Pioneer sx-980 - advice needed

[agger]

I compared the SX-980 with my Dennon DRA-935 which has some more power (100wpc 8 Ohms, 170 wpc 4Ohms). I tend to say, that the SX-980 souds even better. That really suprised me as I thought always the dennon is a real good receiver. But I tink I have to change my mind!!

Agger

 

[Southern]

Hey Southern,

Do you have problems with the preamp on the SX-1980, or do you think it can be improved?

For 1978 the preamp had impressive S/N figures, 120 dB high level. And this was before CDs!

When I was restoring mine I noticed the unit was fitted with sealed pots for the tone controls and an Alps "Black Beauty" for volume control. Nice touches there.

With the tone controls defeated, I find the sound to be quite transparent to the source, which is the job of a good preamp section.

I still have some tubes in the signal path when playing LPs courtesy of the ARC phono stage.

Interestingly, I tried Dynaco tube stuff before settling for the SX-1980. The other way around!

To avoid changing the topic I will start a new thread.

Regarding the SX-980, it has similar quality and components used in it's big brother the SX-1980.

 

[B3Nut]

I compared the SX-980 with my Dennon DRA-935 which has some more power (100wpc 8 Ohms, 170 wpc 4Ohms). I tend to say, that the SX-980 souds even better. That really suprised me as I thought always the dennon is a real good receiver. But I tink I have to change my mind!!

Agger

Not surprising...I had a DRA-435 for years, wasn't bad, but I replaced it with my childhood SX-450 (15wpc) when it went to the stereo showroom in the sky. Less power but sweeter. I definitely like my SX-780 and SX-838 a lot better than that Denon.

TP

 

[NewYorkView]

3700,3900,980

In the last two months I bought a SX3700, SX3900, and SX980. In that order. For some reason the 3900 and 980 don't sound better or maybe as good as the 3700. Is it me or is there something wrong here?

One other thing, the 980 and 3900 have a "turnover" switch for treb and bass. What the heck is that?

 

[Retro Stereo]

NYV,
Welcome to AudioKarma! I got your PM regarding the question you asked in this thread and all 3 of those Pioneers should sound very similar to each other at lower volumes. Maybe your DC offset is off in the 980 (85 watts per channel) and 3900 (120 watts per channel). If you go here:

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5634

You can see how to check it and adjust it yourself.

Also, I don't know what you are using for speakers, but the much smaller receiver (3700) may be just the right receiver for those speakers, and the larger two receivers may be too much, but at lower volumes, it shouldn't make any difference. As a matter of fact, you should be getting better sound out of the larger receivers because they would be less strained for any kind of an inefficient speaker.

Maybe someone else will chime in and give you their ideas as well.


Retro

 

[Retro Stereo]

One other thing, the 980 and 3900 have a "turnover" switch for treb and bass. What the heck is that?

Oh, and the "turnover switch" is just to ad more bass and treble by turning them clockwise and flipping on the tone switch. You can adjust them to whatever pleases your listening levels for bass and treble.


Retro

 

[Inspiribomb]

More specifically, I believe the turnover is the frequency at which the tone controls come into effect. So you can choose both the turnover frequency and the amount you want to adjust the boost. Hope this helps. Welcome to AK!

 

[VintageNut]

That's right, you can pick how soon the bass and treble controls take effect in the frequency range

 

[NewYorkView]

Thanks alot for your advice. My speakers, if you want to make comment, are Fisher 100w w/15 woofer. Always like the sound. Their from '84.