Allied 490?

[janikphoto]

I have a couple Allied units, one is a 490. I know they were made by Pioneer. I'm not a huge fan of the styling, but should I look past that? Does it sound good enough to others here that I should "put a bag over it", so to speak? Is it sonically nice enough to get past the very "stylized" looks? I have plenty of receivers, so it's not like I really have to use this one. I guess I'm just wondering if I'm not giving it a real chance here?!?

 

[gadget73]

490? THats another one I've never heard of. I have a 495 myself, and have had it for ages. If the 490 is similar, mine is the guts of a Pioneer SX-990 as near as I can determine. It sounds good, has a very good tuner, but the phono stage is questionable. Sounds OK, but very noisy. I've been meaning to rebuild it for years with lower noise parts, but its been the garage stereo for so long now I find myself not really feeling motivated to fool with it. Its been super reliable though. I've probably had it 15 years, and other than replacing the volume control that got snapped off I have done absolutely nothing to it.

 

[mhardy6647]

Page 14 of http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1971-c/
Pioneer OEM - probably on par with the other ss Allied/Pioneer receivers of the era (i.e., perfectly OK and perfectly unremarkable).

 

[janikphoto]

Page 14 of http://www.radioshackcata...perfect...ocus on finding some nice dedicated pre-amps.

 

[Bullistik892]

I have a mint 495 as well and have been happy with it. I haven't used the phono stage on it yet, but it gets a lot of time with the tuner and the aux hooked up to various digital sources and in those modes I'm happy with it's performance.

The 495 is mostly an SX-990, but there are a few minor differences. The SX-990 I used to have had pre-outs and the 495 doesn't. I haven't pulled the cover and looked to see if the board is setup for them or not. It sounds as good as as the SX imo.

 

[gadget73]

The back panel on the 495 has spots where you could knock it out for the pre in/out jacks, and it wouldn't be that difficult to wire them in. I considered it at one point, then realized that I had no actual reason for doing it so I decided to leave it stock.