How to date your Pioneer

Hi guys, Ages and ages ago, I think when this forum was on another site I posted something about how to date your Pioneer amp/rec'ver/tapedeck/t/table etc..
I'll do everyone a favour and list it again for those who are new to the board or have forgotten.. It might pay to print this page/ or write it down..hehe

Ok here goes...

On all Pioneer serial numbers they start with two letters.. Now these two letters indicate the "Year and "Month" of manufacture.
I can only go back as far as about 1965 as thats my oldest Pioneer tube receiver I have got but I can assure you that this system is accurate.. You can drop a SX1980 on my foot if I'm wrong!.....sure that would hurt! lol

The first letter is the year,second is the month...

Year-

K=1965, L=1966, M=1967, N=1968, O=1969, P=1970, Q=1971,

R=1972, S=1973, T=1974, U=1975, V=1976, W=1977, X=1978,

Y=1979, Z=1980, A=1981, B=1982, C=1983, D=1984, E=1895,

F=1986, G=1987, H=1988, I=1989, J=1990 and so on

Month-

A=JAN B=FEB C=MARCH D=APRIL E=MAY F=JUNE G=JULY H=AUG
I=SEP J=OCT K=NOV L=DEC

For example my SX1280 the two letters are Y C so that would mean 1979, March.

Thats it, real simple!
In regards to the numbers after the letters I have no idea what they mean whether they're production line numbers/amount made in that month?? Maybe someone else on here may know.. I only cracked this lettering system by looking at later Pioneer gear as it has the actual year/month stamped above the serial number.. I figured it out from that and then worked back from there.

Hope all of you now can date all your gear and bust your guts moving your SX1980s/1250s etc around just to look at the serial numbers..hehe

Cheers
Glen

Hi Glen:

Yes, I remember when you had first mentioned the Pioneer s/n info. I had written it down and put in my folder of Pioneer literature. Just did a printout now. Thanks for posting it and Good detective/decoding work!

Cheers, B/F.

Glenz75:

What product range(s) does that code apply to ?
And is it only for US market product ?

I have a CLD-D770 LD player (Asian multi-voltage version of the US CLD-D703) that doesn't follow the code.

It's got a build date of Oct. 1994 but the S/N is OJ........

A factory typo ?
Or different codes for different markets ?


cheerio

So my SX-1050 was made in lets see...May of 78.
Cool!
Thanks for the useful info.

Difficult to make out, but I think it is a W. So, the SX-5590 I have is from 1977. That would be a good year for the SX-1250/5590.

To micheal w...

HMm yes thats interesting.. because 1994 is N not O but the month is right J=10 which is October.. I'm assuming this coding applies world wide as I have mulit-voltage and 110v units also and all the s/nos coding all lines up.... May have been a typo error with that serial no?
Cheers