It is actually an old toy and a not-so-nice story or two to go along with it.
First the pron for the peeps who dont want to hear the story:
http://zone-10.com/tope2/main.php?g2_itemId=16486
I found this Pioneer SX636 on my local Craigslist and paid $20 for it. It was
supposed to be in semi-working condition, and its not, but I dont think fixing
it is something that I couldnt handle. Also the cap on the power button is
missing, despite being on when pictures of the unit were forwarded upon my
request. I knew something was fishy, when the pictures from the post were
missing and the pix sent to me were from 2014.
I didn't care that much, as my original intent was to gut the receiver out and
put in electronics designed by me. That plan changed after I read reviews about
it. I like the "warm coloration" that tubes add to sound and apparently the
Pioneer does exactly that, by utilizing solid state components.
I was able to obtain the receiver's schematics along with the ones for units in
the same family and do I have a story for ya?
When I was a little kiddie, comrad Hinkov was like a god to me. He was the
engineer behind the extremely popular series of articles called "Project 79"
published in the one of the leading youth-oriented Bulgarian electronics
magazines within the period of 79-80. The scope was the build of a modular
hi-fi amplifier. Now, keep in mind that during those years, the Communist
industry didnt support unnecessary products like high fidelity audio, as it was
busy cranking other kind of products - the building blocks of the bright
future, but...if you had the time and skills, the Party wouldnt stop you from
building one yourself. Audio gear that is, not the bright future, you needed
its guidance and most of all permission to build that for yourself.
Back to the amplifier laid out in the articles. It was a fantastic piece of
machinery build from pcb's in a modular arrangement laid out in a way which
intent was to save space and deliver the ultimate sound to a set of eight ohm
speakers. There were diagrams, schematics and mechanical drawings that showed
every detail of the amplifier. This is what inspired me become an engineer and
needless to say, when I came to the US, besides some clothes I brought the
scans from the articles along with couple of books (one of which was the
Feynman's lectures in physics) and tons of dreams to go along.
Here is the interesting part: I was looking at the schematics in the service
manual of the Pioneer SX636 and they seemed very familiar to me. Yes, one of
them was the same and others were very, very close. So I downloaded the service
manuals for the entire SX series receivers and found the others too.
To the comrad's credit, the PCB artwork and the idea of modular arrangement
were unique, but unless the Japanese built a time machine that took them to
1979 in order to steal the schematics from his articles and reverse engineer
them, so they can start selling the receivers in 1974, I'd say the comrad is a
crook.
Best
Boris
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