Trying to upgrade/clean my Pioneer SA-730

[Freewillisdead112]

Hi. I have a few questions i would like to ask about my equipment.

I have a 1980's Pioneer SA-730 Integrated Amplifier. It has served me well but i would like to upgrade to something with more power and maybe a better sound stage. I want to stay with 80s-90s Integrateds and receivers.

And how exactly would i deoxIT clean my whole Int. Amp? I have never done a full on clean. My volume slide locks up and when i mess with balance i get sound from other side still.

Thanks!

[blackraven]

Pick up some tuner cleaner from Radio shack. Take off the knobs and spray it on. You may want to take it in to a repair shop and have them do it and check it all out to make sure it is working properly. I give my 1976 technics integrated amp a good cleaning with tuner cleaner once a year.

I would consider buying new and looking at this amp

http://www.google.com/products/catal...m=2#ps-sellers

[thekid]

For a thorough cleaning you do want to try and remove te knobs and face plate to get in behind there to give everything a good cleaning.

Here is a good link that you should find useful,

http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/sho...ghlight=DeOxit

As for getting another receiver I am sure if you give people a price range they might be able to give you some more specifics. Of course if you know anything about my buying habits you will know that I recommend you check out your local thrift stores and CL. I have many mid-fi pieces there for not too much coin at the locations. Last week I picked up a Onkyp Integra TX-65 for only $30 that dates from the time period you mentioned so depending on your area there maybe a "hidden gem" out there waiting for you.

[poppachubby]

Your SA 730 is a nice piece. I hate to say it, but it just may be worth having it looked at by a pro if you really love it. Try the DIY first but be careful! If you're unsure about anything, don't do it. Service technicians charge an arm and a leg, I don't need them personally, but if you do, bite the bullet.

In terms of your upgrade NAD made some excellent stuff from the years you are looking for. You can usually find their stuff cheap on Ebay and the like. I'm sure you could put togethr a component system with amp, pre, tuner and cd for 500-700 bucks and have it sound pretty good. If you're super good at deal finding probably way cheaper. Depends which pieces you want. It will also look pretty sweet as NAD has a nice clean image when all piled up. Good Luck and Suicide Silence rule!!

[Freewillisdead112]

Well glad to know someone knows the music i listen to! I would love to find a old amp and just use my Pioneer as a Pre-amp. I just think that i could have a better sound them I do. If i build the crossover-less speakers i want to build, i wont need to upgrade watt wise, just to something prob more qualified. So NAD and onkyo? Someone was selling a sweet MAC on CL for like 50 bucks, it was gone in 2 minutes!

I have been re-uploading all my cds into 320kbs mp3's and I am more then enjoying my mach's for what they are. I guess those tweeters just don't like noise you get from low level mp3's. I have a Sony dvd player that I dont even bother playing my music from as mp3's from my laptop sound better. Is this strange?

So whats a good low watt, nice sounding Integrated amp out there on the cheap that i could use for the crossover-less bookshelfs? Could I just use a T-amp?

And a on the cheap 100wpc add on amp for the machs, as they clip way to quick from the 25wpc I am giving them.

Thanks guys, your always so much help.

[poppachubby]

There's a thread going right now about T-Amps. Yes a T-Amp is an option. I have a Marantz 1515 that sounds great. However, the aux isn't the greatest, probably best to go T-Amp. Ya dude NAD has great stuff. I probably over shot the price, after doing some looking myself you could probably hit the 300-500 range. Of course, if you now only want an amp you could find one for wicked cheap.

I have mostly 320 mp3's and I can tell you, don't waste your time. If you have the hard drive space, go to lossless. I am now in the position where I must convert everything to lossless. I also now have to address hard drive space and portable size as mine won't be suitable for these gargantuant files.

