Pioneer SA-500/TX-500 Project
F1nut
Posts: 50,663
What do you do with some old gear you forgot you had? Restore and upgrade it, of course.
Neither the SA-500 or TX-500 had been used in a very long time and after powering up I could hear they were in need of work. Checking a few caps I found them way out of tolerance, so I replaced all the caps in both using a selection of Elna Silmic and Cerafine. One of the emitter resistors in the SA-500 was cracking, so all 4 were replaced. Some of the semi-conductors needed replacing in both as well. Of course, most of the pots were dirty, so they all got a good cleaning. Things were sounding better now. Intrigued, I decided to make a few upgrades, which I'll just list.
* Replaced the very odd stock binding posts with new 5 ways using black FR4 as a mounting plate.
* Replaced the stock power cords with shielded 16 gauge as there was no room to mount an IEC on either piece.
* Applied Dynamat Extreme to the top and bottom covers.
* Removed the SA-500 speaker On/Off switch from the circuit, making a direct connection from the amp board to the outputs with upgraded wire.
* Upgraded the wire between the pre amp board and the amp board.
* Removed the connections to the switched/unswitched outlets.
* Replaced all the RCA jacks with gold plated copper versions and spaced them further apart to allow the use of modern day interconnects. Again, I used black FR4 as the mounting plates.
* Replaced the SA-500 power light with a diffused blue LED.
* Replaced the TX-500 dial lights with diffused white LED's and the FM Stereo light with a diffused blue LED. Since the tuning meter is an off white plastic, clear blue LED's were used to back light it resulting in a diffused appearance, which matches well with the other blue diffused LED's.
I'm still toying with the idea of replacing the volume control with a motorized version allowing remote control, but since these have ended up in a guest bedroom, we'll see about that.
I have to say for a little 10wpc integrated amp it sounds a lot better than I ever thought it could, has a kind of tube amp sound....nice! The tuner isn't bad either
Pic 1 - the original RCA's and power cord, I already upgraded the binding posts.
Pic 2 - view of the upgraded RCA's and power cords.
Pic 3 - close up of the new RCA's and mounting board.
Pic 4 - the original lights.
Pic 5 - with the new lights....ah, much better.
Neither the SA-500 or TX-500 had been used in a very long time and after powering up I could hear they were in need of work. Checking a few caps I found them way out of tolerance, so I replaced all the caps in both using a selection of Elna Silmic and Cerafine. One of the emitter resistors in the SA-500 was cracking, so all 4 were replaced. Some of the semi-conductors needed replacing in both as well. Of course, most of the pots were dirty, so they all got a good cleaning. Things were sounding better now. Intrigued, I decided to make a few upgrades, which I'll just list.
* Replaced the very odd stock binding posts with new 5 ways using black FR4 as a mounting plate.
* Replaced the stock power cords with shielded 16 gauge as there was no room to mount an IEC on either piece.
* Applied Dynamat Extreme to the top and bottom covers.
* Removed the SA-500 speaker On/Off switch from the circuit, making a direct connection from the amp board to the outputs with upgraded wire.
* Upgraded the wire between the pre amp board and the amp board.
* Removed the connections to the switched/unswitched outlets.
* Replaced all the RCA jacks with gold plated copper versions and spaced them further apart to allow the use of modern day interconnects. Again, I used black FR4 as the mounting plates.
* Replaced the SA-500 power light with a diffused blue LED.
* Replaced the TX-500 dial lights with diffused white LED's and the FM Stereo light with a diffused blue LED. Since the tuning meter is an off white plastic, clear blue LED's were used to back light it resulting in a diffused appearance, which matches well with the other blue diffused LED's.
I'm still toying with the idea of replacing the volume control with a motorized version allowing remote control, but since these have ended up in a guest bedroom, we'll see about that.
I have to say for a little 10wpc integrated amp it sounds a lot better than I ever thought it could, has a kind of tube amp sound....nice! The tuner isn't bad either
Pic 1 - the original RCA's and power cord, I already upgraded the binding posts.
Pic 2 - view of the upgraded RCA's and power cords.
Pic 3 - close up of the new RCA's and mounting board.
Pic 4 - the original lights.
