Nice find, Boris. Classic stereo components can be had for nearly nothing
these days. I did the same with a Marantz 2215B that I picked up for a song
and had refurbished (pots cleaned, caps replaced) for about a hundred
bucks. Sounds great hooked up to my old Dual turntable. Its funny. When I
was a kid I listened to a little Japanese transistor radio. As I grew older
we all moved up to nice high fidelity systems. Now most people listen to
music with an iPod which, when played through its external speaker, sounds
like a vintage Japanese transistor radio. These days I troll the upscale
neighborhoods the day before trash pick up. People throw out perfectly good
stereo systems. In my office I have a Technics SE-A50 power amp hooked up
to a Hafler preamp along with Technics CD player and dual cassette deck all
picked up from the side of the road. The owner was moving and was tired of
lugging them around. "I only listen to my iPod now; take them."
Charlie
On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 11:02 AM, Willie Wonka via olympus <
olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> It is actually an old toy and a not-so-nice story or two to go along with
> it.
> First the pron for the peeps who dont want to hear the story:
> http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=16486
>
> I found this Pioneer SX636 on my local Craigslist and paid $20 for it. It
> was supposed to be in semi-working condition, and its not, but I dont think
> fixing it is something that I couldnt handle. Also the cap on the power
> button is missing, despite being on when pictures of the unit were
> forwarded upon my request. I knew something was fishy, when the pictures
> from the post were missing and the pix sent to me were from 2014.
> I didn't care that much, as my original intent was to gut the receiver out
> and put in electronics designed by me. That plan changed after I read
> reviews about it. I like the "warm coloration" that tubes add to sound and
> apparently the Pioneer does exactly that, by utilizing solid state
> components.
> I was able to obtain the receiver's schematics along with the ones for
> units in the same family and do I have a story for ya?
> When I was a little kiddie, comrad Hinkov was like a god to me. He was the
> engineer behind the extremely popular series of articles called "Project
> 79" published in the one of the leading youth-oriented Bulgarian
> electronics magazines within the period of 79-80. The scope was the build
> of a modular hi-fi amplifier. Now, keep in mind that during those years,
> the Communist industry didnt support unnecessary products like high
> fidelity audio, as it was busy cranking other kind of products - the
> building blocks of the bright future, but...if you had the time and skills,
> the Party wouldnt stop you from building one yourself. Audio gear that is,
> not the bright future, you needed its guidance and most of all permission
> to build that for yourself.
> Back to the amplifier laid out in the articles. It was a fantastic piece
> of machinery build from pcb's in a modular arrangement laid out in a way
> which intent was to save space and deliver the ultimate sound to a set of
> eight ohm speakers. There were diagrams, schematics and mechanical drawings
> that showed every detail of the amplifier. This is what inspired me become
> an engineer and needless to say, when I came to the US, besides some
> clothes I brought the scans from the articles along with couple of books
> (one of which was the Feynman's lectures in physics) and tons of dreams to
> go along.
> Here is the interesting part: I was looking at the schematics in the
> service manual of the Pioneer SX636 and they seemed very familiar to me.
> Yes, one of them was the same and others were very, very close. So I
> downloaded the service manuals for the entire SX series receivers and found
> the others too.
> To the comrad's credit, the PCB artwork and the idea of modular
> arrangement were unique, but unless the Japanese built a time machine that
> took them to 1979 in order to steal the schematics from his articles and
> reverse engineer them, so they can start selling the receivers in 1974, I'd
> say the comrad is a crook.
> Best
> Boris
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
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>
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