I read the article on your website, "70's Audio and the Receiver Wars". I agree with what you said about the build quality. The Pioneer 4 channel receiver I recently acquired, is the QX-646 that I am getting the brochure for. It was given to me by my girlfriend's dad. He in turn got it for free from a buddy that had used it as a barn workshop radio. It has seen better days, but I can say one thing for sure, it will most certainly cleanup nice, and it WORKS!!! The controls are scratchy, but I have a can of DeOxit on the way to fix that. The receiver is HEAVY and the cabinet is REAL solid wood and wood veneer. It will need a little bit of refinishing, but it will be no problem at all.
There is one thing that I somewhat disagree with. The fact that you state that the quality of construction and design of audio equipment is not what it was in the '70's. Today there are several manufacturers that produce some of the highest quality receivers and audio components in the world. Denon, Marantz, McIntosh, Rega, Linn Sondek, Nakamichi, Krell, and Harmon Kardon to name a few. They use only the best components and use the latest is engineering technologies. They even one-up the '70's component design with something almost completely unheard of until recently, the importance of chassis design in the elimination of internal resonances and "cross-talk" interferences.Sony, with their ES line of products, not only uses the highest quality components, but also designs the cabinet to help reproduce the best possible audio (and video). The design of the cabinet plays a very important role in reducing loss and distortion in the audio by limiting the amount of internal resonances and "cross-talk" between circuits. In the latest ES receiver, each circuit (PS, audio, video, analog audio, etc) are isolated from each other with heavy shielding. The front panel is made out of one piece, machined aluminum and the PCB's are mounted on metal risers, angled up and away from the front panel. There are also heavy cast iron weights placed in strategic locations to reduce internal resonances also. I don't even want to go into the design of the higher end audio manufacturers listed before, don't have enough time.
All in all, it was a very informative article for someone who is somewhat of a "newbie" to the '70's audio crowd, but obviously an intermediate, if not expert, in today's audio/video. I appreciate your help with the service manual and brochure and I will send my manual for the Pioneer, along with a check, as soon as I have your address.
Thanks again,
Robert Sherrod
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