Pioneer SA-8500 II

Good day!

I just picked up this sweet dual monoblock 80 WPC integrated amp. I love the face plate on this unit but I havent seen a cartridge load switch befor. It has settings for 100, 200, 300 & 400 uF. I know it is for matching a phono cartridge but have never seen one befor. If anyone could shed some light on this that would be great.I payed $120 for this.

Another nice feature is the pre out / amp in. This will work well with my setup.

This thing is built like a tank and comes in at 30 Lbs, 10 Oz. I couldnt find too mutch info on this unit so thats why I am starting this thread.

WELL, it has dual power supplies for one thing.
I had a pioneer integrated from the mid eighties, put out ten watts per channel,
and drove anything I hooked it up to.
People wonder why I diss Pioneer all of the time, its because they sold out to the mass market.
They used to make stuff like this compared to this sort of thing their current
stuff looks like a toy.
All of their older stuff was audiophile grade, their newer stuff...dont ask.
Anyway you got a king hell bargain, a power supply for each channel, a real
phono stage, and looks well maintained.
How big a bargain did you get?
WELL, my ten wpc integrated cost 110$ new, about 400 bucks in todays dollars.
But I guess you cant blame em too much, in order to cram seven amps into one receiver will require huge compromises, its all market driven now, thats what people want.
So where did you get this thing? I need to know before the guy sobers up, he'll probably put the money on a 300 buck HTIB or something.
Just remember, if you're using this as a preamp, dont.
use the amps, they are the strong suite in this integrated, they look very good :1:

anyway GO TO PIONEERS WEBSITE, they can tell you something (you didnt tell the model number)
And if you wanna know, an integrated with dual power supplies, and full discrete
path (thats the output transitors on the huge heatsinks) will run you about two grand for a decent one, and thats without the phone stage.
And thats how far we've sunk, this amp was middlin back then.
And now you know why the world was scared of the japanese before the eighties crash,
they did stuff like this in their SLEEP :1:

thats a sweet looking amp you have there. making me miss the kenwood i missed out on:19:
although it didnt look as nice as yours. some of the levers were broken at the faceplate. read that was a common thing with them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pixelthis

WELL, it has dual power supplies for one thing.
I had a pioneer integrated from the mid eighties, put out ten watts per channel,
and drove anything I hooked it up to.
People wonder why I diss Pioneer all of the time, its because they sold out to the mass market.
They used to make stuff like this compared to this sort of thing their current
stuff looks like a toy.
All of their older stuff was audiophile grade, their newer stuff...dont ask.
Anyway you got a king hell bargain, a power supply for each channel, a real
phono stage, and looks well maintained.
How big a bargain did you get?
WELL, my ten wpc integrated cost 110$ new, about 400 bucks in todays dollars.
But I guess you cant blame em too much, in order to cram seven amps into one receiver will require huge compromises, its all market driven now, thats what people want.
So where did you get this thing? I need to know before the guy sobers up, he'll probably put the money on a 300 buck HTIB or something.
Just remember, if you're using this as a preamp, dont.
use the amps, they are the strong suite in this integrated, they look very good :1:

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pioneer was a good brand back then, but no, not all of their stuff was audiophile grade back then...

that 8500 was released in 1975, cost $399 back then, and was right in the middle of the range from Pioneer...

you did well :)

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pixelthis

WELL, it has dual power supplies for one thing.
I had a pioneer integrated from the mid eighties, put out ten watts per channel,
and drove anything I hooked it up to.
People wonder why I diss Pioneer all of the time, its because they sold out to the mass market.
They used to make stuff like this compared to this sort of thing their current
stuff looks like a toy.
All of their older stuff was audiophile grade, their newer stuff...dont ask.
Anyway you got a king hell bargain, a power supply for each channel, a real
phono stage, and looks well maintained.
How big a bargain did you get?
WELL, my ten wpc integrated cost 110$ new, about 400 bucks in todays dollars.
But I guess you cant blame em too much, in order to cram seven amps into one receiver will require huge compromises, its all market driven now, thats what people want.
So where did you get this thing? I need to know before the guy sobers up, he'll probably put the money on a 300 buck HTIB or something.
Just remember, if you're using this as a preamp, dont.
use the amps, they are the strong suite in this integrated, they look very good :1:

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I got this from Used Victoria, a chain of sights in canada where we can post adds or buy used stuff for no charge.
The guy I bought it from had a digital recording studio in his house and he was just spring cleaning things he wasnt using anymore.

YYyyeeeaaahhh, nice amp buddy and welcome to the forum btw. That's gonna make the foundation of a topnotch vintage system. Bet it sounds sweet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by basite

pioneer was a good brand back then, but no, not all of their stuff was audiophile grade back then...

that 8500 was released in 1975, cost $399 back then, and was right in the middle of the range from Pioneer...

you did well :)

Keep them spinning,
Bert.

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And is better than anything you could buy today for two grand probably:1:

Sweet amp Bud,

I had a Pioneer 7900 in the day. It was a tank that drove like a vette, congrats.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by pixelthis

And is better than anything you could buy today for two grand probably:1:

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it'll outperform some/many amps in that price category, yes...

but not nessecarily all of them, especially fans of new gear will say it sounds to colored, and lacks some micro detail, but for vintage fans, nothing else than vintage gear with vintage sound will do...

Keep them spinning,
Bert.