Using my late 1960's Sony 2000 preamp as a phono stage

Since I now have my Sony PS3000 turntable operational again after 20 years, I now have two nice belt drive tables and can't decide on which one to keep hooked up in my system. My Adcom GFP555II preamp can only has a single phono stage. I have been unplugging and plugging them back and forth for several days, trying to decide.

Then I remembered that the Sony 2000 preamp that I also bought in the late 1960's has two separate phono stages in it. I unpacked that beast and added it to my audio rack. Now I have both the Thorens TD125MKII and Sony PS3000 turntables connected to the Sony 2000 preamp, then fed into the Adcom preamp using the tape out jacks, and I can easily switch back and forth between them for comparison purposes. I might just leave both of them connected for awhile now.

This also opened up the phono stage in the Adcom preamp for my Garrard Zero 92, that I use for 78's and 45's. I was using a cheap separate phono stage for it, but this sounds much better.

So now I have three turntables connected to my system, and my wife thinks I have finally gone totally wacko. I haven't yet told her that because I have a 2nd Sony 2000 preamp, that I could actually add two more turntables to the system.

Once again I have proven to myself that one should never get rid of any old audio equipment. The old stuff always turns out to be useful for something if you hold onto it long enough.

Dick Schneiders

Dick Schneiders said:

Since I now have my Sony PS3000 turntable operational again after 20 years, I now have two nice belt drive tables and can't decide on which one to keep hooked up in my system. My Adcom GFP555II preamp can only has a single phono stage. I have been unplugging and plugging them back and forth for several days, trying to decide.

Then I remembered that the Sony 2000 preamp that I also bought in the late 1960's has two separate phono stages in it. I unpacked that beast and added it to my audio rack. Now I have both the Thorens TD125MKII and Sony PS3000 turntables connected to the Sony 2000 preamp, then fed into the Adcom preamp using the tape out jacks, and I can easily switch back and forth between them for comparison purposes. I might just leave both of them connected for awhile now.

This also opened up the phono stage in the Adcom preamp for my Garrard Zero 92, that I use for 78's and 45's. I was using a cheap separate phono stage for it, but this sounds much better.

So now I have three turntables connected to my system, and my wife thinks I have finally gone totally wacko. I haven't yet told her that because I have a 2nd Sony 2000 preamp, that I could actually add two more turntables to the system.

Once again I have proven to myself that one should never get rid of any old audio equipment. The old stuff always turns out to be useful for something if you hold onto it long enough.

Dick Schneiders

Click to expand...

Having recently aquired a Sony 2000F preamp I can certainly understand your enjoyment to bringing yours back into service. What a quality peice it is and I'm happy as a clam sense I've added into my system. The only thing I might change in mine is to tint the meter lamps blue to better match the rest of the equipment in my stack someday. Counting the 2 phono inputs, 3 auxs, 2 tape inputs, a tuner input, and a mic input-- that totals 9 inputs that this preamp can handle. It has 2 preouts and one center channel out and to top it all off it has an internal headphone amp with independent volume control. All the switches and pots are of a heavy duty types with very nice percise feel. It sure is one of the finest peices of vintage equipment that I have come across and I've had a bunch come through here over the last 6 or 7 years.

Lefty

Dick Schneiders said:

So now I have three turntables connected to my system, and my wife thinks I have finally gone totally wacko.

Dick Schneiders

Click to expand...

Glad to see I´m not alone.
In my case It´s a Thorens TD 124, a Pioneer PL 560 and a Denon DP 37 F.
Unlike you, however, I can only connect two at a time to my Beard C-35 pre-amp. :sigh:
BTW, does anybody know if there are any switch boxes that allow me to connect 2 TT´s?
Happy new year folks,
Jorge

Lefty said:

Having recently aquired a Sony 2000F preamp I can certainly understand your enjoyment to bringing yours back into service. What a quality peice it is and I'm happy as a clam sense I've added into my system. The only thing I might change in mine is to tint the meter lamps blue to better match the rest of the equipment in my stack someday. Counting the 2 phono inputs, 3 auxs, 2 tape inputs, a tuner input, and a mic input-- that totals 9 inputs that this preamp can handle. It has 2 preouts and one center channel out and to top it all off it has an internal headphone amp with independent volume control. All the switches and pots are of a heavy duty types with very nice percise feel. It sure is one of the finest peices of vintage equipment that I have come across and I've had a bunch come through here over the last 6 or 7 years.

Lefty

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When I bought the first Sony 2000 preamp (and the Sony 3120 amps, Sony PS3000 turntable, a couple of nice Sony r-t-r decks and some crappy Japanese Coral speakers), I was just a lad in the Air Force in Japan, and didn't know shineola about audio equipment. I lucked out that I ended up buying such quality stuff.

The fact that after almost 40 years I still have the electronics and the turntable, and they are fully functioning, indicates how good they were. I am a bit surprised at how good the sound is, using the preamp only as a phono stage. I expected to have some drop-off in sound compared to my Adcom GFP555II preamp, even if only due to adding another device in the signal path. After a few hours of listening, I cannot hear any.

