Warped Bezel
06-25-2011, 03:34 AM
Pioneer SX-6: One of the 'infamous ones'
'Infamous' because it marked the end of the glorious and fabled "Silver Era" as the 1980-81 line went out the doors.
'Frustrating' because all the hallmarks of traditional receiver design were tossed, including the taut pull and play as the large knob turned with one's hand, hell even spun wildly if you had a daredevil fling at it to launch the pointer across the dial and there you had it...it was precise and did as told while feeling just perfect while doing so.
Colored lights told you which functions were engaged and needles twisted like an itchy back against the corner light pole telling you to anticipate the program and properly tuned stations. Your parents and grandparents might have had mostly the car radio with a light in the dial or some old home set with a 'magic eye' tube, maybe a suitcase radio-phono or a console. Still, YOU the children of the late 50s and 1960s, YOU got the really neat stuff, from Voice of Music maybe up through Bell, Fisher. Marantz, Sansui, Harman Kardon...
*And never get me wrong...I adore antique radios a ton as well...
Moving at warp speed we reach 1980 again and then one more year for the Pioneer SX-6. "What the hell happened", you were thinking, "I almost bought an SX-1250 once and it's TOO LATE"???
I hear you. Even with 30 years gone by and all the others designed like and after SX-6 and it's line it still seems to be from the planet Ork to me. Still, it was the Mother of most 80s stereo gear.
"Computer Controlled" it says in the left top corner of the faceplate. Roland was using those very words on its percussion machines at the time, the famous TR-series of which TR-808 would become the absolute legend. Everybody wanted you the consumer to know that logic and memory were a large part of your products, whether it was done well or not. Or course, the technology was so marginal them that the baby steps might not actually matter, still the door was wide open to 2011.
That having been said, let's see how this all worked out as I've seen but 2-3 of them in my life and this one is the only one I've been able to operate.
I have an example of the first Dolby Surround audio/video receiver they sold in America, the VSX-5000 and it tells me as well as this that somebody at Pioneer thought very hard and deeply about the end product. Even if some features seem not quite developed and odd the experiences of the buyers were considered before and after. Pioneer products create their genres as much as genres create Pioneer products.
Without a long look and maybe the manual you can poke about and learn your receiver's controls with a little time. Intuitiveness pays off as both the VSX-5000 nor the SX-6 are not conventional sets you can instantly grasp at first use (certainly useful, and helpful in the long run). Both suffer from really hard to read labelling and tiny buttons on the bottom row. They end up running seek/manual tuning switch, phono (magnetic only), A/B outputs (tucked away on the left side, thank you), tape 1 and 2, mono/stereo, subsonic filter (Rumble) and loudness switches down there in almost Fantastic Voyage size. Other controls are two large volume pads, preset scan, muting (is that ever weird, it kinda fades out like a hung digital audio signal, a flat ring that falls off rapidly like reverb, phono, aux, 8 presets per band (AM and FM), power and three conventional pots for bass, treble and balance. A standard 1/4" stereo headphone jack is provided for personal listening.
Unique features (for 1980s Pioneers as they don't appear on other brands) include an AM stereo out jack so that if you ever had seen one you could plug into the one RCA and stereo out in to the adapter section or something (if you've seen this AMS adapter of theirs or anybodies EVER that was how you would convert the AM to stereo, through Tape 2), and AM stereo is more or less gone after 30 years as well. Pioneer continued the handy FM step/flag graphic display in the LED signal meter with only THREE this time and a horizontal 6 LED per side display for output metering, MPX stereo lamp, AM and FM lamps and a red lamp for each of the 8 presets (AM and FM shared).
When you turn the set on the last volume level in 2 digits flash briefly as it finishes powering up. Changing the volume raises and lowers the count and if you are tuning in the radio the display switches back and forth as such. If you are in SCAN mode and tune up or down the preset lamps chase like a scanner until you stop tuning or use manual. If you press any preset button while in scan this way you can set the presets! That is mindblowing just a bit.
Tuning steps switch on the back for US and foreign channel widths. a full complement of inputs and outputs (tape 1 and 2/adapter), phono with grounding post, aux, AM 9/10 kHz channel step, AM stereo composite out (single RCA), AM ferrite bar, external AM terminal post as well as 3 for FM 300 and 75 ohms, A and B speaker terminals (push toward the connection to lock) and two AC non-polarized convenience outlets 50W switched and 200W unswitched.
The ID tag on the back carries the E-P diamond indicating military sales qualification, however there is no outward indication there of any mutliple power adaptor. Lest I forget, there is a second grounding terminal between the ferrite bar mount and the memory's 2 AA cell compartment (a common setup in those days--see Technics 3 AA especially).
I will be back with part two featuring a run with speakers and technical information I can gather and not just headphones, tape loop, and my Philips GA-202...and PICTURES, plus my summation of this 30 year old agent of cranky change.
