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Pioneer VSX-401 receiver speaker terminals

Hello all!

I have a Pioneer VSX-401 home stereo receiver from about 1991. It
works, but the main speaker terminals are sort of beat up... you can
put the wire in and flip the tab down, but they don't really grip the
wire well. A couple of the plastic tabs are missing as well.

For reference, a pic of the back of a similar receiver on Ebay:
http://www.potomacmetals.com/Ebay Template/images/EJ-0006-0006.JPG
(this reciever is broken, but the speaker terminals are in better
shape than mine)

I looked inside the receiver and the terminal block has legs that go
into the PC board. If I can't get the original part, there is probably
enough room to put in a "generic" terminal block and just solder short
wires from it to the PC board. It would be kind of nice to have the
original part, though, if it's not insanely expensive.

Pioneer's site says the part number is AKE-111, which substitutes to
AKE1008, but both of those part numbers seem to be no longer available.
They were apparently used on a lot of M, RX, SA, SX, and VSX series
receivers from that time frame.

Does anyone know of a source that might still have some old Pioneer
parts like this on the shelf?

Thanks!

Matt Roberds
 
I have a Pioneer VSX-401 home stereo receiver from about 1991. It
works, but the main speaker terminals are sort of beat up... [...]

Pioneer's site says the part number is AKE-111, which substitutes to
AKE1008, but both of those part numbers seem to be no longer
available.

I ordered an SLT-8 terminal block from All Electronics,
http://www.allelectronics.com/make-a-store/item/SLT-8/4-PAIR-SPRING-LEVER-TERMINALS/1.html
, but it was a little bit too big to fit the hole horizontally. It was
fine vertically, and the mounting holes matched up - somebody better at
sheet metal than I am could probably nibble out a couple of mm on each
side of the back panel opening and make this work.

My second idea, which worked, was to use a piece of circuit board
material and solder a couple of 4-circuit terminal blocks to it (these:
http://portal.fciconnect.com/Comergent/fci/drawing/20020316.pdf ), and
then solder short jumper wires from my circuit board to the Pioneer
circuit board. I drilled mounting holes in my board and used a couple
of 4-40 screws and nuts to mount it to the original holes in the back
panel of the receiver.

It's a little less convenient now - you need a small screwdriver to hook
up the speakers - but it works and I feel it provides a more solid
connection.

I just spent the last hour listening to it. In the morning, when the
neighbors are awake, I'll see how it does when I really crank up the
volume. :)

Matt Roberds
 
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