Building a high powered home stereo… Audiophiles help..

93097004xx · 10-30-2021, 07:43 PM

I’ve been researching this and it seems that the late 70s Pioneer analog receivers are still unmatched for unmatched BRUTE driving power.

The Pioneer SX 1980 looks really attractive at 330 watts per channel..

Ok also is there a way to rig these with AuX in to stream? I have to imagine as this is a grail stereo there are folks that can devise a way to stream with all this mega power?

Im thinking I may need as many as 2 or more as I’m think of running old school 1970s pioneer 15 inch sub 4 way CS-901 speakers? Possibly 4?

I know I want something with 15” woofers…

I’m referring to the models with metal horns.

I remember these speakers as being pure bliss and unmatched in power, sound and clarity.. You can actually feel the sound in your chest.. not to dissimilar from standing next to a 7000 HP top fuel dragster you can just feel the sound waves….Anyhow

Bliss…

Yes I know this could easily spin out of control into a $20,000 project… And I’m quite sure one could spend $50,000+ using exotic audio equipment.

Also is it even possible to service these old speakers? I know the receivers can be rebuilt.

CS-99a curious the difference I see what looks to be a crossover of some sort vs CS-901

Vs the CS-901

This stereo will not be used anywhere near a neighborhood…

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Ayles · 10-30-2021, 07:53 PM

You can use something like an apple airport with a 1/8 to rca adapter. Not sure what kind of inputs that thing has.

The speakers you show are known as Kabuki speakers. Search that term and you will get a ton of info.

Gogar · 09:30 PM

Get a Sonos connect- RCA outputs and you're good to go! Can stream most services.

Any speaker can be serviced; I'd suggest if you rebuild or replace a component on one side that you do both.
Moving components made out of paper can almost be considered "wear items" like brake pads and most certainly were never expected to last 40-50 years, but it's great if they do!

Those speakers on top are probably not as loud as the bottom ones, but they are probably much smoother.

greglepore · 10-31-2021, 05:09 AM

Second the airport recommendation. But for fwiw, there are lots of amps that produce that kind of power on a dynamic basis, NAD, Carver etc.

93097004xx · 10-31-2021, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greglepore

Second the airport recommendation. But for fwiw, there are lots of amps that produce that kind of power on a dynamic basis, NAD, Carver etc.

My understand is the current measure of RMS is not nearly the same as the true measure of RMS as was used with old analog receivers?

Some of these monsters could belt out 480 watts (short term) and consumer over a 1000 watts of energy.

I’m open to options as I don’t cherish the idea of spending $5000 on 40 year old receiver that may arrive DOA… or at least give out in a short time..

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scotricker · 10-31-2021, 06:05 AM

Here is my current garage set-up, Pioneer SX-890 that I bought NEW in 1981 !

Back in the day, I had it hooked up to a pair of three way 12's and rocked the house.

Now I have two little pairs of speakers ( A and B outs ) and a powered sub. I run the ins and outs through the EQ, and have a 3.5mm jack to my phone, so I run Pandora and my saved music list on it.

I barely crack it open, so I don't bug the neighbors where I live now,

93097004xx · 10-31-2021, 06:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scotricker

Here is my current garage set-up, Pioneer SX-890 that I bought NEW in 1981 !

Back in the day, I had it hooked up to a pair of three way 12's and rocked the house.

Now I have two little pairs of speakers ( A and B outs ) and a powered sub. I run the ins and outs through the EQ, and have a 3.5mm jack to my phone, so I run Pandora and my saved music list on it.

I barely crack it open, so I don't bug the neighbors where I live now,

What are you running for speakers?

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Sooner or later · 10-31-2021, 06:15 AM

In the 70's I shared a place with a guy that had a pair of CS99A and a huge Pioneer amp, can't remember the amp model. Our neighbors didn't care for us too much.

Rusty Heap · Rusty Heap's Garage

If you have "efficient" speakers 92 dB 1 watt / 1 meter you don't really have to run mega watts. Many efficient speakers are 102-105 db 1w/1m.

Carver amps are awesome if you need to run more horsepower.

scotricker · 10-31-2021, 07:06 AM

[QUOTE=93097004xx;11503730]What are you running for speakers?

nothing special now, just random pairs that I had around, 6" Onkyos, and 4" POS, and a powered sub, like Morgan Thomas or something like that. Sounds just fine at low level garage tunes.

greglepore · 10-31-2021, 07:21 AM

Any of the Carver TFM amps sound great, although many need caps now.
The big Adcoms and NAD's are great amps as well...

Superman · 10-31-2021, 08:12 AM

Gogar has it right and so does Rusty. Sure, just about any speaker is rebuildable with just a few ex exceptions. I decided to pass on a pair of Altec 824A speakers on our local CraigsList because the horn tweeters are made of unobtanium and not rebuildable. But yeah, most paper cone speakers can be rebuilt. If you are building a system around gobs of power, there are lots of choices. Thousand-Watt amps are readily available. More complex speaker systems (3-way, 4-way, etc.) are less efficient, so more power is required. More efficient speakers are louder at a given power level. The decibel scale is logarithmic. A 104db speaker is way louder than a 94db speaker. Multi-way speakers are going to be inefficient. mid-80s or lower. So you need more power. The relationship is interesting.

