This Line of 80's Pioneer Elite Models ROCK!

Have a couple elite recievers, one with a blown A channel, but still think its great , also have their Laserdisc player, its built well, just love the old elite line over ES

Late 80s and 90s premium Denon and Yamah gear is most of my gear and it is far from BPC🤩

I believe during the 80's the astronomical interest rates did a big hurt on many companies including the audio sector. Where I lived in Canada starting in 79 all was fine and if one wanted a home built there was a three year waiting list by the contractors. Then sometime during 1980 the rates started climbing pretty good and the housing came to a grinding halt. The rates peaked at about 23% during the 80's and some people I knew Were making good coin buying short term Canadian bonds at these rates. Some audio manufactures went out of business, some likely got sold off. Few years earlier I bought a 100% Pioneer system with the HPM 100's. in 99 I replaced it all/house fired thing, with much better equipment - Haha much netter loot also.

WoW a thousand $ for a finish back then is impressive to say the least. Everybody get your inflation calculators out

Another great video, thanks

These must have been very expensive back then die to all of the costs involved - Engineering and development, research, materials. Wonder of these were designed by the same engineer who designed the HPM line? They sure look impressive👍

I was in high school in the late 80’s and would salivate over this gear. We only had a Circuit City back then, so they only carried so much Elite gear, but it was way out of my price range. A lot of this top of the line gear from this era is fairly reasonable these days and I’ve been able to pick up some nice stuff for fairly cheap, at least compared the silver era, 70’s gear that has skyrocketed.

This system is a great find👍- 👍

I own a 1983 Harman Kardon PM-650 amplifier and I would put it's sound and performance against anything. It's silver finish is beautiful too. I owned a pair of 1984 DCM Time Window speakers for 34 years and I loved them too. Great info Scott, and an incredible system! BTW How did they keep the copper from turning green?

You have an amazing collection! These look fantastic. I had heard of the Pioneer Elite but never heard them play. BPC did dominate the decade and I lost interest because of that and the high cost of the nicer gear. Marriage and kids and destitution 😂killed hifi for me for nearly 30 years.

I had the Pioneer C90 with a Onkyo M508. Traded the c90 for a Carver preamp. WOW! I was right that c90 wasn't very good.

No Scott you rock!!!😅

Some of the Fischer gear from the 80's is very good. I just picked up a Fischer receiver from the mid 80's from a thrift store for $15 and the build quality and sound quality is very good. It is very similar to some of the late 70's JVC gear that I have internally and I wonder if it was made by JVC? ( I love the USA Fischer gear from the 60's and used to collect that. )

Thanks for this video.
I have the Elite receiver/ theater surround sound A/V pre amp unit. It was my grandfather's he bought new when I was just out of high school. He had a very nice system and he had a full size satellite dish with a top end Chapparal satellite tuner. Only very wealthy people had full size auto tuning motor driven sat dishes in those days. He bought that because he lived in Beverly Hills but was a huge S.F. 49ers football fan and wanted to be able to watch every game no matter where they were playing.
But my brother and I ended up with his audio system after he passed away.
My brother has the Elite set up in one room and he has MacIntosh system in another room. I have a Sound Craftsmen receiver, pre amp equalizer ready to be set up and I have a late 1980s Yamaha DSP - A3090 amp theater surround unit a Pioneer PLX turntable and Sony and Elac shelf speakers and tube amp turntable pre amp and a tube driven Bluetooth receiver set up in my bedroom.
I like the high end audio from the '80s. My dad had a Fischer system in the '80s. Before that he had high end system when I was very young in the mid - late 1960s with Fischer speakers Gerard turntable I can't remember what receiver and amp he had back then anrba Teac reel to reel

Wow, nice video! I’m a Pioneer collector from Europe. In Europe these series called: Urushi. The Urushi C-90(a) pre amp has no remote and video inputs, that’s why I purchased a Japanese C-90a.

