dining room / kitchen system for peanuts

[Joe P]

I've been meaning to get a little system for the dining room / kitchen for a while, but have hesitated because even an entry-level system is pushing $1,000 once tax is included. But how about used? Well, as it turns out, you can assemble a decent system for less than $300 taxes in.

• Samsung Blu-Ray player = $20 Cdn
• Pioneer SX-450 receiver = $150 Cdn
• Yamaha speakerettes (forget the model but in piano black) = $75 Cdn a pair

Although the Blu-Ray player was the best deal, the Pioneer receiver was the best buy. It's surprisingly good. All the knobs (bass, treble, balance, volume, input, speaker selector) turn smoothly and solidly without crackles or pops, and all the lights light up.

All secondhand / thrift store finds.

Joe

 

[Locheeboy]

Aye, you’re correct. My kitchen system is…
Cambridge Audio A1 Mk3 SE…£60
NAD 4020b…£20 ! Truly ,up there with some of the best tuners. Even better bargain than Addis pads!
Wharfedale 9s…£50…

eBay is your friend. This outfit puts to shame, gear worth 10 times what I paid. Just careful buying gets excellent rewards.

 

[Joe P]

Nice, classic NAD styling there, Locheeboy.

Joe

 

[slavedata]

That classic Pioneer looks lovely

 

[Joe P]

slavedata,

That classic Pioneer looks lovely

Yeah, so many classic receivers from the 1970s. The main manufacturers from that era — Sony, Pioneer, Technics, Sansui, Marantz, etc.— got the aesthetics just right, but IMO they started to lose the plot in the 1980s and 1990s.

Joe

 

[graham-r]

I haven't got a picture handy, but this is hacked together TV system.

Pioneer SX535 (slightly modified) - £35
Wharfedale Linton (might be Denton) - £35
Pi zero W + Pi pHatDAC LMS player - Approx £30

 

[cj66]

"dining room / kitchen system for peanuts"

Do peanuts listen to music?

Mine is simply a JBL Clip3, any phone can connect....

Background system is a CCA, Teac AH300 and some Kenwood speakers.

 

[Joe P]

cj,

Of course they do.

Joe

 

[Pine Marten]

Ion Obelisk 2, £141.
Rotel RCD855, £75
Dali Zensor 1's £99
Sansui SR222mk2, £49.
Did a recap on the amp and the tt needed a new belt and a good clean and a drop of oil. I already had a barely used AT95e to put on it.
Add a Rotel RT820 tuner from long unused attic pile.
This little system punches way way above its price. Well happy.

Just last week I dug out my very tired old Akai 4000DS. Several hours spent fully stripping the transport, new belts, rebuilding and setting up the reel table clutches with new felts being the most time consuming part of the refurbishment.

 

[Cesare]

My kitchen hifi cost me nothing - I just turn up the music in the main room

 

[Gerard124]

Loving the Pioneer Receiver, perfect.

 

[Joe P]

Gerard,

Loving the Pioneer Receiver, perfect.

At 15 watts a side, the SX-450 is the baby in the line up from that era, but it is a proper receiver.

It would utterly defeat the point of a decent budget system, but I'm tempted to see if I can find the Pioneer receiver at the other end off the line — the fabled Pioneer SX-1980 — just so I can spin the tuning knob.

Joe

 

[Craig B]

Joe,

SX-1250 was the top receiver in the model line that began with SX-450.

Craig
(in classic Pioneer pedantic mode)

P.S. Of course, it is the black VU meters that have you lusting after SX-1980.

 

[graham-r]

A bit more Wharfedale/Pioneer receiver goodness, the Pi/Dac may get put in a case some day :0)

 

[Joe P]

Craig,

P.S. Of course, it is the black VU meters that have you lusting after SX-1980.

True, those meters are luverly things. I guess Pioneer didn’t bother putting meters on the SX-450 partially because of cost and mostly because it’s pointless if all you have is 15 watts of juice.

Anyway, just musing out loud. An SX-450 is a bit like a Nait 1. It’s more than good enough and if you start going up the chain makes you wonder in hindsight why you did.

Joe

 

[paulfromcamden]

My kitchen hifi cost me nothing - I just turn up the music in the main room

Our flat has very weird acoustics - the hi-fi in the living room sounds louder when I walk through into the kitchen...

 

[a.palfreyman]

Ye cannae break the Laws of Physics Cap'n...

 

[Tarzan]

Gerard,



At 15 watts a side, the SX-450 is the baby in the line up from that era, but it is a proper receiver.

It would utterly defeat the point of a decent budget system, but I'm tempted to see if I can find the Pioneer receiver at the other end off the line — the fabled Pioneer SX-1980 — just so I can spin the tuning knob.

Joe

Going by looks alone you know this is going to sound good.

 

[slavedata]

After looking at the first system I looked at this Pioneer receiver on ebay. 2 hours to go and it's selling for peanuts. Someone jump in and grab it!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/30503699...d=link&campid=5338728743&toolid=20001&mkevt=1

Sold for £57 anyone here get it?

 

[wulbert]

I used to walk past walls of 70's Japanese, silver, VU-metered hi-fi in Glasgow's "Barras" street market in the late 1980's. Nobody wanted the stuff, you could have built a shed out of it for £100. Why was I so blind?

My kitchen system: Yamaha WXC-50 streaming pre-amp (PFM used buy) > Amptastic Mini-1 (which replaced the Rega IO) into Monitor Audio Silver (£150 "open box" from Peter Tyson). Terrible position for the speakers, near the ceiling, atop mdf wall cupboards, but does the job whilst cooking. The lower shelf for the amp was a sneaky DIY add-on when the missus was out for a haircut ( 3 -4 hrs) to attempt to hide another system being sneaked into the house.