New vintage tuner...PART II

[steveinaz]

Scored it last night $102.00, TX-8500II:

[PolknPepsi]

Well I hope this one turned out better than the last one you ordered. Looks good.... Real good.

:) ................Pat

[steveinaz]

Should be here any minute. At least this guy had close-up shots of the front---and real good feedback..we'll see I guess.

[madmax]

Good luck!!!
madmax

[steveinaz]

2 thumbs up...28 yrs old and it looks almost new. What a great deal. The face is 10/10, the top is 9/10, but no "'stacking marks" just a small scratch. Works great....man I love this old Pioneer stuff!

Pic: http://members.cox.net/stepheninaz/tx8500.jpg

[danger boy]

hey Steve,

glad you won the auction. i was tracking it on Ebay and saw you were bidding on it.

It looks exactly like my 9500II. If it sounds like mine.. i think you'll be very pleased with it.

that's a real beaut you got there buddy.

happy FM'ing :D

I too really love the silver faced vintage Pioneers.

[Mazeroth]

WoW! Nice!

[danger boy]

steveinaz,

so what's your impressions with your vintage Pioneer tuna? as Russ would say.

Hope it's treatin ya well. and will for years to come.

enjoy, al

[steveinaz]

I really like it, midrange and highs are fantastic compared to "stamped-out" digital's I've tried. I'm pulling stations that wouldn't even blip my signal strength meter in the past. I do notice (and I'm guessing because its an older tuner) that the CD player reaks absolute havoc if powered on while the tuner is playing--loads of static and buzz--but no biggie, I just turn the CDP off when listening to the tuner.

Even though all tuners warn about this inteference, I've never had it actually happen until now. My guess is that newer tuners are better shielded to avoid this.

[danger boy]

sounds like you're having as much fun as I am with my Pioneer tuner. :D

I don't have the interference that you are having though.. not sure why that is.. I have a DVD player sitting on top of mine.. hasn't created any problems yet that i have noticed.

What are you using for an antenna? Right now i'm just using a "T" shapped FM antenna that came with this POS Sansui digital tuner i got a few months before I got the Pioneer. That small wire antenna does quite well with the tuner.
I know a better outdoor antenna would do even better. Many of the stations i pull in are maxed out as far as signal strengh already.. don't know how much better it would be.

Fun listening to FM again.

[steveinaz]

Just a 99 cent dipole, but I have an "fm refelct" coming in from CC Crane.

[I-SIG]

I like this tuner as well. I need to get a proper antenna and I think I'll be in business!

Wes

[danger boy]

Steve,

is this the same tuner you were thinking of selling a while back?

al

[steveinaz]

Yep, sold to I-SIG (Wes), above.

[I-SIG]

It's nice to have some proper FM coming from the SDA's.

I, too, have a FM Reflect antenna coming from the company that bears my surname. :)

Wes

[steveinaz]

That FM Reflect is a fantastic antenna and worth every cent of it's $29 price tag. Glad your enjoying it bud!

[George Grand]

I've had a few nice pieces pass through here like that. Couple TX-9500's, one even had the matching SA-9500 integrated. Amp was competent but the tuner really shined. Tour2ma was just on the receiving end of a DBX TX-3 tuner last week. THAT was a nice one, but I just have too much stuff here. When I want to listen to the radio which is almost never, I have the Carver TX-11a. Nice piece. I think I have a Pioneer TX-6500 around here somewhere too.

Lots of good stuff from the 60's and 70's is out there floating around, and makes excellent stuff for the den, spare room, or office. I had that Pioneer TX-9500/SA-9500 combo on my desk at work for awhile, driving some old ADC 303's, but I realized I was looking at some big bucks and moved it out. Some other nice pieces that I have stored away are a Nikko 1219 receiver, SAE R-9 receiver, Sony STR-6800SD receiver, couple Marantz's. Stuff like that. Nikko's are sleepers. Lot of balls in those amps.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[danger boy]

i have a limited knowledge with vintage tuners.. but I can't imagine FM sounding any better than on a Pioneer TX9500II with a matching vintage amp of the era. I've got mine hooked up to a pair of Monitor 7's and it's SWEEET !!

:)

George, i'd love to some day listen to the other tuners you mentioned. I hear the upper end Sansuis are pretty decent as well. But they command a pretty hefty price.

[George Grand]

I've heard the older Sansui's are pretty sweet myself. I had a TU-999 here for a long time, and it did sound good. I heard the tube Sansui's were REALLY special, but I'm not really into radio OR tubes.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)

[steveinaz]

The Sansui's are phenominal, but I'm partial to the old silver series pioneer stuff. One day I'm gonna put together a vintage rig of pioneer and AR98Ls speakers.

[George Grand]

Why not shoot for the stars Steve? Put together an all AR rig.

I have the original AR integrated amp, an original AR Receiver, and an old AR-XA turntable. I would like to stumble upon the original AR tuner someday as well. It was reputed to be the best performing of the 3 products (amp, receiver, tuner). The receiver was supposed to be nothing more than the marraige of the amp and tuner on one chassis.

George Grand (of the Jersey Grands)