Pioneer TVX-300 (1981)
The Pioneer TVX-300 is a TV stereo tuner released in Japan in 1981 at ¥47,800. It pulls multiplex TV sound broadcasts into a stereo system. Japanese broadcasters were just starting to send stereo audio alongside the picture, and this was Pioneer's answer for viewers who wanted that audio through their hi-fi instead of a tiny television speaker.
It has a built-in RF converter. You keep the TV tuned to one fixed channel, and the TVX-300's own channel switching changes both the picture and the audio at once. No re-tuning the television every time you change stations. It also has a video input for a VTR or laserdisc player, plus a video output so it can feed a monitor TV as well as a standard set. An antenna switching switch lets you record one program while watching another.
The TVX-300 uses a split carrier system. The incoming broadcast is divided into video and audio signals, which are detected and amplified separately. Pioneer claimed this made it less susceptible to buzzing and gave low-noise TV audio. The front panel has one-touch soft push switches, and up to nine stations can be preset. Combine a preset station with a timer and a tape deck, and you can record TV sound while away from home.
Documentation on this model is thin beyond its specification sheet. What the record shows:
- Receiving channels: VHF 1–12, UHF 13–62
- Preset stations: 9
- Sensitivity: mono 10 μV, stereo 70.8 μV
- Signal-to-noise ratio: mono 65 dB, stereo 60 dB (a separate "SN ratio" figure of 50 dB also appears in the record)
- Stereo separation: 45 dB (1 kHz); crosstalk: 55 dB (1 kHz)
- RF converter video output: 300 μV / 75 Ω
- Power consumption: 10W, 100 VAC
- Dimensions: 420 × 54 × 343 mm (W×H×D); weight 4.3 kg
No owner reviews, market history, or collectibility data turned up in the research, and nothing corroborates the two Japanese database sources. A related variant, the TVX-300RV, appeared in 1982, but no technical details on that version were found.
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