I don't even have the best equipment, and I can hear the flaws on 320. With my portable, which I have a great amp and cans, it's so obvious on poorer quality recordings that I don't even bother listening. I have pulled out my portable CD player for this reason. Just trying to save you some time, of course, if this stuff isn't important to you then 320 is a much easier choice all around.

Let me know what you end up doing.

[Freewillisdead112]

I download most of my music, listen to it, then buy it if i like it, and delete the old. I dont have a real computer at the moment, I just have a netbook with a 15gb hard drive. So lets just say, if i put my 30gb of mp3's (128kbs/bad VBR) to flac or apple lossless, I would at least triple that! I do plan to buy a better computer and get a DAC soon in the future though. Then the flacs/apple lossless will be in order. There is I would guess 5 computers around the way that have my music on them. Then I have them floating on burnt dvd's.

Since I have replaced a couple gigs of the music with 320kbs versions I can hear a night and day in the sound of it. I still use a Rca Lyra 256mb mp3 player with the SD slot (HAHAHA! I'm cheap) so I can not use flac/apple lossless on my main on the go player.

I have compiled a small list of things that would work out for me and is quite cheap.
.....(just a rough draft) I would be buying these things in a very long span of time as I am a student and am not exactly mister money bags.

Cdp - Emotiva ERC-1
T-amp - Trends class T power amp
Pre-amp - Emotiva USP-1
Headphone amp/tupe pre-amp - Trends tube headphone Pre-amp
Cabs for crossover-less driver's - Insignia NS-B2111 (Just to get the feel of the speakers before I spend a good amount having cabs built)
Full range driver - Audio Nirvana super 6.5
Speaker wire - Belden 12g wire
Interconnects - BJC LC-1
Mini jack Interconnect - BJC MSA-1 Miniature Stereo Audio Cable
Universal player - OPPO DV-980H universal DVD player
Power amp for Mach-Ones - ????
Cans - ?????
Usb DAC - ???

I wanna stay in the cheap range as I did for the machs, I am starting to really like there sound and dont want to send them packing before I hear them on a qualified stereo system. I know they could only get better. I want to build the crossover-less bookshelfs for more serious listening as I know the machs sure are not ment for this.

Anything I have overlooked or should be looking into???

[Freewillisdead112]

I have my eye on a old sharp power amp on CL for $10, I think I am going to snag it to see if it will add some omph to the mix.

I almost don't get any bass from the 15" woofers on machs. I find this crazy, as with my JBL's I would have my next door friends trying to kill me if I played anything with bass.

I put the machs in the corner of my listening room and turned the knobs to 3db and the bass tightened up and the high end opened up ALOT. But, I am missing something. Poppachubby, you know what I am missing! Those low low low low bass drops that rattle the floor boards of the people across the street. I have not heard one of those In my living room since I bought the machs. Before I re-set the speakers in the corners my $20 Sony earbuds sounded better then them. Thats bad! But since I moved everything and messed around I got them to sound quite nice. I just feel like I am missing all the bass that should be there.

I thought the crossover was eating all the power from being old and worn out, so I ran a wire straight to the woofer and ran it full range. Sounded exactly the same! Is this a power issue or is this just the way a sealed enclosure sounds?

[poppachubby]

What are you driving them with? I have seen "nice" speakers in which the woofers barely move and deep bass is never achieved...

[Freewillisdead112]

I am driving them with the Pioneer SA-730 Integrated. The manual says 25wpc and you know how thats a lie. This is the first time I have ever owned speakers that didnt rattle ****. I am thinking this is a clipping/power issue!

[JoeE SP9]

Freewillisdead112, why don't you buy a USB external hard drive. Something like that with a USB DAC with both connected to your laptop would work well as a music server. You can get a 500Gb drive for less than $100. A drive that size will store more than 750 CD's in uncompressed format. I would guess you could store close to a thousand in FLAC format. If you get two of them you can use one for a backup. I have two 1Tb SATA drives. One is in my music server the other is for backup. Each one will store more than 1500 uncompressed CD's.

