Today's Pioneer Score: SA-510

[crooner]

Brought this puppy home today. Slim, low profile but quite heavy for it's size. I am guessing 30 watts per channel, but of high quality. Discrete outputs and FL meters.
The controls have a nice smooth feel to them. The volume control is detented.

[crooner]

Here's a shot of the innards. The amp is built on a large circuit board. Filter caps are 8,000 uf such as in the SX-780. Power transformer is made by Tamura. The pots are the usual "Alps".

Output devices are a pair of NEC TO-220 encased transistors per channel. There's no relay, hence a slight turn-on bump can be heard. Relays are sometimes said to interfere with performance, limiting current, so no biggie here.

My highly rated Creek 4330R integrated from the 1990s doesn't have a relay, and I deal with the turn-on surge by leaving it on all the time.

[crooner]

Here's a shot of the unit being tested on top of my SX-850.

I've been listening exclusively to a tube amp/preamp setup during the last few days (original Stereo 70 and PAS-3) so I was pretty much expecting the worst sonic wise.

And yes, the Pioneer's midrange is ragged compared to the luscious Dynaco. The sound is a tad sluggish, lacking emotion. But still quite decent overall sound for a budget integrated.

I plan to use it in the computer room, for which it seems ideal. Can't beat that nice front panel and Fluroscan meter!

[Retro Stereo]

Is that SA-510 rack-mountable? In other words, is the face 3.5" high X 16.5" wide?


Retro

[crooner]

I don't think it's rack mountable, tho It does seem to be of standard width.

Newbe here, making a first post, bumping a thread about an amp I own.

I've had my SA-510 since 1988 or so, purchased for $10 at a garage sale. I fixed a problem in the input selection switch myself, and it has been very reliable ever since. I run it with a pair of Cerwin-Vega D-1s I've had for 20 years (need refoaming, but that's another thread), most often with the digital cable TV box as the input, and at low power (10W tops by the meter).

Crooner, I was wondering why you guessed they were 30W per channel; the back panel says 80W and the meter on the front matches that.

Retro, the front panel is 3.5" by 16.5" by my measurement.

I'm missing one of the switch covers off the front panel; no real problem but it'd look sharper if I could find one. I swapped over the subsonic filter switch to the one that was missing because I keep it on all the time. Also, I was wondering which tuner to keep an eye out for to match with it; there was no TX-510 model but I saw a TX-610 on the 'net this past week that looked interesting. One more question: the serial number starts with "BI" so this dates it to 1982 I think; were these some of the last of the US silver Pioneers?

Picture of the missing switch taken with flash (its in a dark corner of the room) so there's odd reflections in the face:

[crooner]

The SA-810 is a higher power model. Mine is the SA-510. Yours should be closer to 50 watts per side.

Puzzling to find that the power consumption listed in the back is only 80 watts. Should be around 220 watts total. This would be the total power consumption of the unit, including the power put into the loads (speakers), the power consumed by the preamp stages and meter and the wattage dissipated as heat.

Oops, typo on my part. Mine is a 510 same as yours in the photos, not an 810.

I see then, the difference is the power consumption vs. the power output -- Foe

[2DualsNotEnough]

I have a Tx-610 tuner of the same vintage.The thrift was offering the amp and cassette deck also,but they werent in nearly as nice shape.The way the cord in the back is wired in,instead of using rca jacks makes me think this series was a rack system sold as a package IMHO.I love the looks of the tuner,though.

That's the one. That combination signal strength meter/tuning indicator is interesting; does it work well in practice? -- Foe

Bought a TX-610 to go with my SA-510. Sure hope it arrives in good shape -- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...733946995&rd=1 -- Foe