AN: Pioneer RT-909 black edition

As most people know, the Pioneer RT-909 was the top of the line of the brand, and unlike other brands, it was only released in silver finish.
That's was the supposed truth for a long time, but after watching in some movies the Pioneer RT-707 in black finish I questioned myself if also existed a RT-909 in black.



A few time ago I discovered an auction for a Pioneer RT-909 in black. That wasn't the first time that I found a black one, but was the first time that the finish looked not DIY, looked as an authentic black RT-909. After reading the text of the auction I realized that this was a personal project made with lot of care, effort and expensive, but with professional results.

I contacted the seller (Mr. V. in advance) to ask about the story of this unit and he told me than he always wanted a RT-909 in black and he saw one 20 years ago in a goverment institution. It was brand new and boxed. The box said "Pioneer RT-909", not "Pioneer RT-909B" or "Pioneer RT-909K" as usually do the brands to identity the black units, but in the corner there were a small text: "black".

The black RT-909 wasn't released to the consumer market, so only goverments and some professional sectors were able to order it. Mr. V. wanted a black RT-909 and after long time he finally decided to make a professional looking project with a friend to convert the silver face into a black face.




Their priority was to get a very high finish quality, not an amateur job. They tried the modification to black in different factories specialized in anodization processes and front printings, but the result was just good. Good were not enough for them, they wanted the perfection. A huge problem was the lettering on the front face because they found a very similar font but not the exact match. Another problem was the material used in the original front face that they used for the modification. Sometimes in some fronts hadn't enough aluminium consistency and sometimes appeared "clouds". It's more difficult to get a perfect black anodized surface than a silver one.



After a long research and a huge waste of material, they ended in the factory where also the big brands like Burmester and T+A do their cases and fronts. That factory knew how to do the things right and get the exact original font match and text placement on the front and obtain a very high resisting printing in silver color, which looks better than white color print.



Lot of problems appeared along the project, specially with the head cover, because it wasn't able to be converted to black, so it was needed to make the piece doing a 3D scanning and reproducing it in very high detail to get the black anodized head cover.



But this black Pioneer RT-909 has something that the original one never had: the wireless remote controller. Yes, all transport functions can be operated from a wireless remote controller and the result is amazing because it was done with the idea of an add-on, so there isn't neccesary to make new holes or lot of soldering. The infrared receiver sensor is placed just together with the fluorescent meter, so it uses the same window and a perfect reception is obtained.

All the electronics needed were profesionally made, even the remote controller



As a result of a long project and after lots of hours of design and job, here is the result: a black pearl, a black Pioneer RT-909 with high quality finish and outstanding perfection. Do you want more?, because there's more. The heads were relapped and aligned by JRF, so they are in perfect shape and perfectly aligned.

Here are some pics of the final result of this project.











This project wasn't made just for one unit but just a few of them. They are very limited and maybe when you read this lines, there is no more left, but if you feel lucky, are a serious collector and want to try to get a black Pioneer RT-909 or to get the wireless remote control kit to add to your Pioneer RT-909, send me an email.