pedalada07
03-24-2008, 07:20 PM
It would have been the winter of 73/74 and I was 15. We had just moved into the house that my parents built the previous summer. The house was in the country and I wasn’t too keen on the move. I was listening to my music back then on a horrible little sears combo unit but the floor of my room was carpeted with stereo magazines. Mom decided the house needed a sound system and gave me the duty of choosing the components. I don’t remember the details too well but I remember picking-out a Garrard TT, some sort of book shelf speakers (AR’s I think) and a Pioneer integrated amplifier SA-5200.
Last month, 34 years later I was visiting the folks for a few days and found the old Pioneer somewhat forsaken in the TV entertainment center, Dad said it didn’t work anymore and I said I’d take it home and have a look at it.
I downloaded a service manual on AK, De-oxited all the switches, got out the multimeter and started poking around. A light layer of dust but remarkably everything was really close to spec, the power light was burned out and the volume pots were sticky. I grabbed a minidisc off the top of the pile and ran the cables from one of my Sony minidisc players into the tape input and plugged in a pair of almost equally vintage Sennheiser 420 headphones…VOILA! It was one of those totally perfect accidents that the song was “I Feel Fine” by Cream.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/halimec05/DSC06823sm.jpg
An SA-5200 is BOTL or close to it but this thing has serious mojo; this is the amp I would crank-up Johnny Winters on as soon as the folks stepped out the door. I think I’ll go ahead and replace all the electrolytics just for the heck of it.
Last month, 34 years later I was visiting the folks for a few days and found the old Pioneer somewhat forsaken in the TV entertainment center, Dad said it didn’t work anymore and I said I’d take it home and have a look at it.
I downloaded a service manual on AK, De-oxited all the switches, got out the multimeter and started poking around. A light layer of dust but remarkably everything was really close to spec, the power light was burned out and the volume pots were sticky. I grabbed a minidisc off the top of the pile and ran the cables from one of my Sony minidisc players into the tape input and plugged in a pair of almost equally vintage Sennheiser 420 headphones…VOILA! It was one of those totally perfect accidents that the song was “I Feel Fine” by Cream.
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b268/halimec05/DSC06823sm.jpg
An SA-5200 is BOTL or close to it but this thing has serious mojo; this is the amp I would crank-up Johnny Winters on as soon as the folks stepped out the door. I think I’ll go ahead and replace all the electrolytics just for the heck of it.