PIONEER A-656 REFERENCE STEREO AMP

[rupy]

Dear All,
A friend of mine is offering to sell his Pioneer A-656 Reference Stereo amp as he is moving abroad.I have not heard it but he says that it is in pristine condition.Please put me wise on this equipment.How good is it.Is it worth buying it?

 

[hifitoaster]

Under 10k its a good buy. Lots of power, built like a tank. Good one with good drive for 4 ohms speakers. Not like typical A 616, 656, 717, 757 and 777 were very good with build quality. Much less harsh compared to Pioneer's A 20x, 30x, 40x ... series. Everything inside is of a higher quality so , be aware that if you need to recap, the caps are going to cost a good money. http://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Pioneer_A-656 if you look at the price in that page, it shows 700 DM, In 1989, according to the inflation chart here https://inflationsrechner.list-of.info/ 987 DM was equivalent to 1000€ of today, so can say roughly 80k in INR. See the weight and you can see that its not a cheap 6-8 kg british overhyped box now. I said 10k because I bought an unaltered A757 from Chennai 5 years back used for 9k, and in Chennai ritchie street from where all used amps in south india is circulating, it was always around 9k to 15k depending on condition. 10k is a bargain, 15k is decent deal. Above that , I would never buy it.

 

[rupy]

Under 10k its a good buy. Lots of power, built like a tank. Good one with good drive for 4 ohms speakers. Not like typical A 616, 656, 717, 757 and 777 were very good with build quality. Much less harsh compared to Pioneer's A 20x, 30x, 40x ... series. Everything inside is of a higher quality so , be aware that if you need to recap, the caps are going to cost a good money. http://www.hifi-wiki.de/index.php/Pioneer_A-656 if you look at the price in that page, it shows 700 DM, In 1989, according to the inflation chart here https://inflationsrechner.list-of.info/ 987 DM was equivalent to 1000€ of today, so can say roughly 80k in INR. See the weight and you can see that its not a cheap 6-8 kg british overhyped box now. I said 10k because I bought an unaltered A757 from Chennai 5 years back used for 9k, and in Chennai ritchie street from where all used amps in south india is circulating, it was always around 9k to 15k depending on condition. 10k is a bargain, 15k is decent deal. Above that , I would never buy it.

Thanks bro for an interesting and detailed feed.

 

[john mathew]

Hi,
Few years back I was having a 717. It's solid build with dual Transformers and weighs around 20kgs. I bought it for around 20k. It was really good and it was my first amp too.

That time I was a beginner and sold it off because of the unavailability of matching speakers.

Now I really regret of that I sold it faster before checking for matching speakers.

Thanks,
John