Pioneer A-80

After the oh-so-modern looking A-9 from 1980, Pioneer, along most of everybody else, came back to safety and good ol' knobs and buttons... But if inside the box stood just about the same (healthy) meat, something new was lurking at the horizon, something that justified the extra-increased dynamic range: CD ! It was, howerver, in 1982, still relegated to being an "aux" source.

So Non-Switching is the aid of Dynamic Power.

The latter is the multiplication of rails, one for the low power needs, the other for the high power needs - the result of which you can see outlined just below in green. The Vh rail follows the input signal, with a constant tension margin to avoid clipping ; when strong input signals cease or decay, the Vh rail keeps a little time lag - just in case a naughty second wave of high level signals arrives unexpectedly.

Non-Switching is a(nother) variation of the Vari-Bias idea : a high-speed servo monitors input signals to feed the final transistors necessary bias according to input level. The output transistors thus never switch off : no switching distortion.

Also at hand is a real transformer for the phono moving coil input combined with an EQ amp : the transformer thus can have less windings (reduces resistance, capacitance and inductance - good for the high frequencies) and doesn't have to act like a wild animal on low frequencies (reduces potential low-level clipping & distortion - good for your ears). Also inside are non-magnetic componentry, OFC AC wire wrapped in polyethylene, non-resonant half-honeycomb heatsinks, 70µ PCB tracks and one big EI transformer - and then some. Specs-wise, the A-80 is a super-charged A-9.

Also making noted appearances : the "line straight" switch to bypass all the bells and whistles and a 3-LED output power indicator, the latter being fairly useless but cute. Anyway - had Pioneer delivered a wood enclosure for the A-80 (as most other manufacturers had planned to for their 1980/1981 lineups but finally sadly didn't), the A-80 would've become a minor classic of changing times - a very good looking one.

The A-80 was an A-150 in Japan but only the much bigger and copper-plated A-200 got some advertising and... seemingly little sales. The A-150 got updated in 1984 as A-150D mainly in black with sideburns (always suprising swift return of the classic...) and that was a very good and quite classy 1980s amp. All of these, high and low, had fairly short lifespans - people were probably saving to buy the CD player of their (new found) dreams !

 

Pioneer A-80 (1982 - 1983)

Power:                        

2x 150W (8Ohm, 20Hz...20kHz, 0,003% THD)

2x 220W (8Ohm, 1kHz, DIN, 0,003% THD)

THD: 0,003% (20Hz...20kHz, rated power)

IM: 0,005% (20Hz...20kHz, rated power)

Damping factor:            80 (20Hz...20kHz, 8Ohm)

Frequency response: 20Hz...20kHz (RIAA, ±0,2dB); 5Hz...100kHz (0dB...-3dB)

Inputs:                        

1x Phono MM (2,5mV / 50kOhm)

1x Phono MC  (0,15mV / 3Ohm or 0,25mV / 40Ohm)

lines (150mV / 50kOhm)

Max. input level:                      

300mV (MM, 0,003% THD, 1kHz)

18mV (MC, 0,003% THD, 1kHz)

Outputs:                      

2x Tape rec. (150mV / 2,2kOhm)

2x speaker pairs (4...16Ohm)

Headphones (low impedance)

S/N ratio (input shorted, rated power):  

89dB (MM)

75dB (MC)

109dB (lines)

S/N ratio (DIN, rated power to 50mW):  

74dB...61dB (MM)

88dB...62dB (lines)

Filters:                         

Subsonic (6dB/oct below 15Hz)

-

Bass controls: ±10dB (100Hz)

Treble controls: ±10dB (10kHz) at 2,5kHz turnover

Muting switch: -20dB

PC: 1kW maximum

Dimensions: 42 x 15 x 42cm

Weight: 16,8kg.