1983 Pioneer SA-740 Amplifier Review Plus Marantz 70s Sound Comparison.
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- čas přidán 29. 08. 2024
- The Pioneer SA-740 is the first integrated amplifier I owned. way back in 1983! Can it still hold its own 40 years later?
Time Stamps
0:03 Intro
2:42 Front Panel
5:06 Back Panel
7:25 Sound Comparison
16:13 Inside
18:03 Conclusion
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I have that exact model. Along with matching receiver, equalizer, reverb, and turntable. 😊 Running Advent large speakers
My parents bought me the same audio system in 1983 when I was 14. Still have the Amp speakers tuner and turntable. Still sounds awesome!
What a nice looking bit of kit, puts a lot of modern stuff to shame, and the fact it works so well reflects the build quality
I had (and still have) an SA740 when I was 13.
Three years later, and thinking I was a bit of a Hi-Fi buff, I bought a Mission Cyrus II.
I've never been so disappointed...
LIKE and comment number 1 which is always fun. Both amps sounded great with the Marantz sounding a bit brighter or more revealing in the treble, but the Pioneer, even despite its age, had a nice warm sound and surprisingly gave that Marantz unit a good run for the money.
As a fan and collector of vintage amps and other vintage equipment, it's a delight to see how well that Pioneer amp held up and hopefully, your great video will encourage anyone starting out in the audio or vinyl record collecting hobby to consider buying vintage amps, particularly at a good price, because they can sound fantastic (depending on the brand or model, of course). :)
It really did surprise me. It's definitely a keeper!
I love my vintage hifi and used to own a Pioneer SA8800 amp in the 80’s and wish I had kept it but my dad gave it away. As for your test the Marantz wins by a large margin for me.
Very nice video i really looked after a proper review of this amp my grandmother still has the full kit Pioneer XA-7 with the 2 speakers that came with it. But she needed to get rid of the record player and cd player but other than that the amp,the tape player and the radio works fine 👍
It's good to see the tape deck still working after all these years! The speakers and tape deck are hard to find for sale in decent condition
Been watching away at your vids,but this one grabbed my attention straight away.I bought an old Pioneer "SA 520" few years back for about £24 on ebay, has a "blue line" power meter on the front,and it sounds ,well ,Bloody Brilliant. Ive never had the volume past the 9oclock position because it way loud,,and it doesn't have any crackles either..Have a Yamaha AS301 rated at 60w which i need to really crank to match this.....Both amps sound really different,,but also really good.
The old amps shove out way more than the specs would suggest . They are the old school sound, my first set was ITT lol remember them, it was a phono with inbuilt amp, that was it . But it sounded fabulous to me .
Hi, like you videos, agree that Pioneer sounds organic, full bodied, I like it. Would be interesting to explore more and to see some comparisons following... maybe with some famous 'brits' like Quad 303/405, NAIM, Sugden...
I like this guy. No BS as others. I prefer Marantz.
I like your sense of humor :)
Bought the same set of kit back in the 80s. Leicester hifi was closing its store and moving into the city and everything was half price... Still it was £500.... a fair wedge back in the day for a 18 year old. As soon as I played the first note I knew I'd bought the best thing ever. Absolutely amazing. The speakers packed up eventually and got scrapped and a pioneer cd player phased out the turntable and cassette deck. I've still got the amp and turntable and in a fit of nostalgia I found a pair of speakers on the Internet and bagged them for 100 quid. Amp needs one of the channels sorting but I'm looking to relive the moment when I plug it all back in, wait till the wife goes out and ramp up the volume on Who Made Who by AC/DC😁.
Repaired one of these on my channel and yes its a very underrated amp. The missing fins on the heatsink are like that from factory. They make accommodation for the test points on the circuit board for output bias adjustment .Good find!
As always a great review, just got my 15 year old daughter a sa940 the 70w version as her first analogue ee system
I liked the sound of the Marantz best. When you were doing the A and B test I was right as to which one was which.
Very good amp. I have two SA-740, four SA-750, two SA-940 and one SA-950. All sound like a charm. Very good amps
By the way the heatsink of your SA-740 has never been cutted. It cames like that from factory (is stock). You can check similar ones in youtube. So your SA-740 probably has never been repaired
During the blind comparison, I thought that B sounded just a little bit clearer, and punchier but B sounded very close.
Great video mate! £44 is a *score!*
Thanks to this great video, it helped me finalise my decision. I recently bought the SA-940 similar to this but higher wattage and different face plate as well as LED meters.
The "Phones" jack is for headphones however they acn be used as pre outs but they will introduce noise / his.
