Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Sensational----!

I originally came into possession of this fine piece of gear around 1996, at the time when I had no clue about vintage gear, especially "Pioneer". And working for a Mid/Hifi shop at that time (B&W,Snell ,Adcom,PS Audio, Cal Labs, Nakamichi, Parasound, Lexicon etc. etc.), Pioneer was considered "low-fi".

I couldn't believe my eyes when I first saw it, and did an immediate double take. Curiosity overwhelmed me, so I paid the $125 and took it home.

I remember dragging this beast into my store, and hooking it up to a set of Snell C/V's. What amazing power this thing had, and without breaking a sweat. I played around with it for a few months, and gave it up to the old man, whose venerable cabinet stereo from the 60's had recently gave up the ghost. After some listening sessions with me, he ended up choosing a set of Snell J IV's based on his taste and budget. As time progressed, I had purchased and resold various products, never satisfied, and to my fathers amusement of my "audiophile-nervosa" explained that he was still enjoying his system.

About 7 months ago, I became re-acquainted with this under the most undesirable circumstances, my father had passed away. Part of the grim experience of loosing one's parents, is what to do with everything they have accumulated over an entire lifetime. However, sparing you all of the sorrowful details, I knew that his stereo he so enjoyed would find a good home with me. I put it in storage, with the thought of making some room for this in my home someday. So I did.

I hooked it up the ol' girl with the Snells and an old Parasound CDP1000 I had kicking around. As the lights in the room lightly dimmed for a split second, from the huge current draw, I was transported back to those years that passed by. The warm lights from the tuner section increased the level of nostalgia, and I couldn't wait to listen.

This reciever offered up, on every recording, music that sounds like what i would expect from the best components available that service my taste- Sound that is silky smooth, vocals that are natural and eerily real, bass that is powerful and well controlled. No matter what I tossed at it, jazz, classical, rock, r&b, pop, and electronica , everything maintained its full integrity without disappointment. I would recommend "The Ultimate Demonstration Disc" from Chesky Records for some serious critical listening. If you get your hands on this CD, listen to it alot, learn it and know it. It's really great for comparing gear. I was pretty impressed in all areas of this music with this current setup, but what stood out the most in my opinion were two separate pieces of music. The Focus Test using "Flute Concerto in D", Vivaldi, performed by The Connecticut Early Music Festival Ensemble was absolutely awesome. It was amazing how well focused the flute was held in space, as well as the placement of all the instruments. But the biggest WOW came from the Dynamic Test. This solo drum jam was just amazing (use with caution!), it's hard to believe how this all held together, even on such diminutive tower speakers. Every skin hit and symbol crash was presented in all its splendor, without any strain (well, within the framework of what I was willing risk, and I can assure you that I'm not willing to damage anything that isn't easily replaced!). This kind of power, based on my past and present experience, is a testament to where this amplifier section really shines, and truly compares to separate amps that will run you in the range of a couple grand today.

As far as the rest of it goes, the pre-amp section is really busy. In grand scheme of things, its not what I would consider an absolute purist design by any means, with all the tone controls, loudness switch and muting. At least all of this is defeatable if you so desire, which does give way to a purer signal path ultimately. However, this allows for a much greater chance of wear, if played with alot, and also opens everything up for dust and dirt. So don't be to surprised if you happen to loose a channel temporarily due to dirty switches that get crapped up over 30 years. I'll admit, at times, these controls can be fun features when used properly, and it really shows that Pioneer want to go all out and give its customers everything.
The tuner section is sweet! Pulls stations well, and there is a mono switch in the preamp section which is great when you cant get a clear stereo signal. Now THAT is handy.

Also worth mentioning, is the build quality of, well, everything. It doesn't look like expense was spared in the piece. The tuner section, knob etc looks jeweler quality. The walnut wrap gives it a luxurious look, and the massive amplifier section which takes up the entire back half of the receiver looks well laid out symmetrically, with its huge toroidial transformer, large caps and external heat-sinks.