Had no idea. I thought pioneers quality fell off the cliff after the 70s. I like what I'm seeing here. Don't see much of it for sale on market place

Those chassis elements are not copper. It's copper plated steel. Copper plated steel chassis were used by Sherwood among others in the late 1950's / early 1960's; for example the Sherwood S5500 integrated amplifier. The concept was that the copper plating has higher conductivity than plain steel, thus draining away noise currents better. You see this in shortwave and ham radio gear sometimes too. Solid copper chassis parts are not used because it would be incredibly expensive and copper is too soft to cut threads into for fasteners, the thing would fall apart when handled. Also, a lot of self-tapping screws are used in chassis construction, and they would just strip out in copper unless the copper was over 1/8" thick. Some companies went a step further and SILVER plated certain steel pieces - H.H. Scott had silver plated shield panels on the front end of their FM tuners; silver is even a better electrical conductor than copper. It does speak of an attempt to improve product quality, but I doubt it has any actual electronic impact on sound performance. Good marketing, though.

Unfortunately like many Pioneer amps and preamps were laced with ICs replacing the discreet components of their 70s gear and this provide a significant cost saving. Also power supplies were somewhat shrunken compared to past units, also for costs saving. Yes emphasis was put into the cosmetics perhaps a bit too much at the expense of the all important circuitry inside. Also Japanese firms adopted the unfortunate trick of apply too much global feedabck in the amp/preamp designs which gives great paper specs but under dynamic conditions driving speaker loads tends to sound harsh. In my opinion based on experience with many Pioneer components the the high end products they made mid 70s (eg., Spec 1, Spec 2, etc) sounded superior.
Bottom line... discreet circuits, beefed up power supplies and moderate use of feedback produces superior sounding amps/preamps. Something that most Japanese components of the 80s had abandoned to save money and fool the consumer with superficially great paper specs measured by steady state sine waves into an 8 ohm resistor.

I remember these. Your collection is awesome! Really love they made a laser disc player!

That's a beautiful set Scott! Also another great video. JVC was also making some high end gear at that time. I owned a stack of 1010 series pieces that I will send you some pics of.

Great video Scott, Enjoyed it

This is from the Black man O.G. and music loving audiophile(my full title🤣)The build quality and looks of the Pioneer Elite, the Onkyo Integre and Sony ES were great. The preamps and power amps from these and others however, were no match sonically for the humble looking NAD and Hafler 120a preamp/power amp combo I was using at the time. I still have the Hafler 120a and use it during the spring and summer to biamp the midrange and treble of my Maggie 1.6's It has the classic Dynaco tube sound in abundance!(love the sound of mosfets!). During the fall and winter I use the Conrad Johnson mv55 in its place. That Pioneer Elite turntable( which I would have loved to own)was the one standout piece at the time and it's still cutting edge today. Also the Rotel 955ax cd player I was using was superior to to those offered by these companies at the time.

I have never seen or heard of this line mentioned in any magazine. If they were mine, I would never part with them voluntarily

Is this your basement? It's very nice.

The Pioneer Elite Series, are they still made in Japan at this point ?

If anyone has something from the Pioneer Elite brand, do your best to keep it. They have great sound and have a tendency to last a very long time. I was surprised that Pioneer also had an Elite line for DVD and Blu-Ray players as well.

You’re gonna want to leave those pieces on for about two or three days to give the capacitors a little bit of stability after being off for so long. Huge pioneer fan from the 70s and 80s.

I would like to see a video on these speakers. I wonder what kind of wood they used how they were put together. Good video. Thanks for sharing.

Left a email!

I remember sony's version was "Gibraltar". They were supposed to have a slab of rock in the chassis. I had a pioneer elite LDP very elegant and capable,. It got smashed into oblivion when I came back from overseas. A forklift rammed it. I was poorly compensated for my loss. They paid me just under half replacement cost, because in the USA, prices were higher than in Asia.

Thank you.

