Silver-face era Pioneer SX-x2x and SX-x3x receivers with gold or bronze face

For your own collection or stack, which would you prefer having?


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dlucy

dlucy67 (Doug)
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I've seen several comments about "gold" or "bronze" colored Pioneer SX receivers from the "silver-face" era. I've collected quite a few SX-424, SX-525, SX-626, SX-727 and SX-636 units over the last six months (refurbishing them to compare to my HK 330B's and pick the one I like best, then sell the rest). Since there are only a few pictures of the bronze or gold toned silver-face units here on AK, I thought some of you would like a few carefully-photographed, post-cleanup, no-nicotine-coating images of the differences.

Here are color-corrected images of a silver-face SX-626 side-by-side with a gold-toned or bronze-toned SX-626. These images were:

  • shot with both faces in the same plane or angle to reflect light similarly, and
  • illuminated with three, identical-temperature photo florescent bulbs to eliminate multi-temperature errors, and
  • captured with a flat, white-colored card to allow them to be
  • color-corrected in Photoshop, and then
  • described with a whole bunch of technical-sounding words to make all this seem more impressive.

IMG_3266.png
IMG_3262.png
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IMG_3264.png
 
I've only seen one thread where an AK'er @larryderouin guessed (?) at the number of gold-toned versus silver-toned faces manufactured. He said maybe 10% were the gold-tone instead of silver-only.

Does anyone have any other data sources for how common or rare the gold-toned ones were?
 
Timely post. I just picked up a SX-727 with bronze or gold face today. When I saw it I thought, "that can't be all nicotine..." I'm glad its not. I think it looks nice, I have some work to do on it to get it sounding its best again.
So what is the official name for the color? So I don't have to refer to it as "bronze or gold faced....."
 
I bought a used 424 setup in 1973 as a "temp" system when I arrived in NYC. It had the champagne faceplate. The guy at Audio Exchange had no idea why Pio did that. There was no differentiation in stock numbers. Some just came in silver; a very few in champagne. I came across a champagne 424 not too long ago in a thrift store here in DC. There was no price tag and none of the staff there that day knew anything about stereo gear (and I'm not sure if they even could understand what I was asking about).
 

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I've had several 727's and 828's. Think they were all the slightly bronzed version. Did they also come in the silver?
 
I've had several 727's and 828's. Think they were all the slightly bronzed version. Did they also come in the silver?

Yes, they came in both silver and bronze/champagne/gold tone.
 
I found my champagne colored TX-800 (somewhere in a forgotten place) date code June 1971....tja...................
 
Can you take a look on the back side for the two letters of the serial number, I try to find out if there is a connection.
 
Here is what I have on the champagne style for the Pioneer SX-727. I recently purchased another used SX-727, I thought it was stained by nicotine. However, once I cleaned it up, that was not the case. It is definitely a different color than my other Pioneer SX-727 that has a silver faceplate. Here is a photo of the two. IMG_0232.JPG
The champagne one is obviously on the top shelf and the silver one is below. I checked out the serial numbers and the champagne one has a SA prefix so it was made in Jan. 1972 (just like the SX-626 shown in the previous post). The silver faced SX-727 had a prefix of SH which corresponds to Aug. 1972. The supports the assumption that the champagne faceplates were made during the early months of 1972. More data of course would support this theory.

Hope this helps!
 
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My SX-626 champagne/gold/bronze/copper look faceplate has a serial number that starts with SB followed by seven numbers.
 
I think the whole line is champagne, just different amounts of gold/bronze. Compared to the true silver look of the later x50s and x80 they old ones are all champagne.
 
Fisher had the same thing going on when they came out with the Extruded aluminum face plates in 1962. We managed to hypothesize that different manufacturers (sub contractors) built these faceplates to FISHER's spec, and that the anodizing was just slightly different between sub-contractors. Whether the solutions weren't filtered correctly, or not mixed accurately (clear vs. a champagne face), or just a reaction to the anodizing solution by the extrusion we couldn't figure out.
 
I like the "silver" look better.

There are at least 2 advantages to the silver. First, it will likely be easier to match it to other gear. Second, since the background is lighter, the contrast between the black lettering and the background will be greater, making it easier to read, particularly in low light. (That, by the way, is a reason to hate the black faced gear, as it is much harder to read the light lettering on a black background, meaning one needs more light in the room to see what the labeling is for the controls.)

But obviously it has nothing to do with how it sounds, so it isn't something that I would get too worked up about. And since we are discussing used gear, condition will be a significant issue, and that would be a much greater factor on which I would buy, were I to buy one or the other.
 
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