Pic 5 - with the new lights....ah, much better.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
Comments
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Wow Jesse those look wayyyyyyy better than I even imagined them after you described them on the phone. Excellent job sir. Enjoy.
Love the Sony 707ES player as well........
Taken from a recent Audioholics reply regarding "Club Polk" and Polk speakers:
"I'm yet to hear a Polk speaker that merits more than a sentence and 60 seconds discussion."![:\](https://forum.polkaudio.com/resources/emoji/confused.png ":\")
My response is: If you need 60 seconds to respond in one sentence, you probably should't be evaluating Polk speakers.....
"Green leaves reveal the heart spoken Khatru"- Jon Anderson
"Have A Little Faith! And Everything You'll Face, Will Jump From Out Right On Into Place! Yeah! Take A Little Time! And Everything You'll Find, Will Move From Gloom Right On Into Shine!"- Arthur Lee -
Very nice Jesse. Gotta love Elna Silmic IIs, very smooth and musical. Nice work on the LEDs too.Home Theater/2 Channel:
Front: SDA-2ATL forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/143984/my-2as-finally-finished-almost/p1
Center: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/150760/my-center-channel-project/p1
Surrounds & Rears: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/151647/my-surround-project/p1
Sonicaps, Mills, RDO-194s-198s, Dynamat, Hurricane Nuts, Blackhole5
Pioneer Elite VSX-72TXV, Carver PM-600, SVS PB2-Plus Subwoofer
dhsspeakerservice.com/ -
Kudos! You just put some much life back into those.2 ch- Polk CRS+ * Vincent SA-31MK Preamp * Vincent Sp-331 Amp * Marantz SA8005 SACD * Project Xperience Classic TT * Sumiko Blue Point #2 MC cartridge
HT - Polk 703's * NAD T-758 * Adcom 5503 * Oppo 103 * Samsung 60" series 8 LCD -
Thanks guys, it was a fun project and I learned a lot about semi-conductors and LED's.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Looks good Jess, as usual you don't do anything half-assed. Now all you need is a "guest" for the bedroom.HT SYSTEM-
Sony 850c 4k
Pioneer elite vhx 21
Sony 4k BRP
SVS SB-2000
Polk Sig. 20's
Polk FX500 surrounds
Cables-
Acoustic zen Satori speaker cables
Acoustic zen Matrix 2 IC's
Wireworld eclipse 7 ic's
Audio metallurgy ga-o digital cable
Kitchen
Sonos zp90
Grant Fidelity tube dac
B&k 1420
lsi 9's -
Those look sweet, nicely done! I refurbed an old Pioneer SX-650 for a Christmas present a few years ago and almost kept it for myself. Most of that older silver faced pioneer gear has a nice warm sound to it.
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Ever since I completed the mods done in 2014 I've been toying with the idea of having remote controlled volume capability. The main issue with this idea is the volume pot doubles as the balance control and even though I doubt I'd ever use that feature I wanted to keep it like that. So, that meant I wouldn't be able to use a drop in motorized pot. The solution I came up with involved drilling out and tapping the back of the shaft in the original pot to take a threaded stud, which in turn was threaded into an aluminum extension shaft connected by a flexible connector to the motorized pot mounted at the rear of the chassis. Needless to say, drilling these holes dead center was tricky and critical. I had to relocate the phono board in order for this whole idea to work, but it wasn't a big deal. The steel "L" bracket for supporting the motorized pot, which came in a kit along with the extension shaft was a joke as it was way too thin and would flex and bend. I ordered a better, thicker aluminum "L" bracket, but it was too tall, so I had one custom made. However, I asked that it be made even thicker, which turned out to be a mistake as it was too thick. I then reworked the aluminum one, which came out rather well if I do say so myself.
Since I was only using the motor, the only connection I needed was power. My plan called for tapping off the 30VDC B+ using a DC-DC converter to step it down to 9VDC, but as space was at a premium I ordered a pair compact ones off eBay from a seller in China. I got a second one as a back up not having much confidence in the quality coming out of China. Unfortunately, both did not work properly. Having no other real choice I got an external dedicated 9VDC power supply, which was probably the best idea anyway as it is totally out of the signal path. As I now had holes drilled in the black FR4 board and chassis for the mounting of the converter I needed to cover them up. I bought a vintage Pioneer speaker badge, mounted it on two bevel edged tiers and attached it where the holes were.
