter jobbers?

The horizantol slot is positive and right under it is a vertical slot thats negative. . . To test the receiver you can carefully cut your wire (16ga)so you have about 1/2 in exposed and fold that in half and stick it in those slots being careful not to let the one wire touch the other where it is bare. I have been running my 525 like this for a month now. . . Those adapter thingeys are costly if you can find them. . .

Works for me. . .temp of course. . .

 

[Crotalus]

The SX-434 doesn't have the funky connectors but the 424 does....I just wanted to clarify.

You can find the adapters here:

http://www.vintage-electronics.cc/parts.html

or do what jcpiii did and go to the hardware store and find some nice male spade connectors for 12/14 gauge wire. Not sure what size will fit but it shouldn't be hard to rig up....at least they'd be less likely to fall out or get yanked out.

 

[justforfun52]

AH the sx-535. My first purchase. I think that the blue lights in this series make them the most attractive of all. I have mine hooked up to my computer and it pulls in radio stations better than my brand new pioneer vsx-814s. When I got it most of the lights were burnt out, but once I got that blue glow going, I can't stop staring at it. It also started a small obsession with pioneer gear so that I can now claim after not even a year, I have the sx-535, two sa-7500II, one sa-8500II, a tx-6500 and a tx-8500II. If you have a woman be prepared for the backlash that this kind of purchasing can bring on.

Ryan

 

[MikeJ]

Thanks everyone for all your kind replies and thoughts. Again I would appreciate any suggestions on speakers that would go well with this receiver. I plan on using this in my living room which is kind of small.