This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs When it comes to audio equipment I’ve learned from my father that old models are desired by most of the audiophiles.
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@thomasfuchs Possibly even has its own schematics printed on the bottom side of the top panel, too.
@joshuaelliott @thomasfuchs by that era the schematics would often be too complex to fit on one sticker, but service manuals are generally available in at least English and Japanese if not a variety of other languages..
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
Also this thing also sounds fantastic and drives 85W (sustained) per channel with practically no noise to up to four speakers (two stereo pairs).
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs I like to make self-deprecating jokes about how my living room looks like a Radio Shack display, but this is a big part of why - older audio equipment is servicable, inexpensively available, built-to-last and much more forward-compatible than things today are backwards-compatible. The media they use cannot be taken from me and often times recordings are of a better quality than modern iterations.
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Also this thing also sounds fantastic and drives 85W (sustained) per channel with practically no noise to up to four speakers (two stereo pairs).
And if you believe it, this was NOT their most powerful amplifier at the time.
The flagship model could do over 250W sustained per channel and would start reaching the limits of power consumption on a standard 15A home outlet.
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R relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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Also this thing also sounds fantastic and drives 85W (sustained) per channel with practically no noise to up to four speakers (two stereo pairs).
@thomasfuchs Looks great too!
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs The speakers I use were bought 2nd-hand by my dad sometime in the early 70s and were fairly old then. As a non-audiophile they sound fantastic. There are no brands/marks or anything on them so short of pulling them apart I'll never know exactly what they are.
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@thomasfuchs The speakers I use were bought 2nd-hand by my dad sometime in the early 70s and were fairly old then. As a non-audiophile they sound fantastic. There are no brands/marks or anything on them so short of pulling them apart I'll never know exactly what they are.
@vandenberglegs if they work well, definitely don’t pull them apart because you’d probably have to replace foam that gets brittle over time

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@thomasfuchs Looks great too!
@erynofwales it’s such a joy to use this thing with all senses
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
-
This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs
I've missed old tech an awful lot lately, and seeing the awesome analog displays and controls has me dying for it now. -
This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs
> Can you do this with modern technology?
Yes. -
And if you believe it, this was NOT their most powerful amplifier at the time.
The flagship model could do over 250W sustained per channel and would start reaching the limits of power consumption on a standard 15A home outlet.
@thomasfuchs
“Back to Mono!” -
@vandenberglegs if they work well, definitely don’t pull them apart because you’d probably have to replace foam that gets brittle over time

@thomasfuchs Yeah, there's no way I'm doing anything to them. They've survived many moves and abuse at sharehouse parties, I do not want to tempt fate now that they've found a safe space to see out their days.
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs No age verification.
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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs my old amp is only 25W/ channel but plenty loud. H H Scott type 299 from 1958.

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This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs might be thinking of the wrong company but i'm fairly certain pioneer used to give you schematics along with their amps too -
This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs
(Sorry, bad pic) yeah, funny my 70’s vintage Kenwood is just the same! I even got a fiber transducer a month ago to hook a different video input into it! Cost $9 and worked the first time.
Go figure… -
This is a Pioneer Stereo Receiver SX-850 from just about 50 years ago.
It’s not spying on you.
It doesn’t need firmware updates.
There’s no subscription.
It’s widely compatible with other audio equipment from other manufacturers.
It won’t suddenly decide you can’t listen to explicit lyrics anymore.
It won’t “autocorrect” you, interrupt you with notifications or get hijacked by a botnet.
If a component breaks, it’s pretty easy fixable, even by amateurs.It still works great, sounds great and looks great and it will probably do so for another 50 years. It’s a piece of useful electronics that you can hand down for literally generations.
Can you do this with modern technology?
Why is modern technology considered “better”?
@thomasfuchs
But FM radio is shutting down in favor of digital radio. -
@vandenberglegs if they work well, definitely don’t pull them apart because you’d probably have to replace foam that gets brittle over time

@thomasfuchs @vandenberglegs I recently refoamed some speakers. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I imagined it would be

