Pioneer A-27
Pioneer A-0012
(1978 - 1980)

I regard Pioneer's A-27 as part of the elite group of ultimate vintage amplifiers. That personal elite group is made of very few units : Yamaha B-1 & B-2, Sony TA-E88 & TA-N7, Kenwood Supreme 700C & 700M and Luxman C-5000A & M-4000a.

I don't mention the Pioneer M-22 or M-25 since the A-0012 is largely based on the latter ; the A-0012 is in fact an expanded C-21 and M-25 put together: Magni-Wide circuit, Class A/B output stage with RET transistors, DC everywhere, 200kHz bandwidth, a 32-step attenuator, vanishingly low distortion, two power transformers and selected componentry. Plus well balanced good looks.

As unfortunately all catalogs displaying the A-0012 or its A-27 european version are either ugly or sport badly lit photographs (japanese catalogs included), it took me a long time to spot the ad shown above, and I bought many a japanese magazine in hope to find it...
The next step will probably be to buy a real A-27 at last !