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Pioneer TX 9100

madmike

I feel much better now, I really do...
I went to buy a s/h TD 160 and the guy brought out his old tuner, a Pioneer TX 9100. It was a lovely thing. He will mull it over and give me a price. It looked lovely. He said eventually all the analogue radio will be switched off. I am not so sure.
Its a good tuner isn't it ?
How much should I pay ?
 
In theory you should not pay more than £10-£20. But lately ther has been a lot of "vintage" and "cult" interest in late 60s/early 70s stuff with nice lights an UV meters, so he could even ask £100.
As to if it is a good tuner, I have no idea, but I would bet that it is absolutely capable of doing what it is supposed to do, even with a minimal antenna. Japanese tuners were almost always good, in my flea-market experience.
 
The Pioneer TX-9100 is a lovely thing, as is the similar TX-8100. Price will depend as much on condition as anything else. Also whether it has original documentation. An average example might be anywhere from a tenner up to £70. Cosmetics are key because they're nigh on impossible to fix if flawed. A minter will go for more, sometimes much, much more. After all, you won't find another totally mint TX-9100 in a hurry...
 
Superb tuner and very close to the best Japanese tuners ever produced.
Just buy it. If you don't want it, I'll have it! - seriously :)

I already know of enthusiasts building small transmitters to FM encode and broadcast their music around the locality, keeping these lovely old things in use and that will continue long past any national FM shutdown. It's a bit like a primitive form of wi-fi streaming :)
 
There have been some dates but they always get put back, probably because DAB take-up has been very slow.

I think we have to look at national broadcasters and locals separately.
I can envisage the shutdown of the main FM transmitters (or conversion to DAB only if possible - I've not followed the tech on this) so no more BBC, Global Radio (LBC/Capital/Smooth etc) and a few others. Someone somewhere up the authority chain will have a cut off point, where sufficient have moved to digital in whatever form that the FM broadcast will cease, just like it did with analogue TV. I would be amazed if it happens this decade though.

However if I spin my FM scale I find lots of little local stations, some legal some illegal and it will be interesting to see what happens to those. Most also use the web but I suspect it will be many years before the FM band falls silent.

If building or buying your own mini transmitter doesn't appeal, you can always build a little FM modulator to squirt whatever you like up your FM tuner so they will never become unusable.
That's very much a tool for the collector though.
 
I used a 9100 for years. Fabulous tuner. Buy it, after checking it all works (they are getting old).
As for switch off; the politics is toxic and not like the switchover of tv. The main reason is that people have multiple radios at home and in cars. It would cost people a lot to replace them; that might be acceptable if voters felt they would get an obviously superior service. But they don't. I think FM will be with us for at least another ten years, maybe more.
 
I think with FM the old adage 'if it ain't broke' applies.
The benefit of the best HD digital TV over the old analogue systems is glaringly obvious, but DAB is actually inferior to FM so a much harder sell.
 
You should absolutely buy a TX9100 without hesitation. I think it is the best sounding Pioneer tuner, better than a 9500II and a 9800. The build will amaze and if you ever have the misfortune to hear it anywhere near a Naim 01 you'll get an education - which will give you an idea of its real value. It is actually quite discreet looking compared with later models but the quality wood cabinet, machined aluminium nobs and lighting give a clue to the quality inside. A stunner and still under rated. Love mine to bits.
 
I have seen and touched it...it is, but I wouldn't spend that on a tuner, I would fret till I had the matching amp....
 
I paid £20 for mine to match my SA-9100. The wood case isn't in great nick but just needs a sand back and re-oil. My SA-9100 is in excellent condition and is almost back to 100% (thorough rebuild needed on the amp)
 
That's still a good price considering it buys you a tuner in the top 10 of those ever produced.

Equipment of this era is by definite under valued becasue even the high end stuff was mass produced in numbers which simply don't apply today. Therefore something like the 9100 if made today would be a labour intensive job and the quantities would perhaps be in the 100s, with a stratospheric price to match.
Back in the 70s even range topers were made in tens of thousands to supply the much larger market. This kept costs down back in the day, and delivers us some absolutely staggering bargains today.
 
Amen to that Robert.

I also think that the range-toppers were justified and the costs supported by the shear volumes they were shifting lower down the ranges.

Reading up on the receiver battles, for example, is great fun - even if the US market saw most of the action.
 
All of the Pioneer Tuners are terrific. Any number of articles throughout TAS's Classic years pointed to the TX-9x00 (and II) series tuners as outstanding examples of the Art. My personal favorite is the TX-9500 II, but I have a 9800, an F-93 (itself badly underestimated) and an F-26. All quite fine, but they all harken back to the 9100, the first of the series. Enjoy! There's a lot there to appreciate, IF you can find good programming sourced from good broadcast sources.
 
I have seen and touched it...it is, but I wouldn't spend that on a tuner, I would fret till I had the matching amp....

This is a good point. You should buy the TX-9100 as it's a no-brainer but you would then need the matching amplifier.

And cassette deck

And speakers.

And their turntables of that era were rather good...
 


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