Pioneer m90 and c90


How good are the Pioneer Elite amps. I have a chance to spend some serious coin on this system and wonder if a 20 year old amp and preamp will last the test of time. I know they are built, but is it worth spending a couple of grand on it?
rangelangel
I have two Pioneer Elite M91 power amps and a Krell KSA-250 in my HT system (the M91s are used for the center channel and surrounds). I have also used both amps (bi-amped in the case of the M91s) in a stereo system with B&W 801Ns. Sure, the M91s look very pretty, no where near as good as the Krell sonically. The Krell is cleaner, more powerful, extremely dynamic with amazing bass control. Even my wife and daughters could immediately tell the difference between the M91s and Krell, they hands down preferred the Krell. How the M91s (or M90) compares with a modern day SS amp, I have no idea. My M91 are 15 years old and have never really given me any trouble, other then the power-on meter lamp.
I have a Pioneer M90 and C90 for sale. They are in perfect working order. $1,000. I am near Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Mike
The correct answer is, yes and no, depending on what you will be using them for, and what you are comparing them against. I could't believe that an actual comparison was made here between the M90 and a Krell amp. Totally apples to oranges comparison. For an office, bedroom, background music system, I would have no problem owning these. Pioneer elite equipment for the money were seriously overbuilt and quality equipment. Amps/pre-amps maybe Not really high end, but say upper mid fi or lower high end. But, again depends on the purpose and budget. I saw a poster say $1,000 for both. Well, can one do better than this for $1,000 now? Also, when they were retailed new, did they compare well to similarly priced amp/pre-amps? My guess would be yes, they did very well and with the wood panels, they do look great. Their CD/DVD players still offer some of the best "transports" available. These things are really good stuff. I would buy a DV09 or DV79AVi for a transport into a good DAC before buying another way more expensive transport. I have compared many CD/DVD players as transports only into my external DAC and out of eight transports, not one beat the DV09. Anyway, my point is for the money, within that $1,000 price range now, there isn't much out there that can touch this combination. Any Pioneer is still in business and can inspect and repair this equipment.