So, in conclusion, this is one cool piece of audio equipment that has it all, does it all, and does it well. If your going to throw down some big $$$ on one of these, be prepared for a good ride (and future repairs on something so old). Meanwhile, like my father before me, I'll keep enjoying this system, and bow out from the endless search....for now. =)

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Pioneer SX1280 receiver. I had one of these from 1985 - 1994 when after many great years it developed an inconsistant fault which made it switch off. From 1985 - 1991 I used in in a CD based disco operation and many people said it was the best sounding disco they had been too. I used it with a set of studio monitors at home and yes records in excellent condition and the player having an excellent stylus do sound better than CD's However well recorded CD's are fine. Live is almost always best though.

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Service Merchandise

Summary:
This Receiver was just about state of the art in 1979 when I purchased it. With a fantastic power bandwidth from 0 Hz to beyond audibility and probably almost a NASA quality tuner, and a plethoria of inputs, outputs, and other features, there was almost no limit to what all you could connect to this thing. When you're listening to an LP with this unit, every nuance in the recording comes to life with awesome clarity and transparency, With a CD player, the 1280 reveals the clarity as well as the flaws of the 16 bit 44.8 khz sampling system. Listen to a SACD (Direct Stream Digital) and you are blown away by just how sweet recorded music still can be. This receiver delivers on all the printed specs that came with it, and the bottom line is warm natural sound, solid thunderous bass, silky highs, and the ability to handle any speaker system that you can attach to it. I am presently using two pairs of stacked Advents paralled to present 4 ohms to the amp. It doesn't even grunt, and yes it will remove objects placed on nearby shelves when you crank it up. I am just as pleased today as I was when I purchased it in 1979. Although, by present technology standards, this thing is probably considered a dinosaur, It's solid design and high quality components still cranks out sound that outclasses anything available today. It still looks handsome, to boot. At this point in it's life, it resides in my home office somewhat married to the sound card output from a PC. I record now only digitally, and the 1280 is a fantastic monitor for some of my LPs that I have made into CDs. Yes, you can hear a difference between digitized audio and it's analog source. The LPs still sound better. SACD, on the other hand, does have that full warm sound, and even though I'm only using two channels (SACD is 5.1 capable), the sound through the 1280 is fantastic. Although I now have a multi-channel surround system, this one is still my first love, and I won't be parting with it anytime soon. The way Pioneer built this thing, it may outlive me!

Strengths:
185 watts per channel into 8 ohms right down to DC. Ultra low distortion. Dual bass and treble contour controls. Quality, high stablity and high sensitivity MOSFET FM tuner. Warm "vacuum tube like" sound. Solidly built.

Weaknesses:
Tuner could use a switchable bandwidth feature for better fringe area performance, but this is a minor drawback. The thing weighs about 78 Lbs. Controls and switches get noisy with age, and are difficult to clean.

Price Paid:  $270.00 from eBay

Summary:
Have had this SX-1280 for a few years now. It is mainly being used as a power amp for front main for a surround decoder. Sound quality for FM tuner and phono is excellent. Enough bass drive to shatter bulbs in the ceiling lights. Only disappointment is the FM tuner adjacent channel selectivity which is too wide to allow for decent FM DXing. Pioneer should have included an IF bandwidth selector for wide/narrow/super-narrow. The 25uS and/or multipath switches could have been moved to the rear of the unit to accomodate an IF bandwidth switch which has much more useful functionality for routine tuner operation. Overall SX-1280 is a great unit, but after comparing the two units, I believe Hitachi's SR-2004 looks better, it has more power (200WRMS/CH)and more headroom +/- 98.8 VDC supply for output stage, while SX-1280 is +/- 76 VDC, and much better FM selectivity with SAW filter and selectable narrow IF bandwidth. Still Pioneer SX-1280 is very good value for the money and there's almost always one available at any given time on eBay.

Strengths:
Great sound quality. Excellent S/N ratio. Well built. Look of quality.

Weaknesses:
Power supply regulator circuit runs very hot. FM tuner selectivity could be much better in this league.

Similar Products Used:
Nikko 1219, Technics SA-828, Hitachi SR-2004, Sansui QRX-6500, Sony STR-4800D

Price Paid:  $150.00 from Private

Summary:
Basically i'm lucky to have this thing.

Strengths:
Bass, warm solid sound just not found now.

Weaknesses:
Ok...idiots...this thing is heavy BECAUSE IT IS EXCELLENTLY BUILT!!! I AM STOKED IT'S HEAVY, NOT B****ING. You listen to this, not move it. Go get yerselves a nice light peace of crap they build nowadays.

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo tx-831