Pioneer CS-A31

After doing a bit of cleaning up around the house, I finally managed to fit my Pioneer CS-A31s in my office with me, and replace the Tannoy T125s I was using previously. Before I decided to take them in for a listening test, I decided to clean them up a tad and take some pictures. So, without further ado, I bring to you, my pair of Pioneer CS-A31s!




The pair after I gave them a once-over with some Pledge. Sadly, one of them has a cup or candle ring on the bottom :/ These beasts are HEAVY!




After opening the speakers up, I decided to blow out the insides with some canned air. Needless to say, this was a pretty awful idea and ended up blowing some fiberglass padding in my eyes -_- The port in the bottom of the box seems pretty large, so I was considering shrinking or even eliminating it in an attempt to get some punchier bass and thicker mids, but I'm going to have to run some calculations to figure out if it will actually get me the sound I want.



In the end, they ended up fitting perfectly in my office (please excuse the mess; we are in the process of packing up to move so things arent the cleanest currently) and sounded awesome with the Sansui G-5700 I got with them. The highs were not as clear as the Tannoy T125s I was using previously, but I believe replacing the xover caps, as well as being able to play them at a reasonable volume, will have them sounding a little nicer. I also plan on rewiring everything with silver wire, replacing the internal padding, and possibly reinforcing the inside a bit more than it is currently.

The first song that came up on Shuffle for me was Beat It (the Fall Out Boy remake) and I never had heard such clarity and power in the intro guitar riff until I plugged these bad boys in. The speakers just FILLED my tiny office with warm music, and even my puppy was having a good time listening!



Hopefully in the next week or so here I will be able to order caps for the Sansui, these Pioneers, and the Marantz cassette deck (SD6000) I have sitting off to the side right now. I will keep this thread updated as I do more work to these!

I happened to pick up a set with a bad tweeter.
Testing them as is showed that the working one sounded very good.

Everyone knows about the HPM series and seeks those out so the old Pioneers tend to get overlooked.

These and the CS-901 are very good sounding speakers.
Not "rock concert" things but more refined and detailed for enjoyable listening level type use.

Enjoy

Thats never fun getting a new toy and not being able to play with it right away At least one of them was working though! I managed to get these, as well as a handful of other items, from a family member since they were moving and needed to clear out some space, and I am very impressed with them. I really dig the fact that they are three-way as opposed to two-way since it helps separate the vocals from guitars/synths a little bit nicer than the Tannoys I was using. They help get my Sansui nice and toasty too; even at only 20% power :^) Best of luck sourcing a replacement tweeter!

The CS-A31's were the very first set of speakers I purchased when getting into vintage gear some 5 years ago or so. I enjoyed them a lot and found that synergy with the right receiver was really key. Have heard that they sound best with tubes. Some of the classiest looking speakers of the late 60's IMO. Enjoy!

I have these speaker and a Fisher 101 tube amp running at 16 ohms out. This combo is terrific.

Am about to open up my family's (father's, now mine) pair that we purchased when we lived in Hokkaido Japan in early sixties. Don't think they've been played since early eighties. Definitely know they've never had a screwdriver put to them.

Definitely have the upgrade bug, since I'm simultaneously working on a vintage set of original Realistic Mach One 4024a speakers. I'm logging plenty of pics and notes with my "Tier 1" efforts.