'Infamous' because it marked the end of the glorious and fabled "Silver Era" as the 1980-81 line went out the doors.
'Frustrating' because all the hallmarks of traditional receiver design were tossed, including the taut pull and play as the large knob turned with one's hand, hell even spun wildly if you had a daredevil fling at it to launch the pointer across the dial and there you had it...it was precise and did as told while feeling just perfect while doing so.
Colored lights told you which functions were engaged and needles twisted like an itchy back against the corner light pole telling you to anticipate the program and properly tuned stations. Your parents and grandparents might have had mostly the car radio with a light in the dial or some old home set with a 'magic eye' tube, maybe a suitcase radio-phono or a console. Still, YOU the children of the late 50s and 1960s, YOU got the really neat stuff, from Voice of Music maybe up through Bell, Fisher. Marantz, Sansui, Harman Kardon...
*And never get me wrong...I adore antique radios a ton as well...
Moving at warp speed we reach 1980 again and then one more year for the Pioneer SX-6. "What the hell happened", you were thinking, "I almost bought an SX-1250 once and it's TOO LATE"???
I hear you. Even with 30 years gone by and all the others designed like and after SX-6 and it's line it still seems to be from the planet Ork to me. Still, it was the Mother of most 80s stereo gear.
"Computer Controlled" it says in the left top corner of the faceplate. Roland was using those very words on its percussion machines at the time, the famous TR-series of which TR-808 would become the absolute legend. Everybody wanted you the consumer to know that logic and memory were a large part of your products, whether it was done well or not. Or course, the technology was so marginal them that the baby steps might not actually matter, still the door was wide open to 2011.
That having been said, let's see how this all worked out as I've seen but 2-3 of them in my life and this one is the only one I've been able to operate.
I have an example of the first Dolby Surround audio/video receiver they sold in America, the VSX-5000 and it tells me as well as this that somebody at Pioneer thought very hard and deeply about the end product. Even if some features seem not quite developed and odd the experiences of the buyers were considered before and after. Pioneer products create their genres as much as genres create Pioneer products.
Without a long look and maybe the manual you can poke about and learn your receiver's controls with a little time. Intuitiveness pays off as both the VSX-5000 nor the SX-6 are not conventional sets you can instantly grasp at first use (certainly useful, and helpful in the long run). Both suffer from really hard to read labelling and tiny buttons on the bottom row. They end up running seek/manual tuning switch, phono (magnetic only), A/B outputs (tucked away on the left side, thank you), tape 1 and 2, mono/stereo, subsonic filter (Rumble) and loudness switches down there in almost Fantastic Voyage size. Other controls are two large volume pads, preset scan, muting (is that ever weird, it kinda fades out like a hung digital audio signal, a flat ring that falls off rapidly like reverb, phono, aux, 8 presets per band (AM and FM), power and three conventional pots for bass, treble and balance. A standard 1/4" stereo headphone jack is provided for personal listening.
Unique features (for 1980s Pioneers as they don't appear on other brands) include an AM stereo out jack so that if you ever had seen one you could plug into the one RCA and stereo out in to the adapter section or something (if you've seen this AMS adapter of theirs or anybodies EVER that was how you would convert the AM to stereo, through Tape 2), and AM stereo is more or less gone after 30 years as well. Pioneer continued the handy FM step/flag graphic display in the LED signal meter with only THREE this time and a horizontal 6 LED per side display for output metering, MPX stereo lamp, AM and FM lamps and a red lamp for each of the 8 presets (AM and FM shared).
When you turn the set on the last volume level in 2 digits flash briefly as it finishes powering up. Changing the volume raises and lowers the count and if you are tuning in the radio the display switches back and forth as such. If you are in SCAN mode and tune up or down the preset lamps chase like a scanner until you stop tuning or use manual. If you press any preset button while in scan this way you can set the presets! That is mindblowing just a bit.
Tuning steps switch on the back for US and foreign channel widths. a full complement of inputs and outputs (tape 1 and 2/adapter), phono with grounding post, aux, AM 9/10 kHz channel step, AM stereo composite out (single RCA), AM ferrite bar, external AM terminal post as well as 3 for FM 300 and 75 ohms, A and B speaker terminals (push toward the connection to lock) and two AC non-polarized convenience outlets 50W switched and 200W unswitched.
The ID tag on the back carries the E-P diamond indicating military sales qualification, however there is no outward indication there of any mutliple power adaptor. Lest I forget, there is a second grounding terminal between the ferrite bar mount and the memory's 2 AA cell compartment (a common setup in those days--see Technics 3 AA especially).
I will be back with part two featuring a run with speakers and technical information I can gather and not just headphones, tape loop, and my Philips GA-202...and PICTURES, plus my summation of this 30 year old agent of cranky change.