An integrated amplifier complete with tuner. Like the standalone amplifier, the heart of the system.

Electrics

Just as with what we might call standard amplifiers, the receiver is one of the most important parts in a system and sometimes a system can comprise of just a receiver, having the benefit of an audio source already built onto it in the form of a tuner!

Pioneer’s tuners were renowned for their high quality and ability to lock onto stations with the use of their own specialised IC’s or microchips that usually gave them a slight upper edge on other companies making tuners. The tuners in the receivers are no exception. Even the more basic receivers such as the SX-434 or SX-450 have excellent tuners that boast good signal to noise ratios, high accuracy and sensitivity to stations near or far – provided you have a good antenna of course.

Together with the parts an amplifier brings such as the phono stage, pre-amp and power amp sections, this all comes together in a smart package that quite often could and would punch above its own weight in terms of sound quality and power.

Today, some of these receivers end up being neglected or have developed faults which render them either useless or less than pleasant to use. Luckily though, most of these problems are often common problems and can be fixed. Power switches can be rebuilt or upgraded to new solid state switches that will preserve the life of your current power switch without the need to consider replacing it with an expensive NOS part or un original part that would detract from the units looks.

A full service and an upgrade in capacitors will bring your receiver back to life and in some cases actually improve on the original design specifications due to improvements in component construction.

Cosmetics

Again, cosmetics are always important and with receivers, there are often a lot of light bulbs that burst and inevitably dirt builds up, veneer peels and sometimes the dial glass is cracked or smashed but fear not!

I offer a service in which most light bulbs can be upgraded and replaced with new LED equivalents which will last much longer than the originals with less heat output and energy used, making the unit run significantly cooler. Some bulbs cannot be replaced due to the nature of the circuit and sometimes an LED conversion can become very costly. In these cases, I replace with modern filament bulbs that have triple the life span of the originals meaning that they continue to run for longer than the originals have and still give your unit the same tone of colour when running.

I am also able to carry out a full clean of all aluminium parts on the fascia and removal of rust and respraying to other sections of the metal casing.

Often these units have mostly wooden veneer or plywood cases which can begin to look tired after many decades. In this case, I usually replace the wooden cases with new, made from a choice of plywood or solid hardwood such as oak, sapele, beech, etc. which are machined and finished to a very high professional standard and made to fit perfectly on any receiver. These are all made to order and are stained and given a minimum of two coats of a top coat gloss to ensure a mirror like finish.