Dr. Strangelove
Super Member
To determine the date of manufacture of your Pioneer component, look at the serial number. The first two characters will give you the year and month of manufacture. The first letter is the year, the second letter is the month. For example, taking into consideration the age of the equipment:
ZA would be 1979, January
YL would be 1978, December
KK would be 1964, November
It appears that Pioneer began coding the year in 2001 as follows:
A 2001
B 2002
C 2003
D 2004
E 2005
F 2006
G 2007
H 2008
I 2009
Not all Pioneer components followed this rule. For example, the Pioneer SE-700 headphones had a two letter prefix, but did not follow the table above. For these components, it is rumored they were made by another company, possibly Azden or Stax, for Pioneer.
But, generally speaking, most all of Pioneer's components from 1954 followed this table.
Doc
ZA would be 1979, January
YL would be 1978, December
KK would be 1964, November
Code:
[b]
1st 2nd
Char Year Year Char Month[/b]
A 1954 1980 A January
B 1955 1981 B February
C 1956 1982 C March
D 1957 1983 D April
E 1958 1984 E May
F 1959 1985 F June
G 1960 1986 G July
H 1961 1987 H August
I 1962 1988 I September
J 1963 1989 J October
K 1964 1990 K November
L 1965 1991 L December
M 1966 1992
N 1967 1993
O 1968 1994
P 1969 1995
Q 1970 1996
R 1971 1997
S 1972 1998
T 1973 1999
U 1974 2000
V 1975
W 1976
X 1977
Y 1978
Z 1979
It appears that Pioneer began coding the year in 2001 as follows:
A 2001
B 2002
C 2003
D 2004
E 2005
F 2006
G 2007
H 2008
I 2009
Not all Pioneer components followed this rule. For example, the Pioneer SE-700 headphones had a two letter prefix, but did not follow the table above. For these components, it is rumored they were made by another company, possibly Azden or Stax, for Pioneer.
But, generally speaking, most all of Pioneer's components from 1954 followed this table.
Doc
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