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My stereo receiver is a little too bright. Can a cable help me out?

I just had my vintage Pioneer SX-1050 refurbished.  I had a severe case of sticker shock when presented with the bill - oops!!  Which unfortunately pretty much forces me to use it. 

I will say It is sounding very powerful which is no big surprise because there is a lot of horsepower under the hood.  But the audio impression is that it’s also a little too bright.  The only way I know to tame brightness is with the right interconnects.  But I’m not experienced in that area.  Recommendations would be most welcome.


It’s probably important to know how I am using  the Pioneer SX-1050.  It is responsible for all audio in my TV system.  My choice of music is almost exclusively opera and classical.  

 I send the HDMI signal from my four sources ( TV-DVR, OPPO DVD, ROKU streamer and Pioneer Elite Laser Disc Player ) to my AVR, an ARCAM SR-250, and I send the respective analog audio signals to the Pioneer.  I am into opera and classical music and I didn’t think my ARCAM AVR sounded as good as I wanted it to, even though it’s ideally  suited to my needs, a two-channel product touted for its exceptional audio.  The audio is good but definitely not great.  Prior to deciding to refurbish it I had paired the Pioneer with a Musical Fidelity A3cr Preamp, using the Pioneer just as an amplifier, and I was getting very good audio that way.  But one of the goals of the refurbishment project was to feature the Pioneer and eliminate the musical influence of the Musical Fidelity preamp.   And now, after spending so much,  I wanted to hear how my now very expensive Pioneer sounded, so I pulled the Musical Fidelity Pre and attached my sources directly to the Pioneer.  Currently all the interconnects are Blue Jeans Cable.  Obviously I can’t spend huge amounts replacing cables for all four sources, so the DVD is priority.
echolane

Showing 3 responses by almarg

almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Regarding comparisons of vintage vs. recent equipment, a seemingly obvious point but one which often seems to not be taken into account in discussions of this subject is that comparisons should be based on similar present day prices. For example AustinStereo pointed out above that a restored SX-1050 is worth around $1000. So a fair comparison between that component and modern ones should be to a modern component (or a combination of components) providing preamp, power amp, and tuner functionality, with comparable maximum power capability, for a total of around $1000.

Regarding some of the other points that have been made, it is certainly true that "distortion wars" occurred during the 1970s, in which feedback was applied in a heavy-handed manner to produce the lowest possible Total Harmonic Distortion numbers. With the consequent adverse effects on Transient Intermodulation Distortion and increased emphasis of distortion components that are the most objectionable not yet being generally recognized. In fact as far as I am aware even today TIM is not normally measured or specified, and does not even have a standardized basis for measurement. That despite the fact that in the 1970s Dr. Matti Otala famously authored several papers on the subject, this being one example:

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/b3c0/a892a982ebde91f83f228905dac30186f827.pdf

My own preference among vintage components is for well restored tube equipment from the 1950s and 1960s, a lot of which can provide very good sonics and great value relative to present day price points. But I know that there are many happy users of solid state products of the "distortion wars" era, and that’s fine too.

Regards,
-- Al

almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Lowrider57 12-23-2019
Once again, use the tone controls and put more hours on the Pioneer.... I wouldn't get caught up in buying cables and new components. Give it some more time.

Echolane 12-23-2019
I think the most sensible thing to do  is to have some patience and decide whether to move on or not after a couple hundred hours of break in.  Believe it or not, now, only 24 hours later, I think it sounds quite a bit better. The rawness is gone, or if not gone, considerably tamed.

Using the Pioneer’s tone controls is another easy fix.  

+1. There's no reason to do anything else at this point.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al


almarg's avatar
almarg
9,670 posts
 
Why not use the tone controls on the Pioneer to reduce the brightness? I would expect doing so to be much more effective and much less hit-or-miss than trying to resolve the issue by changing interconnects.

Regards,
-- Al

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