The Alps motorized pot was purchased from Bent Audio and comes complete with the IR receiver and remote. It's a top notch product used by many high end OEM and the customer support is excellent. I decided to mount the eye in the front panel where the "Speakers On/Off" switch was located as I had previously disconnected it anyway.
Even though I replaced the original captive power cords on the integrated and tuner with better ones back in 2014 I decided to replace them with Furutech IEC's in order to use aftermarket cords of my choice. Along with the IEC's I also upgraded the binding posts again, changed the filter cap again to a Mundorf and replaced the stock plastic feet with solid aluminum ones. I even polished the copper banding on the transformer. I mean, why not.
Of course, there are numerous smaller details, which I won't bore you with. Suffice to say, it was a rather involved project, but the end result was well worth the effort as I now have what some said couldn't be done, remote controlled volume.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the folks that helped me in one way or another on this project.
My father
John Chapman/Bent Audio
Scott/MillerLiteScott
Larry/Toolfan66
Ken Swauger
Ray/Darqueknight
Thank you one and all.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Some pics. This is what the stock version looks like inside.
This is what mine looks like now.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
More....
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
What the rear of the stock versions look like.
What mine look like now.
Ready to rock....
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
I feel honored to be the first to say "That looks Kicka$$"
A ton of work and rattling nerves2-channel: Modwright KWI-200 Integrated, Dynaudio C1-II Signatures
Desktop rig: LSi7, Polk 110sub, Dayens Ampino amp, W4S DAC/pre, Sonos, JRiver
Gear on standby: Melody 101 tube pre, Unison Research Simply Italy Integrated
Gone to new homes: (Matt Polk's)Threshold Stasis SA12e monoblocks, Pass XA30.5 amp, Usher MD2 speakers, Dynaudio C4 platinum speakers, Modwright LS100 (voltz), Simaudio 780D DAC
erat interfectorem cesar et **** dictatorem dicere a -
Wow. Very nice work Jesse.afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Sweet
Home Theater/2 Channel:
Front: SDA-2ATL forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/143984/my-2as-finally-finished-almost/p1
Center: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/150760/my-center-channel-project/p1
Surrounds & Rears: Custom Built forum.polkaudio.com/discussion/151647/my-surround-project/p1
Sonicaps, Mills, RDO-194s-198s, Dynamat, Hurricane Nuts, Blackhole5
Pioneer Elite VSX-72TXV, Carver PM-600, SVS PB2-Plus Subwoofer
dhsspeakerservice.com/ -
That is impressive.
How I wish I had those skills to do the same thing on some of my vintage stuff.
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So @F1nut
All thats left is redo ALL the internal wiring, well just because at this point lol...
May as well hot rod it till all thats "original" is the boards, display and chassis lol...
So get to it
Its a work of art, just like your RTi modded crossovers on those standoff boards you built.
I wish I had the time lol..."....not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted." William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963) -
interested in the Black FX4 I need a small piece. Where do you buy it? the guy that put new RCA's in my Pioneer PD9 SACD player at the moment I just have them tightened to the back panel but they need more. 1.5" x 2" I think would be enough but I'd have to check to be certain
any pointers Jesse.
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I wish I had the stones to do that kind of work - very nice indeed sir!VA HT HK AVR20II, Sony S9000ES CD/DVD/SACD, Polk Audio RC80i / Polk Audio CSi3, 60" Panasonic Plasma, Nordost / Signal Cable A2 / Wireworld / Pangea / Magic Power
VA 2 Channel Focal Electra 926 speakers, Pass Labs X150.5 Amp, Eastern Electric MiniMax Preamp (Tutay mods), Eastern Electric Minimax CDP (Scott Nixon mods), Music Hall mmf 5.1 Turntable, Parks Audio Budgie Phono Pre , Audioengine B1 streamer, MIT S3 IC's / MIT Shotgun S3 Speaker Cables / PS Audio power cables
Noggin Schiit Valhalla, Pangea, Phillips Fidelio X1, Polk UF8000
Polk SDA1c modded
Polk CRS+ 4.1TL modded (need veneer)
Polk SDA2BTL (fully modded)
A/L 1000VA Dreadnought Canare 4s11 SDA cable
SACD Marantz DV8300
Sony S9000ES CD/DVD/SACD
Yamaha YP-D6
Soundcraftsmen PCR800
Audible Illusions L1 Preamp
Vincent MFA based Cocci Tube Preamp
Pho-700 Phono Pre
Signal Cable Silver Resolution IC's -
Thanks guys!
