Show Us Your Sonys!!!

[Brian]

Oh guys, don't start talking about the 6060 again. I am still ging through withdrawal after pulling it down and subbing in the Philips system on my Symphonys.

None of mine have the padding on the transformer and shielding. Is this something you added? Also, does the MPX work on yours. On mine non-working units o 1 the light does not go off and on the other the light does not light up. Neither are working only delivering mono regardless of mono/stereo switch position.

 

[Unda Maris]

Brian,

the padding was made by the preowner. I removed these parts in meantime, because they don´t really have an influence on sound.

The MPX section is not working very well. When I switch to Stereo, the sound gets distorted. After some minutes it is getting better, but not really good. Perhaps a recapping is necessary. The stereo lamp seems to work.

When I compare it to my tuners and amplifiers (I don´t have other receivers) I can say, that it is really a damn good thing (It´s nearly 40 years old !!).

Tuners like the ST-A6B or the Mitsubishi DA-F20, which both received lot´s of attention of tuner collectors in the last months, are really not better (in Mono). The only tuners, which are significantly better are my ST-A7 (sound) and my 10-gang Lab Zero (sound, tuning performance).

The amplifier section is a mystery, because it doesn´t sound like solid state at all, more like an OTL tube amplifier. Lot´s of distortion, but of the good low and even order type. I can listen to it for many hours and it´s always fun.

Another question to Axel: Was it also the first all solid state receiver in the world ?

 

[axel]

I really wouldn't know.
If the 6060 had been released along the other original ES units in '65, I guess it would've been but in late '67 I'm sure others had already done that... (?)

But will you please stop bragging about your 10-gang LabZero? It makes all of us look like we're using Lego toys in Kindergarten

 

[J. H.]

Go K-town. My dad was stationed in Germany twice. We were at Sembach from '63-'67 and Ramstein from '69-'74. I graduated from K-town in '73. Sure do miss those days.
Anyway nice to see a fellow AK'er there. :yes:

 

[Unda Maris]

Axel,

five aligned gangs might sometimes be better than ten misaligned ones !
Did you ever hear from a tech, who manually (!) aligned a 10-gang frontend ? This must be, if even possible, a job of many many hours ...
What I heard about these infernal machines was, that Wega provided an alignment after half a year for every sold unit (for free !!!). This might be a hint, why their name was "Laboratory Tuner", they spent most of their time in the Wega lab ... for alignment

But who cares nowadays, they just allowed in Germany everybody to transmit their own FM program. It´s very low power, but which of these Chinese manufacturers of MP3-FM transmitters cares about German regulations ? This might be the beginning of the end of FM in Germany :tears:

J.H. :wave:

Kaiserslautern has, as I know, the biggest American population outside the U.S., nowadays more than 20% of the inhabitants (about 40.000) in the Kaiserslautern area are Americans.
Sembach Airbase has been closed a few years ago, but Ramstein is still expanding.

 

[Yamaha B-2]

I really wouldn't know.
If the 6060 had been released along the other original ES units in '65, I guess it would've been but in late '67 I'm sure others had already done that... (?)

But will you please stop bragging about your 10-gang LabZero? It makes all of us look like we're using Lego toys in Kindergarten

Think Scott is generally given the nod as having produced the first solid-state receiver. But, my memory on this deserves checking.

Where might one go to find a pic of the infamous LabZero? Is it it on TVK? Import a pic for us, if not.

 

[axel]

sure it's on TVK!
it's been there since about a year or so, with Mirko's updates (make that a real post) in january!

 

[axel]

and I'll be adding btw the pre-prod units of them in the Invisibilia section tomorrow, too. With a bonus

 

[Yamaha B-2]

When does the TVK 'search' function show up?

 

[Brian]

J.H. also the possibility of 10,000+ high quality classical vinyl or high speed r2r broadcasters. Minimal compression nor rolloffs. Well, I am an optimist.

 

[axel]

When does the TVK 'search' function show up?

That kind of programming is nowhere near appearing on TVK - I'd have to reorganize the whole website and redo all the linking of the circa 500 html pages. No way!
Don't tell me you haven't seen yet the Release Dates pages I added last week in the Sony Resource section? Check each weekend the updates pop-up and you won't miss a thing.

 

[Whitehall]

Inspired by Axel's great and artful photos, here are my fleet.

1) Sony STR-6200F and DVP-S9000ES

2) Sony ST-5000F and TA-1120 (currently inop)

3) Sony STR-6060FW

Not shown - SCD-CE595 at my office.

 

[lorne]

Whitehall wrote:

Guess he loved the $175 I paid for repair and alignment too.

I'd say keep this guy on tap. :yes: From what you say, he was more than fair and a consumate craftsman to boot.

 

[Yamaha B-2]

Got out the STR-V4. Nephew just graduated from college in New Orleans and couldn't figure out what to get him. He plays jazz piano in the clubs and is working as a chef trainee in one of the better restaurants. Is as broke as any new graduate, so I offered up the STR-V4 and smallish pair of 3-way Yamaha speakers (newer stuff - tis OK, but nothing special). Did the Deoxit thing on the slightly noisy volume pot and, viola, sounds great. 55wpc and a nice tuner and he is good to go. Pic's definitely do not do this unit justice. The flash washes out a very nice, strong green for the dial and all meters. For a unit that only makes 55wpc, has the nice touch of one of the meters being selectable between power reading and tuning strength. Probably not the most accurate, but how many 55wpc receivers have power output meters at all? Think it will be just the ticket. :thmbsp: Who knows? Maybe we have another vintage convert.

 

[the-real-mandak]

What is that TT down there?

 

[Yamaha B-2]

One of Yamaha's lesser efforts. A PF-50. Were you fooled by the "it looks like a PF-1000/800 suspension spring cover". Believe me....the difference between the PF-1000/800 and the BPC PF-50 is as big as the number difference between 1000 and 50.

Now, enough of this Yamaha sacrilege here in the sacred Sony thread.

 

[the-real-mandak]

Yep, I saw that shiny little thing, and the print also looked familiar.

 

[rickon66]

Str-gx10es

Please kick me!! I allowed myself to get sniped on an ebay auction for a MINT, LOCAL Sony STR-GX10ES. It only went for $425. I was fumbling at the keyboard in the last seconds to no avail. :tears:

 

[Yamaha B-2]

rickon66 - can you say 'e-snipe'? Best thing since sliced bread. Better luck next time.

 

[billbillw]

Final piece added, 90's Sony ES stack is complete!

Finally got my ST-S550ES in place to finish out the 90's era Sony ES stack (turntable doesn't count)

What a sweet sounding tuner! Of course, coming from PunkerX, it has been fully aligned and upgraded internally with matched filters, power supply upgrades, better caps, op amps, and of course a special dose of mystery voodoo. The difference in sound on the NPR Jazz station here is amazing...so much more musical, fuller bass, less hiss. I could listen for hours without fatigue.
So, photos below.
TA-F333ESL integrated, ST-S550ES tuner, SCD-C333ES CD/SACD, TC-KA1ESA cassette.

PS: Following up on an earlier post, I added a 12v/12cm fan behind the amp pushing air across the top, through the stack and it has made an incredible difference in temps that I can feel above the amp. Its pretty much inaudible too!