As a comment rightly stated, the tape 2 is for use with a second tape deck or u can loop the in / out for an eq.
I have an active xover on mine.
As for the A / B, the Narantz sounds better (at least on my ststem) more highs, my SA-940 plays really good, i also have the tone on "defeat" & loudness on.
Hope this helps. Greetings from Trinidad 🇹🇹
Marantz has more wider stage and all frequencies are noticeably brighter. In Pioneer it is worth changing the capacitors, then the sound will appear.
answering your question about why the Marantz already cranked to 80%+ at the same output, i would guess both amp have different input sensitivity. most modern amp takes much higher input voltage compared to the older amps. from the recording alone, Pioneer is out of my choice since it sounds way too fat. consider checking the components and bias since they could be drifted out of spec
This might be your best video so far, but it is not complete because we haven't found out whether the dead spider improves the sound or not..
I'm using the spider as an op amp in a d class amp. Sounds amazing! 😄
B, Marantz, is more clean and open, but also the highs are a bit intrusive. A is not bad at all.
The highs were intrusive because thats what the Oberons do.
Hi Marty, I’ve gone back to musical fidelity b1 on monitor audio br2 speakers. Sound is phenomenal for such an old amp. Sometimes we all know less can be more and old is just better. 🤣✨🙏It also has one of the best phono stages ever! I love music all over again. 🙏🙏✨✨
The phono stages on these old amps put the new ones to shame!
@@UTILITARIANTVUK totally agree mate. Strange isn’t it. Surely it should be better nowadays. 🤔🤔🤦♂️🤦♂️
I am not surprised with the results. The Pioneer is an audio amp and the 70 is better for playing Blu-rays and cinema based sound. I see you got rid of your other Marantz, It just shows how well retro Hifi was built back in the 80's. Does it only play music from 1973? 😁
It refuses to play the current top 40! 😄
It does sound smother and more analogue to me
so, I have an SA-740, so maybe there's bias in this, but I like the SA-740 sound better than on from your Marantz, but both are great!
I have the 780 ,it has two more selection switches but the amp probably is basically the same and the phono stage is great also ..I would not even want to buy an external phono amp ,the stock factory version is that good ..
I found them to be as aestethics go, to be quite an improvement over the previous SA-X30 (like SA-730) amps, though there would never be Pioneer amps anymore as great looking as their SA-X08, SA-X10 and SA-X20 amps of the early 80's!
In sound all the ones starting with 7 would still sound very great, in that warm but precise golden era Pioneer way we like! Those amps starting with 5 and 6 would unfortunatly started to sound less and less ritch starting from the SA-520 and especially from the SA-530 onwards.
Pioneer always had a clearer and crisper sound, IE on the high-hats and cybals . . . . I chose A, right off the bat . . .
Very nice comparison. M thanks
Shame the Pioneer hasn't had a service....Those electrolytic capacitors could surely due with being renewed.
I just bought one on ebay for £30 😀
I got a higher end version of that same series of amps, sa-1050, that I really liked the sound of. However, there’s issues with the right channel were it would get really distorted and quiet and would only randomly worked. I would get it fixed but idk if it’s worth it but this video might push me over the edge.
Nice comparison. The Marantz to my ear does sound better. More detailed and open sounding. The Pioneer is a bit muffled and boomy, but considering its age, it could possibly sound different restored.
Yes, it could probably do with some new caps.
A for me !
Hi thanks for info and video. Can you know how can I repair bottons (phono, cd, aux, etc) . case not fixed when I plug. M thanks for help
Sorry, no
B has way better separation, almost always a sign of modern amps.
I don't no if I'm happy with My Cambridge Audio A1 feels like there's no bass to it. This Pioneer looks great! Mite keep a look out. Or would you stay stick with the A1?
I used to have an A1. From memory, I prefer the Pioneer as it has a bit more punch.
Hi mate. I bought the SA940 and TX540L for £65 last month. The tuner is a great if you just want it for the green lit display in the evenings. I was considering the EQ that was built same sort of time but cant justify the price atm. I think that 'TAPE' switch at the front enables the use of EQ as well as tape. Gets a tad hot but not uncomfortable hot.
Can you send a link for the speaker wire adapters please?
Here's the link amzn.to/3sPd3ve Some of the reviews mention that the wire can come out. I believe it's just a case of holding the banana plug end when you pull out the banana plug so not to place any undue stress on the wire.
b takes it nicely.more detailed.
Maranta for me no contest
Were you using tone controls ?
Didn't use the tone controls. They were left on 0dB.
The Pioneer is like a nice ripe banana.