Changing cables WILL affect the sound. Why do people STILL naysay this ....? Some are on the bright side and some are duller than typical.
I have an Oppo 105D and do not use it to stream music as it can be a bit harsh, so that would not help, and your Roku is a pretty low level device too, so you are not helping your system much
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stereo’s-Stereo 5 says the true. All that kind of amps.gives the same kind of sound. For me the Music Fidelity is not so a good match. Not so detailfull,and that’s important . When he cann’t good detected the sound (signal) of the source, it gives you a little bit a mess in high tones. But like stereo5 said: all those amps,he mentioned, are not so deep in mid-low and low, Thereby accentuating the clarity of the treble. Now this time, a lot of Japanese product, have still the same problem: Esoteric,Accuphase Teac,.... but they sounds very detailfull: it’s a choice what you want. For going better in low,use a tube-amplifier: usually go deeper into the layer. And use wires of cupper, 99,9% , instead of silver.
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wrong to think of cables to correct problems elsewhere in the system. Find out where your brightness is and correct that issue
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@audiozenology...………..Well, whattya know, you agree with some of us. Who would have thunk? In all seriousness, all these so called golden wonder receivers and amps were made during the distortion wars of the 70’s. Transistors were still maturing back then and although one may have fond memories of the equipment, most sounded God aweful. The manufacturers tried to make up for the poor quality sound by putting every gadget they could fit on the face plate. The more switches and buttons, the better |
@jnovak,
Thanks for the suggestion on the Anthem MRX 710 receiver. I am looking at older Anthem gear and was considering the Anthem Integrated 2 that uses (2) 6922 tubes and had not thought of the Anthem MRX 710 receiver
especially now with it's low price point, lots of tech to use if needed, connectivity and I already have a tube phono preamp that uses (2) 6922 tubes. I guess it's time to give my old HH SCOTT 385R receiver that's been in my 'audio closet' for years to my audio tech guy. |
Well it has happened. I have to completely agree with Millercarbon on this one, and jnorris, and jnovak, stereo5, etc. It's a sunk cost. Sell it to someone who doesn't care about audio quality, get as much money as you can, then move on.
10lbs of awful and 50lbs of awful are still "awful". I am not sure why people are suddenly enamoured with 70's / early 80's era receivers. They were not that good then, and no matter how many parts you upgrade, you are not going to fix fundamental flaws. New cables would just be painting the proverbial pig, and throwing good money after bad.
Agree with jnovak, the MRX710 will sound better, heck the MRX300 probably will.
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Wow, lots of advice to wade through for which I am most appreciative!
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. It’s been so long since I had tone controls on any equipment, I’d forgotten they existed! I first bought this Pioneer in 1976 or 1977 and even then I didn’t have a habit of using them.
There is certainly something to be said for not sinking any more dollars into the situation. If the foundation isn’t right, nothing that follows will be right! In hindsight, probably the wisest choice would have been to trade in the ARCAM for something that would better satisfy my audio criteria. Though that would have left my old Pioneer still hanging around with no job to do. I have a history of letting good things go and regretting it later; perhaps that’s why I decided to fix it rather than sell it.
I can’t resist repeating what the shop owner told me after listening to the rebuilt Pioneer: “You can’t equal the Pioneer with anything built today for less than $5000”. Of course I recognize that could be flattery, trying to make me feel better after spending such an unexpected amount. I prefer to think it is plausible.
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@jnovak I had a Pioneer SA-8100 integrated. I found that the amp alone was very, very good. The phono preamp, when taken from the tape outs was also very good. The rest of the preamp was noisy and aggressive and just not up to the same level as the amp. Actually, its power supply quit on me eventually, so I removed the phono preamp section, built a 24V low-power supply for it and put it in its own cabinet. Worked very well until I replaced it with a Schiit. |
I think it's silly to sell your Pioneer and pick up a used AVR. You're looking to improve your 2 channel listening experience. As you know, an AVR is a multipurpose device and you've been there, done that.
Once again, use the tone controls and put more hours on the Pioneer. You could try the preamp into the receiver again as a test to see what sounds best.
I wouldn't get caught up in buying cables and new components. Give it some more time.
