Pioneer SR-202 Reverb Amplifier sn PL38014

An odd Japanese product from the early 1970s, it was designed for use with consumer stereo tape recorders and HiFi systems.  Apparently adding reverb to your recordings was a thing for some.  

The front panel is clean, bright brushed aluminum with black lettering, in very good condition.  Oddly, the case cover uses some kind of fake-me-out contact paper but the end pieces are really nice pieces of solid wood, maybe mahogony.  

This is a very basic solid state unit, a one flavor effects box, using all discrete components.  It simply routes the input signal through an amplifier which provides the boost for the spring reverb section.  

It has multiple connection diagrams printed on the bottom of the unit illustrating the many ways the dual tape monitors can be setup.  

The reverb “time”  is variable from nothing at all to about 3 seconds by rotating the front-panel knob.  The cool factor has as much to do with the sound as it does with the back lit yellow and blue display, which indicates the amount of reverb applied.  There’s an elongated diamond shaped pattern that expands as the reverb setting is increased.

The main input and output have been tested and are working fine.  The output is clean, relatively speaking, and operation is pretty strait forward, if you ignore the tape dubbing routing switches. 

This would be a great addition for any recording studio, more for the grungy sound and of course, that blue display.