Ivan, I'll send you a PM.Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Incredible work Jesse. I want to take my CA-1000 to that level at some point. You sure set the bar high brother.
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Looks jaw dropping!Just a dude doing dude-ly things
"Temptation is the manifestation of desire which equals necessity." - Mikey081057
" I have always had a champange taste with a beer budget" - Rick88
"Just because the thread is getting views don't mean much .. I like a good train wreck doesn't mean i want to be in one..." - pitdogg2
"Those that don't know, don't know that they don't know." - heiney9
"Audiophiles are the male equivalent of cat ladies." - Audiokarma Member -
littlewoodboats wrote: »Incredible work Jesse. I want to take my CA-1000 to that level at some point. You sure set the bar high brother.
Yamaha?afterburnt wrote: »They didn't speak a word of English, they were from South Carolina.
Village Idiot of Club Polk -
Jesse, wow. Complete agreement with the reactions above - *truly* beautiful work here. Enviable in an inspiring way. Very impressed.I disabled signatures.
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littlewoodboats wrote: »Incredible work Jesse. I want to take my CA-1000 to that level at some point. You sure set the bar high brother.
Yamaha?
Yes it is. -
I love the blue lights. Very impressive. They just look so classic, but better.2 ChannelTurntable - VPI Classic 2/Ortofon 2M BlueAmplification - Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II, Parks Audio Budgie PhonoSpeakers - GoldenEar Triton 17.2 Home TheaterDenon AVR-X3300W; Rotel RMB-1066; Klipsch RP-280F's, Klipsch RP-450C, Polk FXi3's, Polk RC60i; Dual SVS PB 2000's; BenQ HT2050; Elite Screens 120"Man CaveTurntable - Pro-Ject 2.9 Wood/Grado GoldAmplification - Dared SL2000a, McCormack DNA 0.5 DeluxeCD: Cambridge AudioSpeakers - Wharfedale Linton 85th Anniversary; LSiM 703; SDA 2A
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EndersShadow wrote: »
Not going to happen. I did what I considered critical, the rest would be a PITA.
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Looks great, now I see what you needed that little bracket for...Polk Audio SDA 2.3tl Fully Hot Rodded. 😎
SVS SB16 X2
Cary SLP-05/Ultimate Upgrade.
Cary SA-500.1 ES Amps
Cary DMS 800PV Network
OPPO UDP 205/ModWright Modification
VPI Scout TT / Dynavector 20x2
Jolida JD9 Fully Modified
VPI MW-1 Cyclone RCM
MIT Shotgun 3 cables throughout / Except TT, and PC’s -
Fantastic work!2ch rig: Speakers: Magnepan LRS w/Magna Riser stands Preamplifier: Parasound P5 Amplifier: Parasound A23 CDP: Pioneer DV-563A Cables: Wireworld Equinox 7 XLR ICs, Wireworld Ultraviolet 7 USB, AudioQuest Q2s, AudioQuest NRG X(preamp)
Standby: LSi9s with VR3's Fortress mods -
Thanks again guys. I do so enjoy pushing the buttons. Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk -
Too cool Jess; Love the ol silver series Pioneer stuff. My 1977'ish SX-780 is still rocking my shop. She's MINT BTW.Source: Bluesound Node 2i - Preamp/DAC: Benchmark DAC2 DX - Amp: Parasound Halo A21 - Speakers: MartinLogan Motion 60XTi - Shop Rig: Yamaha A-S501 Integrated - Shop Spkrs: Elac Debut 2.0 B5.2
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Thanks Skip,
u 2 
Political Correctness'.........defined
"A doctrine fostered by a delusional, illogical minority and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a t-u-r-d by the clean end."
President of Club Polk
