Pioneer SX-450

Eastham

Eastham

More Class-A than ever!
Pay came up and I saw this on fleabay and couldn't resist, lovely little receiver, looks and sounds great wondering if the black is original, all the 450's I've ever seen have had wood grain finish this is piano black, there doesn't seem to bee any veneer under the paint, maybe it was a optional finish from factory or someone made some new side panels. Just got finished dismantling and cleaning the face plate. She looks real pretty now.
 

Attachments

  • DSCF9353.jpg
    DSCF9353.jpg
    40.7 KB · Views: 148
Register to hide this ad
nice find.. I have the 3400 real basic and the little pup has wood panels.. think this was pretty standard. These boxes don't take up a lot of space and with right speakers a very nice sound. they do look good, nice polished knobs etc. However not seen a black/ebony... just rosewood or red mahogany veneer.
 
Binkman said:
nice find.. I have the 3400 real basic and the little pup has wood panels.. think this was pretty standard. These boxes don't take up a lot of space and with right speakers a very nice sound. they do look good, nice polished knobs etc. However not seen a black/ebony... just rosewood or red mahogany veneer.
Click to expand...

Very strange indeed, I'm starting to wonder if the previous owner striped the veneer off and then painted it black, if he/ she did props to him/ her because its a damn fine finish, no speckles or fish eyes not even any brush marks.
 
The laminate always tended to peel off easily on the SX-450,550,and 650 showing the plain melamine... I'd suspect someone has painted over the melamine.

Anyway,it's looks real nice. Also,it's a decent sounding receiver... Congrats!
 
I might get some rosewood veneer and refinish it or maybe even leave it black, checked the speaker outputs for dc offset and my multimeter suggests a clean bill of health, 7mv on one channel and 10mv on the other not bad for all original caps.
 
I have one of these ... nice little receiver, not a ton of power but mine sounds pretty nice.

I would agree that the Previous owner must have painted the ends black at some point.
 
Yeah, i bet it was a popular "mod" at one time, the P.O. of my 8080 did the same thing...Yuk!

_57_zpsrn82prrm.jpg
 
I guess it's like how when people restore vehicles with chrome, if the chrome is rusted or pitted they paint it because its cheaper than re chroming, paint the old panels instead of having the veneer re done because painting it is the cheaper option, both look tacky to me (no offense to anyone who does like it). Absolutely beautiful Sansui might I add.
 
Bit of a update decided to tear the receiver apart to clean the contacts on the infamous power switch, oh boy if I knew what I was in for, thankfully I didn't break the dial cord removing the front plate and un soldered the switch assembly without to much trouble but everything was quite fiddly and I had to re assemble the switch multiple times before it worked properly, very tedious, so I finally get it back together and I'm playing around with it tuning in various stations and noticed a awful rubbing noise, so I remove the top in search of the noise and messing around with the tuner wheel wouldn't you the dial cord pings off its tension arm thing, after a while of practicing my french I managed to re attach it but my woe's where not over yet, turns out as I was playing around with the dial cord the dial pointer had came unglued from the dial cord, so I tuned it into a station I knew for a fact I was receiving perfectly and glued it back to the dial cord and after that I decided to replace the filter caps seeing as I had some Nichicon caps with the same spec's just as a precaution. been looking at some veneer options as well as some vinyl wood effect and have decided if I do refinish the wood I will use real wood veneer or cut some actual wood panels to size, still haven't decided what type of wood to use yet, I really like rose wood but teak would mach my Ditton 15's.
 
Let us know.. if you f'd up. :D

I like the darker contrast against the silver.. fit's a lot of decor.
 
Binkman said:
Let us know.. if you f'd up. :D

I like the darker contrast against the silver.. fit's a lot of decor.
Click to expand...

haha, thankfully I didn't screw anything up... Too much, at leased ha, everything is how it was before all the work aside from it not arcing and dimming of the lights when first turned on and I lost one of the little spacer tube things from the switch, just pulled one of matching size from my dead Kenwood KR-6400 and used that to replace it, still a very light buzzing from the right channel which I was hoping the new filter caps would eliminate but sadly not, guess it will probably need a full re-cap when I can work up the courage after having my tail handed to me by my Kenwood which is now in my parts pile after catching fire. :rolleyes: But all in all I love this little receiver, much more than my Technics system which sounds cold in comparison, this SX-450 loves to drive my Ditton's and sounds great with its anologue tuner and when hooked up to my turntable. And 15 watt's is more than enough my small British home. :D The black is growing on me but if I am to keep it I'm going to have to repaint them because while the picture doesn't show it the paint is starting to peel around the bottom, so maybe a nice satin black with a coat of clear to give it a nice reflection.
 
Whilst the forum was down getting this lovely update, I put on my big boy pants and decided it was time to dig even deeper into the receiver. I dismantled my Kenwood with plenty of respect and recovered a few of the capacitors I bought new for it and replaced a few caps inside the unit, I have had to order a few capacitors so I got Panasonic brand same as the ones I got for the Kenwood and they should be here tomorrow or the day after, all the capacitors marked with black marker are to be replaced and the two nearest the heat sink which I think are the main cause of the buzz in the right channel, I have decided on what I am going to do with the side panels, keeping them black, the black has really grown on me, gives the receiver a modern twist and a fresh look and as Binkman said the black really does go well with the silver. I have orderd black spray paint with a can of lacquer and some wet and dry 1200 grit sand paper, three coats of black, sand, couple coats of clear, sand, and then wax to a nice reflective shine, here's hoping all goes well! :)

DSCF9361.JPG
 
Some of the capacitors came today, got all of them replaced apart from three one on the right board near the front left one that's hiding under the transformer and one of the two nearest the heat sink they should all be here within the next three days along with the paint and other items. The receiver really sounds great now and picks up stations better than ever with my less than adequate antenna, the receiver runs a lot cooler now too the area around the transformer tended to get pretty toasty and the buzzing in the right channel still persists but has gotten lower, hopefully these last three caps will eliminate it completely.
DSCF9363.JPG
 
Decided to start striping the old paint off the panels today and give them a coat of etching primer ready for the paint and lacquer to arrive.

vx3j8jc.jpg


x928f37.jpg
 
as info - the original melamine is an orange/brown color (to me). The laminate is thin and you can see through it. It is brown and has wood grain design.
The melamine shows through the laminate to give it a more natural appearance/depth. I bought a tuner that had it and the laminate was ready to fall off and peeled off easily. Just wanted to point out it is not veneer. I can understand how someone would paint it after the laminate peeled off. I had a cabinet built for it.
 
Well the last of the cap's arrived today and so did the paint, I'm not to happy with the final result but I guess there's only so much you can do with a spray can, I may do what I said before and have some wood cut to size and varnished but for now looks like my restoration is completed. :)
D38973g.jpg
 
So I have been listening to this receiver with headphones and have noticed that the buzz is still there in the right channel, very noticeable with headphones but almost undetectable with my loudspeakers, pressing the mono switch does nothing the buzz stays on the right channel and volume has no affect on it just a consistent buzzing in the right channel, so I was wondering what some of you guys think and what I should check now, all of the capacitors have been replaced and all of the switched cleaned with contact spray.
 
So I checked some of the resistor values and these green ones .5 ohm? read around 1.5 ohms and the two towards the transistor read upward of 2 ohms could these be the source of the hum? sounds to be a 50Hz hum in the right channel.

EsSgrBW.jpg
 
measuring the very low ohm resistors is tricky... as reference, see what resistance your DMM shows when you are just shorting the probes together... likely not zero ohm ?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom