Vintage Pioneer Spec in Comparison

[hi-fi-guy104]

After years of waiting, I have finally bought myself a Pioneer SPEC-4 and SPEC-1, and they sound amazing. I'd always heard about how much better some vintage gear could sound (and look) compared to more modern equipment, but I never really experienced anything to make me believe that. Well now that I've gotten my SPEC equipment and hooked it up, I'm a believer. This stuff sounds better than anything else I've ever heard in my critical listening career. But still, I can't help but wonder if I'm tricking myself into hearing things. How many other people out there have really critically compared vintage Pioneer (preferably SPEC) equipment with some more modern audiophile equipment? And when I say "critically compared" I don't really mean with measurements or anything, just using some of the vintage equipment in a reference system you now the sound of and contrasting it with more modern stuff. Don't get me wrong though, I'd love to see a set of detailed measurements for some SPEC equipment.

 

[technut]

I've had a spec 1/4 combo for a few months now and if you consider a adcom pre/power amp good modern equipment then I would say yes the spec stuff sounds better to my ears. My neighbor has a nice adcom system with decent speakers and it sounds good but, it kinda sounds sterile to me. And if you have looked inside the spec gear I don't think many modern manufacturers can match that quality level with getting into McIntosh or other very expensive brands.

I love mine

 

[jimfet]

I had a spec 1 and 4. I sold them for more power. They sound good but no head room.The Spec 4 is rated 150 per chan in 8 ohms and only 180 per channel in 4 ohms. Most great amps almost double in power in 4 ohms. I do have a Adcom 545 running my upper half of my speakers. I like the way it ads no sound. Look for a amp with 3db headroom. My Spec 4 did great for the Altec 19's I had them on.

 

[Retro Stereo]

I had a spec 1 and 4. I sold them for more power. They sound good but no head room.The Spec 4 is rated 150 per chan in 8 ohms and only 180 per channel in 4 ohms. Most great amps almost double in power in 4 ohms. I do have a Adcom 545 running my upper half of my speakers. I like the way it ads no sound. Look for a amp with 3db headroom. My Spec 4 did great for the Altec 19's I had them on.

150 to 180 watts per channel will be enough to drive just about any speakers, if more power is needed, he could always jump up to the SPEC 1- matching SPEC 2 amp as well. I do a lot of mixing and matching of my SPEC gear to suit nearly every application required. If I need lots of power, I'll bi-amp two SPEC 2s, or a SPEC 2 for lowers and a SPEC 4 for the uppers and run all of them through a single SPEC 1 which accomodates two amps like a champ. Pioneer really did have it all figured out, you just need to know how to incoporate it.

As far as the sound tests go, like someone above said, unless you jump to a $4000 to $6000 McIntosh or something just as expensive, it's hard to beat the vintage Pioneer SPEC units. You can buy a SPEC 2 and have it completely gone over and re-capped by EchoWars for less than $1000 and I just don't see how you can go wrong with that! Just my $.02


Retro