Before any restored unit is sold I put in at least 20 hours of actual real world listening. No scope, no meters, just an audio source and a pair of my speakers that I am familiar with. It is my favorite part of any restoration and it definitely helps getting through any frustrations along the way.
The Pioneer SX-636 is now playing away after it was well tested. Factory rated 27wpc with an 8ohm load attached and less than 0.5% THD. This 636 greatly exceeds those factory specs. It will drive medium to large bookshelf speakers without issue and even small to medium floorstanders. As I always feel more importantly than numbers how does it sound?
First, we test the unit in aux position with cd player for a digital source. Excellent clarity well into the “normal” and “loud” listening levels. Very punchy lows at flat tone controls but even better when increased two clicks. High and mids are more than sufficient in flat position. Floyd’s echoes on cd very awesome.
Next, on to the turntable. Chose one of my favorites brothers in arms by Dire Straits. Back to flat tone controls and much more lows and very warm. No need to adjust tone for my liking, the turntable sounds the best of all sources to me on this unit. If you are into vinyl or want to be this is an excellent receiver to get you started. It was hard to stop playing albums on this unit.
Lastly, switched to the FM section and tuned easily into the local classic rock station. With a simple T antenna signal pulled in easy with excellent separation. Does not seem to have any need for an alignment. Again tone flat the music was loud and vibrant.
After testing went back to the cd player and messed with tone some more playing many albums of different genres, and even did the unthinkable and hooked an iPod to the receivers aux with some lossless music. Abbey Road in lossless format had no need for tone adjust and was well staged. This comes to the last detail soundstage. There is great stereo separation and a fairly wide stage. Oddly with some speaker adjustment there was improvement. Normally I position my large monitors slightly turned in toward the listening space. Turning them straight out made a noticeable difference in widening the space. In any case impressive.
In conclusion, this is an excellent receiver for vinyl listening. Very warm and analog sounding. The phono section impressed me the most and benefited the most from the recapping. As far as power this has plenty of headroom for my large bookshelf monitors. A large pair of power hungry speakers may drive it into clipping but that is just common sense. Very punchy which I always liked about vintage Pioneer. Highly recommended for someone looking to get back into vinyl.
Just a quick phone photo in the listening area will be taking some finished shots and updating the sales page. If interested in this unit as always just send me an email and we can reserve it for you mike@hudsonvalleyhifi.com
