Fully Restored Pioneer SM-83 Tube Stereo Integrated Amplifier And TX-5 Stereo Tube Tuner - One Owner Mint Pair!

Fully Restored MINT Pioneer SM-83 Tube Stereo Integrated Amplifier And TX-5 Tuner

For sale is a mint one owner pair of Pioneer tube components that have been fully restored - a SM-83 stereo tube integrated amplifier and TX-5 Stereo tube AM/FM/MPX tuner. Both were purchased recently through a friend and were in basic working order - thus we took a minimalist approach in restoring these. Both are incredible performers after the restorations and operate to the absolute best of their abilities without doing any design mods etc so the true beautiful vintage character is still present without any pops, hum, hissing, random noises etc. The tuner pulls in even weak stations beautifully and as with any good tube tuner, the audio quality will rival that of the best sources!

The cosmetic condition and electronics restoration is discussed below.

Cosmetically both pieces are in incredible condition! The amp has no dings, dents, scratches etc. The tuner has some case stains that look like they're from being stored near a window but otherwise, like the tuner, really is in fantastic overall condition. No major marks, dings etc. What we would truly call a mint pair of collector-level vintage tube pieces! All tubes are original in both units except for the tuner rectifier which is a super high quality NOS Sylvania EZ81/6CA4.

First the amp was given a full electronics restoration. The power supply is rebuilt with new diodes and high temp, long life capacitors with a focus given to optimizing grounding where possible since we are using discrete caps installed under the chassis. The original can caps are disconnected but left in place for a proper look. Then the bias supply is rebuilt with new caps, diode and the bias setting pot is replaced with a brand new sealed trimpot. Every single failure prone paper in oil capacitor was replaced and all wiring/solder joints were carefully inspected for security and retouched as needed. The power amp got 10 Ohm cathode resistors to help measure current at each tube (remember that this is plate+screen current and thus should be set accordingly). A thermistor was added to help preserve the power switch and lower modern wall voltages a bit. And lastly, because the original volume pot wouldn't mute the signal when volume was set to zero, the volume pot was replaced with an era-correct and value/taper that perfectly matched the original (stolen from one of our tube parts units). The replacement pot is incredibly high quality USA-made part that we know will not fail like the original did and now the amp truly operates FLAWLESSLY. The amp has a wonderful full range/wide bandwidth sound with HUGE bass available, thanks in part to the hefty B+ (460V), our generous power supply filtering and the massive 7189A output transformers.

The tuner received a similar restoration. First the power supply is rebuilt with high temperature, long life electrolytic caps and new diodes. Then the entire signal and RF path has all of the failure prone PIO caps replaced and all solder joints are inspected carefully. Then the tuner was brought up, functionality was verified (any functional issues were resolved) and the tuner was given a full touch up of the alignment for AM, FM and MPX. It now operates perfectly and is an incredible sounding tuner - the sound quality rivals CD's!

Both will be shipped so they arrive as they left here!