I have the SC-07 amp

What a haul of stuff! He sounds like exactly the sort of bloke you'd want to buy stuff from i.e. lightly used and well looked after. That Elite line from Pioneer is superb gear.

the only thing i notice is that if one had the cheapest receiver from Pioneer and wanted more sound , one could by a power amplifier and use the receiver as pre-amp. not all had outputs to work perfect with the power amplifiers but a lot had and the sound quality and building quality wasn´t worst than the top range of the brand only less powerfull, in 1980 all brands decreased the quality of sound not one kept using the same sound quality and like you refer plastic was the main material showed , Marantz still sounded good but not like 70´s components as they were owned by Philips it had the sound quality very close to 79 Philips F series that sounded amazing and not that powerfull but other older series sounded very well too ,even in the 60´s were amazing good like speakers that are squares with a look that seems garbage when conected to a expensive amplifier they sound better than the expensive and powerfull speakers we just bought, as an example, so i think from the most known brands Marantz was the best in first half of the 80´s, not all the components but amplifier and speakers were still very good but i was into Carver own brand and holografic sound or close not sure now but everything was expensive and in some year and monthes something needed repair, as a Phase Linear power amplifier that sounded amazing good said in the back "...by Carver." and when i saw a Carver brand i tried it but the components were having litle problems from the start.

the URUSHI design Pioneer components aren´t like Elite because in Europe we have only the top end models from every source not multi-players or double decks or other components sold a lot in the U.S.and catalogs we did not had them complete as i never saw speakers in catalogs like the ones you have there or other models as in Portugal all people were living with less money than in other european countries and technology and cars were the less powerfull even some models are unique for being huge and with engines so weak that some don´t even believe as they never saw them , as an example a early 70´s Ford Granada fastback with 1.3 L engine only also the capri mkI had it sold both in mint condition to a english colector of cars because he found them funny and he paid what i asked as they were perfect in the 90´s. High-end catalogs we had to know them to ask for the especified catalog, so a lot we didn´t knew it existed so we wouldn´t ask for them.

they had the Prologue speakers that in late 80´s they sounded really good at least the tower was perfect sounding and built with the best materials also sold into the 90´s but expensive and not like said at the time that one could buy better from other brands with the same money but no , they really are perfectelly built ,i only knew them as two of my friends bought them but some years ago i saw on ebay for sale the towers and as never seen in wood not dark and only knew the black ones this in mint condition and with transport cost me less than half it´s value in the 90´s and they sure sound very good or better compared to new released speakers.

i´m still using now the A-91D with the CT-91a , the cd player sold it long ago the PD-91 if memory doesn´t fail me but had a PD-9000 and a more modern PD-75 with the cd upside down with the litle turntable also laqued and URUSHI like Elite but not written there and only the top end models from each component ,no multiplayers , receivers or laserdisc, the turntable you showed it didn´t bought it as i had from the 70´s PLC-590 from 20 series with better sound and construction quality, those speakers i never saw them and bought the infinity SM225 and the prologue towers in wood ,the first pair was black from Pioneer , really amazing good sound also bought the 89 AT-100 but to a 70´s spec-1 and spec-2 as my HPM-150 were needing a drivers restoration but it was dificult to find a technician who could do it as the older ones from germany living in my hometown were too old and couldn´t work anymore, this 70´s material was my fathers equipment, but i used to try the speakers in difrent amplifiers to see which were better to, my family was a Pioneer freak all had pioneer equipment, i was ofered in 84 a SX-1980 with some HPM-1100 and a PL-560 (or similar) as it had no model written on it and a shure VNP-15 needles that i still have 4 of them closed in the boxbut all in cast iron plinth with the needle like a vu meter for the perfect pitch this in cast iron was from a 79 complete system that the look is better than that years catalog with a big receiver with the power meters with needles but instead of black the colour in the back was a light colour like beige like the rest of the tuner part with the receiver written with designed letters, this bought in new york in 79 with speakers that had no model but very close to the HPM-1000 and controls for mid and highs in the back and the big or huge woofer would vibrate a lot with the bass almost looked like they wanted to get out of the box all black , now i can´t find the receiver but i´m going to look for it next weekend , very nice looking still but i think the real hpm´s were the 76 series only, as the engenier didn´t stay too long in pioneer that came from JBL.