[poppachubby]

Freewillisdead112, why don't you buy a USB external hard drive. Something like that with a USB DAC with both connected to your laptop would work well as a music server. You can get a 500Gb drive for less than $100. A drive that size will store more than 750 CD's in uncompressed format. I would guess you could store close to a thousand in FLAC format. If you get two of them you can use one for a backup. I have two 1Tb SATA drives. One is in my music server the other is for backup. Each one will store more than 1500 uncompressed CD's.

Great advice Joe, I think I will be taking you up on it myself. What do you use for portable? I am looking to upgrade my DAC and obviously upgrade my storage capability. Portable would need to hold about 9/10 albums so not too big really. I am not looking forward to lossless conversion but it's going to be a necessity if I am to go any further with digital files.

[Freewillisdead112]

I was thinking about doing that, but my computer doesnt have a cd/dvd drive or a good processor so I figure I have to get a new laptop for college so why not. The idea of the external HD would work out great after I got a better computer, as mine isnt exactly a prize winner.

Is there a portable that plays flac yet? Or is this still only a home file?

Thats my big issue, as music on the go is a big part of my time so If I put everything into flac, I would'nt be able to play anything! Honestly, I can't hear a difference In flac or 320kbs with my mach's as stated by alot of you, are not very accurate. I hear a big difference between bad VBR and 256kbs and under though. Its night and day. If I build these crossover-less speakers I will try the flac route, since they are told to be very musical and I would assume show alot of the bad traits In a bad bitrate file.

[poppachubby]

I was thinking about doing that, but my computer doesnt have a cd/dvd drive or a good processor so I figure I have to get a new laptop for college so why not. The idea of the external HD would work out great after I got a better computer, as mine isnt exactly a prize winner.

Is there a portable that plays flac yet? Or is this still only a home file?

Thats my big issue, as music on the go is a big part of my time so If I put everything into flac, I would'nt be able to play anything! Honestly, I can't hear a difference In flac or 320kbs with my mach's as stated by alot of you, are not very accurate. I hear a big difference between bad VBR and 256kbs and under though. Its night and day. If I build these crossover-less speakers I will try the flac route, since they are told to be very musical and I would assume show alot of the bad traits In a bad bitrate file.

A good set of cans and an awesome quality recording will help you to reveal the flaws of 320kps. You're right though, when not under critical listening, 320, lossless, and CD can all sound the same...

[JoeE SP9]

I don't really have much in the way of portable. I do have a 70Gb USB Passport drive I use for data backup. As for my music, I use EAC and just save everything as wave files. EAC makes bit perfect copies.
EAC is Exact Audio Copy. It's freeware. Give it a try.

[poppachubby]

I don't really have much in the way of portable. I do have a 70Gb USB Passport drive I use for data backup. As for my music, I use EAC and just save everything as wave files. EAC makes bit perfect copies.
EAC is Exact Audio Copy. It's freeware. Give it a try.

I like the sounds of that....EAC...I'll look it up!

[dan]

hi, i owned this in the 80's...it is good sounding..used it for a while but then went to a bar restaurant...now i just bought same from thrift shop. i am so happy i have again this baby...re. cleaning, i always clean my vintage system with wd40...i spray and dab with with paint brush every place...one thing i discover even if i over do it, still safe...just place it in open air for a littel while to evaporate excess wd40....
and i also use or in combination pure alcohol...isoprohyl ( both mine at walmart)...or isopropanol...use it same with wd40...
for this amp...vol control seems to be the problem...its kind of easily contaminated...scratching sound...

remove knob, cover plates and use sparingly....
reminder: for cassette, extra care full avoid contaminating rubber parts special moving parts..drive belts, friction contact...etc..

u can spend more, buy contact cleaner spray it to controls...

if u clean every parts..including wire terminals, line in and out...it will sound much better.
good luck...again this amps is wonderful!!