I have a few TOTL receivers that I bought before the big price increase. It's all about supply and demand/bragging rights/collectability/nostalgia. If I were just starting to collect today...no way would I be collecting and/or paying the going prices.
When I was still buying, I knew that receivers weren't the last word in high fidelity. I just liked the way receivers look. To me many are works of industrial art. Each brand having it's own take on design. It's also fun to compare units and hear the differences. Ultimately, you decide which brands/models you like and which you don't.
I have only one vintage TOTL receiver, and I bought it in the early 1980's, when it was just a used receiver, not old enough to be considered "vintage." At the time, it was the best performance I could get for that amount of money; it would have cost more to buy a separate power amp, preamp, and tuner that performed better (or even just as well). It performs well, and because I have had it so long, I am very used to it; it is like an old friend now, having used it almost constantly for about 40 years. So I have no interest in selling it. But there is no way I would buy it at the current going rate, as I could now get better used separates for less. (I did not buy it as a collector; I bought it to use, to get the best performance I could afford at that time.) Not that it matters for this discussion, but my TOTL receiver is
not the Pioneer SX-1980 that is the subject of this thread.
I do, however, disagree with the opening post about the SX-1980 being "lower end." If we compare all of the components Pioneer made during that time, all of the receivers, integrated amplifiers, power amps, preamps, and tuners, the SX-1980 would be in the upper half of what was made at the time. Putting a tuner, preamp, and power amp in one box does not automatically make it bad, nor does putting them all in separate boxes automatically make them good. For example, the tuner in the SX-1980 is much better than the bottom-of-the-line separate Pioneer tuner of that time, though not as good as the top-of-the-line separate tuner. It is just silly to judge the quality by the number of boxes the equipment is in.
However, I do agree that it is now overpriced, and one could easily get better performance with separates at the current going rate. The people who buy it now are collectors, not people who are wanting the best sound for their money (unless they are fooling themselves). It is fine if someone wants to be a collector, but it is good if one is honest, at least with oneself, about what it is that one is doing when making a purchase like that.
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