honeycomb they said that was for heat dispertion or it deflected heat coming from other components as in the bottom side

in europe were more expensive, by some 500 dollars at the time, that amout didn´t buy the regular top end cd player

the inside is for people see the crap their buying today for triple that amount ,the amplifiers are ridiculous today, expensive as hell and no quality at all, a guy i ofered him a PD-6700 and he was crazy he said that he spent money on several very expensive cd players and this was the best he ever had and i know it was good i used to fall asleep and wake up with it still playing the program ,10 hours and not a single problem or vibration ,nothing at all, i have the ct-93 and it´s still recording a lot of cassettes as i stoped them for years but had boxes of good cassettes from tdk and sony or UX-pro and SA-x , SA, and AR ofered as they were going to be incinerated and for years i only recorded minidiscs and dat´s but some recordings in minidisc didn´t sounded well in some types of sound and dats were too expensive , i only have 20 new dat´s that i bought cheap in 1997 but in total i have maybe 260 recorded

my father was a nakamichi, revox studer guy , the reason why he ofered me the complete system he had bought in 76 , if you know the catalog ,the most expensive equipment is what he bought and next year he bought a expensive revox B series system and a extra pair of studer speakers, i´m saying this because i´ve compared top models from pioneer with the most expensive cassette decks from nakamichi even using the CT-F1250 the dragon and the 1000ZXL all working like new they recorded not so good and when playing the cassettes recorded in the nakamichi´s they sounded better in the pioneer ,so the CT-91a ,CT-959 ,CT-93 are far better than any nakamichi made ever, and pioneer´s are flat recorders, i don´t have the CT-A1 but have the Phase Linear 7000 from series two ,which is a amazing good deck very strong and perfect built and have the series two complete system, power amplifier by Carver, this before the Carver brand came out and the holographic amplifier that i´m still wanting to know what that means

not sure but the diference in the C91 and C90 isn´t one has not the video inputs as i discover why the without video inputs seems to sound better , it as Loudness while other don´t ,at lower volumes so to speak it ,as a more bright sound, only this weekend i went to see that and the A-91D also as loudness, i´m using it now with some JBL´s and some CDM-7 from B&W, sounds amazing good, only have a two extra denon decks a DRM-800a and a DMD-1500 (minidisc deck )also have the MD-J707 from Pioneer X2 and a technics top end model direct drive from 93 ,cassettes off course, akai tape monitor multiplyer the AU-5 or similar, to conect all and in analog all sounds better than hooked digitally i have both and when changing from analog to digital the digital sounds ok but not as good as the analog, also this was in 89 mostly

the F-93 is the perfect tuner ,i have others but this is the only that i really like but FM stations were the most important in the 60´s, 70´s, 80´s and early 90´s after all is bad i have a palication on my phone only instaling possible on the phone but have it hooked to the amplifier and get amazing radio stations world wide mainly from jazz of diferent years, garden rose or similar, now i don´t even have a tuner on one of my system´s but have a receiver the Revox B780 with a power amplifier that also uses a electronic tuner in the 70´s and is very good, only hooked today

the PD-93 is a very good cd player maybe at it´s price range the best available there are much more expensive without any quality, it as a pcm dac but a very expensive one above many dsd´s today

by your description none needs new laser but what i refer in this coment , i discover a thing about lasers when people think they need a new one most of the time is a matter of being tuned like the azimuth in cassette decks but a diferent geometry i was amazed how all started working like new ,this refering to heavy used cd players also clean the path of the lazer unit, like the urushi ones and not only from the regular series too , some are not for sale and when they were they cost a lot of money like more than 500 dollars all, if new. i jhave the PD-73 that was all year working even at night only stoped it while camping or travelling and with all this years after tunned they work like new the PD-9000 was also used a lot so try to find someone who knows how to tune digital players i was amazed by it, i couldn´t believe they were working again like new ,there´s the telescopic laser from pioneer that because of the movement it fell sometimes the lenses but only in those like the old PD-7100 and 7300 or the 73

Also bought players almost never used for 50 to 100€ and changed the system and tuned it ,new again