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The answer is NO cables won't soften the sound but the tone controls will |
Millercarbon is spot on. I know because I owned 2 SX1280 receivers back in the day. My first upgrade was to purchase an Onyko preamp in maybe 1982. I used the amp in the Pioneer with the new preamp. I was
astonished at the difference. The preamp section in your unit can't be better than the 1280. I see these old receivers selling for top dollar on eBay. Bite the bullet and sell it. Consider buying a receiver like the Anthem MRX710. It's several generations old now so the price slips a bit with each new release. Sonically, it will blow you away! It's built like a tank and could anchor your main system. Good luck! Joe
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I would use the controls yhats what they are there for . You arent going to miss anything . Cables will make zero difference. Change your speakers if you have to. |
Use the treble control, don't be suckered into hundreds of dollars of cables for a Pioneer receiver. And frankly, the 300 hours of burn in time is just silly. |
Because they replaced items in the 'refurbishment,' keep it running for 200-300 hours.
This may help. |
My experience with having older amps refurbished, reconditioned is that new electrolytic capacitors are installed in all stages. The designer originally used different types of caps to help voice the amp. So it won't sound the same as vintage, OTOH, there are new components in your amp which bring it up to date and will outperform modern receivers and AVRs.
I agree to let it break in for 100 to 200 hours. I also agree with others who said to use the tone controls. Your Pioneer has a good range of EQ to experiment with.
I like teoaudio's comments, if properly restored you'll have a well built component that competes with today's gear. And will last for 20 more years.
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Excellent advice to run it for a few hundred hours before you make any decisions. But in answer to your question: the "usual suspects" would be Cardas Cross, Golden Cross, Golden Reference, Acoustic Zen Matrix, Triode Wire Labs, mid-range Wireworld., Acrotec/Acrolink if you can find them. |
Most audio receivers from that era, ie Kenwood, Pioneer, Sansui, Sony, Marantz(made by Superscope), Onkyo, Toshiba, etc all sounded like that. I sold that stuff for many years. That stuff was made during the distortion wars in the 70’s.
Sell it here, lick your wounds and buy smart this time. Don’t waste your money on 70’s junk. If you want a old receiver, look for a NAD. They were the best sounding of them all. |
I’ve taken such receivers and re-done them in nichicon muse capacitors, and all non magnetic resistors lie PRP brand and what not. the switches are high quality, and so on..
what one can end up with, when they do it right, is a old 1978 +50lb stereo receiver... that sounds better than some $3-5-7k modern integrated.... as the parts quality is higher and the circuit is also tweaked - in the old unit.
Easy-peasy
I do it as a form of a ’message’ in the general sense, to all.. that old is not worse than new, and that ’best’....is tied quite tightly to parts quality.
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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.
A common mistake. No not the refurbishment. Not the bill. The conclusion. So common there's a name for it: The Fallacy of the Sunken Cost. Or The Sunken Cost Fallacy. Whichever way you prefer. The relevant word in any case being: fallacy. Its just wrong. So look. You made one stupid mistake. So what? Who doesn't? I sure have! Everyone has! The trick is to first of all realize it was indeed a mistake, look it in the face and until you understand as well as you can what led to that mistake, in order to not repeat it hopefully ever again (but mistakes happen, so good luck with that) and then correct it. You clearly know this was a mistake. Good. Not sure if you know why, but whatever. My job now is try and help you understand you don't have to spend the rest of your life suffering over that one mistake. Which you seem to want to do. Why? Ditch the receiver. Water under the bridge. As a newly refurbished bit of good looking classic kit there's plenty of schlubs be happy and proud to have something so cool to look at (the real appeal of this stuff anyway, as you now know it just don't sound that good) and pay handsomely for. So maybe you lose a few bucks. So what? Clean start. Or, what you seem to want to do instead: buy a bunch of absolute crap, which you know has to be absolute crap, since by definition it can't be what you want, really good sound, since really good sound is only gonna make more and more clear how you screwed up with the receiver! So instead you want to buy one band-aid after another. First this then than, all trying to hide the fault of the receiver. Which one day you finally realize has got to go, and then what? You're left with all this crap! The fallacy of the sunken cost. Fallacy, indeed. |
Room acoustics.
In particular for this issue, between and behind the speakers on the floor is really helpful. Experiment with blankets first.
Best,
E
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Give it some break in time.
At least 100 hrs of operation, maybe a bit more.
Then look at the situation again.
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Sometimes 'brightness' in equipment will magically disappear when you use it with loudspeakers that have a fuller sound. It's also worth experimenting with speaker placement if that can help to restore the correct balance.
Any system with a weak /capped bass output can have a tendency to sound bright.
Using cables as a form of tone controls adds unnecessary complexity in my experience, and never worked for me.
Much sooner use tone controls to dial in the exact adjustment needed.
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Use all cables to contour sound; power, IC, SC, even cable from source. These all will affect tonality. I didn't bother to look whether the unit has a captured power cord, but the principle remains.
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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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Put the MF preamp back in to see if that takes care of the brightness problem. |
