Can someone explain the Pioneer reverberation amp?

What was this for? http://www.oaktreevintage.com/web_photos/Stereo_Signal_Proc/Pioneer_SR-303_Stereo_Reverb_CBS_web.jpg Was this basically and small reverb unit to add echo to recordings when played back? Seems like a novelty item to me

 

No they were perfectly serious. Many amp makers had add on reverb links in their system - there's one on my old receiver.

For that big sound you wanted but didn't get.

 

I have an all-tube version of the Pioneer reverb unit. Yes for a time in the 60s there was a fad of adding reverb on everything, (even in the car - they had a car adapter that went between the radio/tape player and the speaker(s))...

 

And now you can do it again with home theater receivers and a 100 different cavernous simulations.

 

I remember in the mid to late 60s my father had an Oldsmobile with a reverb switch for the radio. I used to turn it on sometimes when listening to the Top 40 AM station. But, he used to HATE it when I did that, so it stayed off most of the time.

 

Yes they were a common add on in cars also some home consoles came with them Motorola,Fisher, Scott and many others had them as both oem and add on units
in their hifi consoles . "Vibrasonic "was a motorola trademark. Organs , Guitar amps ,some car radios and console hifi stereo's actually had electro mechanical spring reverbs . You can still buy spring reverbs today. later ones were purely electronic . They were sold as factory options or aftermarket add on's for car and home use. Recording studios had elaborate "echo chambers " they varied from a small room equipped with various acoustical and or electrical devices to large concrete constructed studios that could hold an entire orchestra. Capital records in Hollywood, Ca has one of the more notable ones .
http://www.capitolstudios.com/index.cfm?page=chambers
http://audiogeekzine.com/category/gear/classic-gear-history/

 

A lot of radio stations ran everything thru a reverb tank back in the '60's.
I worked at a Mid '70's Mono country station that still had that sound,
until they upgraded to stereo broadcasting.

Pretty much sounded like !

I can only think how adding reverb in your car to a station already adding reverb
must have sounded like listening in a cave.

 

I've got two reverb amps, a very heavily modified Pioneer, and a Kenwood. I do play around with the Pio on some popular music once in a great while, and the Kenwood is part of my party system. IMO both can add an interesting dimension to music when used judiciously.

 

Judiciously being the key word here.

Not set at Mammoth Cave, like the station were I worked.

 

Some years ago, I tried wiring a parted out spring reverb unit into my stereo, at first it was neat, after a couple weeks it had gotten old, pretty soon it was out of there.

 

To those in NJ-does anyone actually like the reverb NJ101.9 adds? It's like they're channeling WABC from the 60's.

 

You can still hear reverb being used on CB radios, usually turned up so high it's unintelligible.
"HeyeyeyeyeRalphalphalphalphalph...

 

And the idiots wonder why nobody will answer them.

 

Would you hook the reverb unit through the tape monitor loop just like an eq?

 

Aren't Mexican radio stations famous for lots of reverb?

 

Certainly with people who listened in the 1950s and 1960s, of course, some of that was sky bounce effects.

 

Ha, memories. My brother had a 1971 Javelin that had a reverb box under the dash. We were always curious and took it apart, only to find a big spring inside and not much else. Heavy on the gimmickery I suppose but those were crazy times!!

 

The idea of the reverb in home stereo amps was for playback of older recordings that sounded "thin" and puny as compared with the then current ones. Remember, in the 60s and 70s, plenty of folks still played their childhood music from the 40s and 50s, most of which sounded thin and dated. So.......run them thru a reverb circuit and to the uninformed, they now sound modern. Ridiculous, but they did it.

This all reminds me that many years ago, I had a Phase Linear Model 1000 (i think) Preamp with a "expand" button. The idea of that was to REMOVE compression from Lps and cassettes and experiece the full range of the music. What I remember is that the music got much louder, but I swear it didnt sound any better or any less compressed. Another marketing gimmick, I suppose.

 

I received a Sony 5 disc changer in early 90's as a gift. It had 5 dsp settings for different levels of reverb (club, hall, etc). The biggest joke I ever heard

 

correct

 

Or insert between preamp and amp if you have no tape monitor or processor loop. Most modern amps and receivers do not have a tape monitor feature.

 

Pioneer had a later model (SR-60) in the late 80's/ early 90's that I heard at Stereo East in Dallas. They were one of the few stores around back then that carried high end audio around here. Had the ability to add some serious echo capability that was later duplicated by DSP systems with their "stadium" type settings.

Fun thing to play with for a bit, but overall not very useful.