Hello everyone! New guy here! I've been looking for a forum to join to help me collect some information.
My father (81yr old) is getting to the point where I (unfortunately) need to start clearing out his house.
In his basement I found a vintage Pioneer component system. It has the amp (SA-9500), EQ (SG-9500) and tuner (TX-9500). Back in the day, I used to be much more into home audio, but never quite considered myself "audiophile". I am techie person by trade though, so I have managed to retain some bits of knowledge here and there.
I'm still thinking about what I want to do with the gear. Of course, my wife could not care less about what it is, so she just wants to me to sell it. I'm on the fence. I bought myself some time by telling her the truth(?) that "It's likely worth something to the right person, but I can't sell it unless I know if it even works!" So I set out to plug it in and put it through its paces.
The first thing I did was power up the amp on it's own and feed it some audio through it's AUX jacks. It was a little rough at first. The audio was a bit crunchy and wavering. But after about 5 minutes, the ol' gal shook off the dust, warmed herself up, and started giving me the power I was expecting from her ~40yr old body! Next I checked out the various inputs, switches, and dials. I checked as many as I could reliably check. From this test, all the dials and switches worked as I would expect them to work. Pleasantly, while a few of them did output a little crunchy audio, that subsided after a few toggles and some gentle back-n-forths on the dials to accomplish what I imagine is cleaning off oxidation on the contacts.
I didn't test the Tape Monitor features and I couldn't accurately check the Phono input since I don't have a turntable handy. I did test the Phono input by plugging in a regular source, lowering the Attenuator to it's lowest setting, and ever-so-gently bringing up the volume until could tell it was getting me stereo.
Next up was the SG-9500 10-band equalizer. Using various audio tracks as well as the "Audio Test CD", I ran it through it's paces of frequency adjustments. Happy to report that all 20 sliders (10/side) worked great! No crunchiness at all in the adjustments.
Lastly was the TX-9500 Tuner. This is where my enthusiasm took a bit of a hit. Getting power to the tuner was no bueno. I could hear the switch physically flip, but I got nuthin'. I turned it around and checked the fuse. It was a 1A 250v fuse. Now here's where my own mental rust comes in. Should that be a 1A 250v fuse or a 1A 120V fuse. I thought it was "double your voltage, halve your amperage". Given that there's also a rating of 0.5A, I would think it would be .5A 250V or 1A 120V. Or maybe it's none of that. Either way, my thinking was that since the fuse was not popped, that there's something a bit larger going on. Then I looked at the fuse bracket itself and thought, "Ya know, that doesn't really look like a factory assembly." So I carefully removed the back panel and found 4 wires inside that were essentially disconnected with electrical tape on the ends. Was my dad trying to do some tweaks back in the day? I dunno! It doesn't strike me as something he would do. But who knows!
Either way, that brings this long introductory post nearer to it's conclusion.
Here are my options and I'm looking for feedback...
1) Take the tuner to a shop and get it fixed, if possible.
The challenge there is two-fold. One, I gotta find one that can properly fix it without charging me audiophile pricing. Two, that's potentially a tough sell to the Wifey.
2) Ditch the tuner. Either simply take it to an electronic recycling drop it or see if I can get a couple of bucks on eBay. I've seen parts for the vintage stuff out there, but it seems that parts are worth more than the whole. What would be a reasonable offer? Additionally, eBay is a hassle sometimes. Packing something (delicate) for shipping, figuring out the shipping price, making sure the shipping doesn't cost more than the item, blah blah blah...
3) Keep the amp & EQ for myself. I dunno about that. I really like the sound, but I don't really have a use for it. I'm thinking I could use it to power speakers in my garage, but that really seems wasteful for what I consider a really nice, capable setup. Not too mention way overpowered for what I need in the garage.
4) Try to sell everything as a package deal or as individual components. Again, eBay is a hassle because the stuff could sit there for months without a bite and I'm still responsible for listing fees, which just eats into the value. I could put it up on Craigslist, but that's a pretty dead venue now since it's only gonna hit local market(s). And the amp weighs somewhere in the 40lb range. It ain't gonna be inexpensive to ship such a heavy box.
5) Try to find a local retailer that would take it on consignment. If that even exists for old gear.
So what is your feedback? what would some of you do in my situation?
