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Pioneer SA 7800??

supermanu

supermanu

Member
Like a total dumbass, I sold my Sansui AU D11 II and now need something really good again.

I have a chioce between a Pioneer SA 7800 and a Hitachi HA 7700 (rare mos-fet design) - which will be better? I can't audition either as I'm bidding online for them.

I'm using a Kenwood DA 9010 (rare 105wrms digital amp which is amazing as far as clarity goes, but a tiny bit bright sounding). Does anyone know how the Pioneer sounds?

Any advice would be most appreciated.
 
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Not sure If I can give any good advice, but I, myself, have always had good luck with Pioneer. Never owned or used Hitachi!
 
If the Pioneer is in good condition internally (clean) and works well technically is is a lot of clean (crystal clear) power (65 wpc continuous) in a beautiful box.

I don't know about Hitachi amps. I have been using Pioneer equipment my entire life and I never felt I needed another make or brand because of flaws, sound quality or anything else.
 
The Hitachi is probably a sleeper. Their amps and receiver get high marks from what I have read. You will most likely have difficulty getting info about them ; manuals, schematics, etc.

The Pioneer, on the other hand, has plenty of documentation and most likely parts or workarounds are available. Rare is fine until you need to fix it. I'm finding this out with some of the things I have.

IIWM, I would go for the Pioneer.
 
What are the sources? I'd bet they are both about the same sound wise IF they get along well with your speakers. But how many and what kinds of inputs will you be feeding them? The Pio may have the edge in the phono section?
 
As I said, I have only experience with the SA-7800. That amp sounds excellent on my Tannoy's.

The phone section of the SA-7800 is nothing special. The Hitachi can handle MC cartridges (as I found in some spec document). Something the SA-7800 can't do out of the box. I also have the SA-8800, at which you can set the cartridge load.

Both Pioneers I own are excellent for MM phono (I have an Ortofon 320 cartridge installed) although I have never compared it with stand alone MC pre-amps.

But the Pioneer has this blue fluorescent display... Something I personally find something it sets it apart from its competition...
 
I was in the same position last year, already bought a Pioneer TX-7800 and I was looking to buy the matching SA-7800, when I saw a perfect example of HA8700 (big brother of HA7700). I always loved their design but I was really surprised with the quality of the components. And the sound - fantastic. Now it's waiting for a total recap and I'm sure that is one of those that I'm keeping for ever.
http://www.niji.or.jp/home/k-nisi/ha-8700.htm
http://www.audio-heritage.jp/LO-D/amp/ha-7700.html
http://pioneer.pytalhost.eu/SA-7800/

LIX
 
Hi,

I am too a proud owner of vintage Pioneer SA-7800 and have just one important question: does this amp is about to be hot after few hours of listening, especially as you getting volume up a bit? It's nothing close to be impossible to touch it, however even if listened at 1/4 it's still on fire and at the same line where radiator is placed, it's quite hot to say this.

I selected voltage switch to 220V. It is plugged with Onkyo SC 770 speakers (8 Ohms) so it should be ok.

Any reasons to be warried about anything?
 
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Hot Hotter Hottest

zed1 said:
Hi,

I am too a proud owner of vintage Pioneer SA-7800 and have just one important question: does this amp is about to be hot after few hours of listening, especially as you getting volume up a bit? It's nothing close to be impossible to touch it, however even if listened at 1/4 it's still on fire and at the same line where radiator is placed, it's quite hot to say this.

I selected voltage switch to 220V. It is plugged with Onkyo SC 770 speakers (8 Ohms) so it should be ok.

Any reasons to be warried about anything?
Click to expand...

Hello Zed,

These amp do run quite hot, even when the volume is low due to it's technical lay-out (non-switching). However, the amp may be running out-of-spec after all these years which causes inefficiencies and more heat than necessary.

You can solve this by at least replacing all electrolyte capacitors and tuning the idle current to spec (see service manual).

Cheers
 
Thx! Do u know exact resource/store for these components? I'd love to buy original substitutes if needed ( hope not). The amp is still in near mint condition, never repaired or opened. I stored it in my room fo years and played only with low volume.

The other reason (but these are only my personal feelings) that in Poland we have really 230-250V not 220V as in the past and thus maybe I should buy some domestic voltage stabilizer. What do u think?
 
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