The Sony preamp is so feature laden, that I had to get out the owners manual and relearn about some of them. I really like the individual, back panel level controls, one for *each* source device. This lets me equalize the output volume of all the sources so that the sound produced is at the same level for everything. This is helpful in setting up these two turntables so that I can compare them. Also, the front panel in and out jacks were very useful to me in the past. As you say, this is a great old piece of electronic equipment.

I don't know the differences between my 2000's and the later 2000F. I will try and do some Internet searching to find out. I know that the "F" version is more desireable, so it must have even more features than my earlier ones.

Dick Schneiders

Dick,
You really have my curiosity aroused.
Could you possibly post some pics of your TT and pre?
Thanks
Jorge

hifi_nut said:

Dick,
You really have my curiosity aroused.
Could you possibly post some pics of your TT and pre?
Thanks
Jorge

Click to expand...

Hi Jorge,

Here are a couple of pictures of the Sony PS3000 turntable, that I posted in this earlier discussion I started a week or so ago. AudioKarma won't let me post them again here. I will take a couple of the preamp and post them later.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=55386

The turntable is in a custom, non suspended, walnut base and top with a glass pane in the top. The arm is the stock Sony PUA286, which is approximately 12 inches from pivot point to stylus. The base is huge, measuring over 24 inches by 18 inches. When I took these pictures, I had not yet attached the two chains to the top, to let it stay up while I changed records, etc. You can see the two chains taped to the plinth of the turntable, to keep them from falling back into the base.

This turntable was in storage for the past 20 years, because the motor went bad in 1985. I just a couple of weeks ago, finally, located a new motor and so it is now back in operation and competing with my heavily tweaked TD125MKII for top spot. I think the Sony is going to win out.

Dick Schneiders

Dick Schneiders said:

This turntable was in storage for the past 20 years, because the motor went bad in 1985. I just a couple of weeks ago, finally, located a new motor and so it is now back in operation and competing with my heavily tweaked TD125MKII for top spot. I think the Sony is going to win out.

Dick Schneiders

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Hi Dick,
If you decide to put the TD 125 into storage for the next 20 years, after it has lost top spot position to the Sony, I can do it for you.
That Sony TT really looks superb, the kind used in Studios and Radio Stations.
I´m looking forward to see the pre-amp pics.
Jorge

Dick Schneiders said:

I don't know the differences between my 2000's and the later 2000F. I will try and do some Internet searching to find out. I know that the "F" version is more desireable, so it must have even more features than my earlier ones.

Dick Schneiders

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Here are a couple links. The Vintage Knobs says the F stands for FET (Field-Effect Transistor). And, Wikipedia has a desciption of FETs. I recently found a tired 5000F tuner at a thrift store. I like it so much that I've been watching the 2000F and 3120 that go on eBay.

http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyvault/TA2000/TA2000.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Field_effect_transistor

Phil,

Thanks for those links. Now I won't need to take any pictures of my Sony 2000 preamps for Jorge.

I am always amazed that there is so much information on the Internet for some of this very old audio equipment. Somebody out there must still like this stuff!

Dick Schneiders

Couple of small differences in the F version I'm aware of:

Phono 1 has two sensitivity settings and five impedance settings allowing good cartridge matching: 1.2 mV; 33k, 47k and 82 kohms and .06mV; 10 and 30 ohms

Tone controls adds turnover frequency settings of 500 and 250 Hz, 2500 and 5000 Hz to same stepped controls as 2000, also has a tone control defeat switch.

Adding a stereo Microphone and frequency tone source allows the unit to use the VUs to measure speaker response in situ using MIC setting.

Volume control for headphones serves as centre channel volume control

2000F has two AUX inputs on rear, stereo AUX3 on front panel. 2000 has one on rear and R and L AUX2 on front panel.

2000F has two complete tape hookups, 2000 has a tape head and a tape.

2000 appears to have LINE OUT jack on the front, 2000F doesn't.


2000F uses 70 transistors, 26 of which are FETs; 1 in each head amplifier channel, 2 in each equalizer amplifier, all FET flat amplifiers and 1 in each microphone amplifier.

absolon said:

Couple of small differences in the F version I'm aware of:

Phono 1 has two sensitivity settings and five impedance settings allowing good cartridge matching: 1.2 mV; 33k, 47k and 82 kohms and .06mV; 10 and 30 ohms

Tone controls adds turnover frequency settings of 500 and 250 Hz, 2500 and 5000 Hz to same stepped controls as 2000

Adding a stereo Microphone and frequency tone source allows the unit to use the VUs to measure speaker response in situ using MIC setting.

Volume control for headphones serves as centre channel volume control

2000F has two AUX inputs on rear, stereo AUX3 on front panel. 2000 has one on rear and R and L AUX2 on front panel.

2000F has two complete tape hookups, 2000 has a tape head and a tape.

2000 appears to have LINE OUT jack on the front, 2000F doesn't.


2000F uses 70 transistors, 26 of which are FETs; 1 in each head amplifier channel, 2 in each equalizer amplifier, all FET flat amplifiers and 1 in each microphone amplifier.

Click to expand...

An unusual feature on the 2000F is inserting headphones kills preamp #2 output but not preamp #1 output. Not sure if it's the same on the 2000.

Lefty