Doubling the power to a speaker increases loudness by only 3db. Most people can hear this increase in loudness, but just barely. If you multiply power by 10, loudness is doubled. So.....a 1000-Watt amplifier is twice as loud as a 100-Watt amplifier.

There are so many ways to skin this cat. Last week I ordered an amplifier kit and a preamplifier kit to build. These are vacuum tube devices using a "single-ended triode" topology. The power amp makes 8 WPC. That's not a typo. Candidly, you'd be surprised what one Watt can do. Yup. One single Watt. All of my other vacuum tube amps use a "push-pull" topology. The PP monoblocks in my living room right now make just 12 Watts, and this is plenty. My speakers are 89db sensitive and those 12 Watts are actually driving two pairs of speakers! So yeah....you'd be surprised at how few watts are actually being used when you listen to music. My PP tube amps sound great, but I heard a couple of single-ended triode amps recently and the difference was striking. Like lifting a veil. Like the band is right there in the room. Seriously.

At any rate, I am moving in the absolute opposite direction from the OP. There is nothing wrong with high powered systems. I am choosing simplicity. In fact, one of the biggest improvements I have made to my hifi system recently is to remove the preamp from the signal path. That's right. No preamp at all. My sources are connected directly to my power amps. There is a switching device with a volume control, but that device is ONLY a switch. No tone controls. The improvement in sound quality was striking when I removed the preamp. Here are the monoblocks I am using right now:

Superman · 10-31-2021, 08:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

If you have "efficient" speakers 92 dB 1 watt / 1 meter you don't really have to run mega watts. Many efficient speakers are 102-105 db 1w/1m.

Just to make sure you guys understand what these numbers mean.....a 105db speaker will make 105 decibels of loudness at a distance of one meter, when being driven by 1 Watt of power. 105db is VERY LOUD. One Watt. :

https://audiology-web.s3.amazonaws.com/migrated/NoiseChart_Poster-%208.5x11.pdf_5399b289427535.32730330.pdf

Scott Douglas · Scott Douglas's Garage

This is my system bought new back in 1978.
The speakers I use are these:
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/infinity/column-ii.shtml

You would be hard pressed to stay in the room if you put one watt thru them.

I would bet you'll need to have the unit you've shown rebuilt before it can be used reliably. Mine are sitting because they need going thru.

93097004xx · 10-31-2021, 12:18 PM

Thanks for all the responses! Gosh it still seems like buying the old school analog pioneer mint or refurbished amplifiers and speakers are the way to go unless you can be highly technical in your setup with mixing of newer equipment…

I had thought of possibly a mid 90s technique amp + a pair of pioneer CS 109s…

I’m open to all options or if you have a particular build that didn’t cost 10s of thousands of dollars that you would like to share please do!

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Scott Douglas · Scott Douglas's Garage

When I was getting educated about buying a stereo way back when, everyone stressed starting with the speakers since they out put the input most important to you the user. After demo'ing a lot of different speakers I happened on the Column II's on sale no less. I've had them ever since and only in the past couple of years have augmented them with some Infinity Crescendo 3008's. The whole system is in my living room as a home theater system. It's running off a small Denon receiver now.
I would suggest you get the speaker situation settled before anything else as they will drive what is needed up stream more than anything else.

frosty2 · frosty2's Garage

Here’s my garage/man cave setup, I like the old school setup as well. I have it hooked up to a pair of early 901 Bose speakers, even Hank Snow sounds good out there😁

93097004xx · 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scott Douglas

When I was getting educated about buying a stereo way back when, everyone stressed starting with the speakers since they out put the input most important to you the user. After demo'ing a lot of different speakers I happened on the Column II's on sale no less. I've had them ever since and only in the past couple of years have augmented them with some Infinity Crescendo 3008's. The whole system is in my living room as a home theater system. It's running off a small Denon receiver now.
I would suggest you get the speaker situation settled before anything else as they will drive what is needed up stream more than anything else.

I’m going with with Pioneer CS-901 or CS-99a

I know they are fantastic sounding and put out out BIG sound.

herr_oberst · 10-31-2021, 02:44 PM

There's a guy in NY who sells caps in full kits with instructions to DIY for a lot of the vintage amps. He posts on ebay, I think the kit for my Yamaha CA 800 was about 155 bucks?
(edit - here it is...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/154488479576?hash=item23f83b1f58:g:gAcAAOSwRNVhY-QO)
I think it would be satisfying to be able to do this over the course of a couple of weeks on the kitchen table, kind of like building a model airplane. Just take your time and don't get flustered.

I've never recapped anything, I'd probably go get some JCPenny or Sears receiver from Goodwill and practice removing and reinstalling some components before I jumped into it.

908/930 · 908/930's Garage

Here is a combo that I have tested, long tome ago I helped my neighbour with building a pair of JBL L300 clones, I had a deal on the drivers and he was looking for a pair of speakers, when finished and with a Luxman R1070 (75WPC) driving them they sounded fantastic. I am still keeping my eye open for a pair if they ever are available nearby. Keep in mind that the more switches a receiver has there is more to go wrong.