Power, aesthetics, options, build quality

huge, and very heavy... minor complaints for all the positive aspects!

I bought this at a garage sale when I was 16 (about 4 years ago), without much in the way of money - but wanting to put together a stereo of my own. The reciever will push any speaker I have, or any speaker my dad has at home. It has great build quality, a massive power supply, a pretty good tuner, and LOTS of options for hook up. Plenty of power, clean sound, and I got it for a hell of a good price.

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Pioneer SX 1700 - a great disapointment

60 watts per channel- very powerful with excellent bass and treble, supporting 3 sets of speakers at 8-16 ohms. Not one, but TWO phonograph inputs, and TWO tape inputs. Allows you to adjust bass and treble for just one channel at a time if you want. There are also indicators on the dial that tell you which set of speakers are being used, and what input device you are using. Very useful, because it is hard to see where the small line is pointing on the selector switch. The signal strength and tuning metres are also nice. This unit also makes it easy to connect the speakers. Simply unplug the plastic adapter, connect the speakers to that, and then reconnect them in the back. All of these things are great, but I think the best thing about this reciever is it's sensitive FM tuner, which I have yet to see be equalled.

None so far.

I tend to be pretty fussy when it comes to listening to music. I like the sound of the old tube type gear, and find that the newer stuff's sound comes no where close to it. I had been using a Technics SA-424 from 1981. While it was a good receiver, it had a very crisp sound to it which I did not like. So, while looking around at a moving sale, I found this Pioneer. I paid the $50 they were asking and brought it home. I was first surprised at how heavy it is... my Technics weighs nothing compared to this. I hooked it up to my Bose 201 speakers, and the sound was incredible. It wasn't crisp like the Technics, it was slightly more mellow and the bass sounds were more clearly defined. I honestly can't say enough about this reciever... the FM tuner's sensitivity is great. With just a fairly short piece of TV wire, I can get stations in from NY that sound as good as the stations based locally. The signal metre is also nice; as is the tuning metre... although I wouldn't trust it too much, it seems that the stereo indicator only comes on just about when you have tuned past the station. Still, I just can't say enough good things about this great receiver. If you see one in good condition, be sure to pick it up. You won't find anything like it on store shelves.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SA- 424, Sansui clone (w/ no name), Kenwood KR-2090

I have a SX 838. This receiver does about 80+ watts into 8 ohms, and about 100+ watts into 4 ohms. This is when they put enough heat sink in them to be safe into 4 ohms! It has a twin "dual gate" mos-fet front-end, and 4 each crystal filters, so the fm is sensitivety in unmatched with any thing out there today. It seems that every modern receiver's signal meter just jumps to the far right when you get next to a station, regardless of that stations strenth. Whereas the 838's meter shows relative signal strenth. I suspect the public thought there was something amiss, and pioneer dropped this effort after this series. Because the receiver can resolve a very week station, and soung good, the meter only shows mabey 1 or even a half out of a posible 5 on a week station. All so this was the first time a receiver hade a "smart " speaker switch. You could hook up 3 sets of speakers. but you could only listen to 2 pair at a time! What a repair bill saver. Probibly the most unusuall control was the record selector switch. This allowed you to record a tape from a record while listening to the radio, or vise versa.....Cool! ok enough

FM tuner sensitivity, seems as sensitive as any I've used. Strong amplifier drives 4 ohm loads with great sound, almost no heat. I also used the "dolby adapter" output to drive another amplifier in my listening room.

Use a strong shelf unit because this baby is heavy.

I bought this receiver on Ebay, and am pleasantly surprised at it's performance. It's currently the center of my audio system. I had to do a little "tweaking" of the FM section for optimum reception, but once it was peaked, it's the best FM tuner in the house. For a 30 year old product, it's great. Mine works like brand new.

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Pioneer SX650, SX890, SX780. Technics SA-460 receiver. Marantz 2235B.

lots of power, hook-ups/options, and very well built.

like any amp, parts get week after a while, and smoke comes out. :-) but fixable

I've had a pioneer sx-838 for about 4 years now. a friend of mine gave it to me. I like to listen to my music loud, so it goes through a lot. I blew the main amp out in it 2 years ago. I am just finally fixing it.

the preamp input/output on the back really came in handy. I put another amp on it. still works great!

I'm working on an electronics web page. There aren't too many out there, so I'm making one. check it out then.
www.mattsoft.net

POWER, perfect sound, bass thump, clean, clear mids and sweet highs

NONE.

Blows the doors off of modern lightweight junk with (DREAM ON) "100 watts X 5 channels" out of a twenty pound box. This unit keeps right up there with some of the big boys like Sansui and Pioneer SX and even has some features they don't have like two headphone jacks and two microphone input jacks. Fantastic buy if you can find one on the net.

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Pioneer SX-1250, Sansui 9090DB, lots of modern stuff including NAD, Adcom, B&K, Parasound