I think I just got a good score!

kidglove13

Just struck a deal for a Pioneer C-90A preamp and a M-90 amp

Original owner like new condition with original cartons and manuals

Both units for $100

I dont think that is to bad.

organ

That's a damn good deal. Congrats.
That's my favorite look from Pioneer with the wooden side panels. Enjoy your new seperates.

Joe08867

Just make sure the huge caps inside are good. If they go bad you will literally smoke those speakers.

That Pioneer M90 has something like 40-50 thousand mfd of capacitance in it. You will be feeding your SDA's quite well. Something on the order of 400 watts at 4ohms.

heiney9

Nice price. I owned these pieces in the past. Nice combo, but a bit overrated, IMO. In the same vein as Kenwood Basic components. For $100 you should riding on cloud 9, nothing for that price or even several hundred dollars more will compete. Hopefully they function properly because I'd be leary at that price. I don't remember the M-90 being 400wpc at 4 ohms. If it was when I owned it, it sure didn't seem like it. 40-50K in capacitance isn't anything to write home about especially if it in fact is factory rated for 400wpc/ 4ohms.

H9

heiney9

http://elitehifi.com/pioneer_elite_m-90_amplifier_review

It indeed is factory rated for lots of output. It's funny because there were much lesser powerful amplifiers at the time that sounded much better and were better able to drive more difficult loads. Having owned an M-90 I would never have guessed when using/listening it was rated for that much power, it never impressed me all that much.

H9

kidglove13

The components seem to be in fine working order.
The owner did not want to split them so I bought both
I dont think the pioneer M90 will be as good as my Adcom 545, but I will test it out
First I will open up both cabs to inspect before I hook anything up to them
Hell for $100 it is worth it.

heiney9

http://www.thevintageknob.org/PIONEER/M91/M91.html

This sheds a little different light than the "super marketing speak". It was rated for continuous output of 130wpc/8 ohms

Pionner was heavily into vibration isolation at the time and the Elite components of the time used a lot of copper and honecomb configurations. One thing is for sure the Elite stuff back then was a large step up from standard Pioneer products, unlike the Elite brand today which is watered down and almost all a marketing gimmick.

H9

kidglove13

So at 4 ohms it should be around 260 wpc correct?

I still dont think it will beat out the my Adcom 545, it works so well with the SDA 1B's.

heiney9

kidglove13 wrote: »

The components seem to be in fine working order.
The owner did not want to split them so I bought both
I dont think the pioneer M90 will be as good as my Adcom 545, but I will test it out
First I will open up both cabs to inspect before I hook anything up to them
Hell for $100 it is worth it.

At that price just enjoy them. I did prefer the 545 to the M90, but that's just my preference. Enjoy listening/owning different gear, etc. It's the best way to know what your likes and dislikes are.

H9

heiney9

kidglove13 wrote: »

So at 4 ohms it should be around 260 wpc correct?

I still dont think it will beat out the my Adcom 545, it works so well with the SDA 1B's.

Perhaps, it's rare an amp truly doubles down from 8 to 4 ohms. Plus manufacturer's don't use consistent measuring techniques. Dynamic power ratings are a complete joke as you would probably never encounter the situation the manufacturer used to get that rating, since it's a simulation load vs. real world loads, etc.

Listen to them both for awhile and decide. Like I said I prefered the 545, but we all have different tastes/expectations and so on.

H9