Sony ES-550 Tuner

[uxwbill]

A few weeks ago, I bought a Sony ES-550 tuner from fellow AK'er cableguy. The transaction went very well (probably a topic for another forum, but it's not the point of this post).

It was mentioned in the original listing that the unit had been serviced and modified by (IIRC) Radio X Tuners. I'm not sure what the mods consisted of. Popping the cover didn't reveal anything that looked different except a socketed Burr-Brown IC and new caps. I thought the internals didn't look all that interesting.

Well, last night I set it up and played it into a Technics SA-150 receiver through the auxiliary input. The receiver is driving a pair of Realistic NOVA-6 speakers. My antenna system was a simple FM dipole, receiving a station about 30 miles from my location.

Looks clearly aren't everything. On FM, this tuner sounds really good. I thought the audio was extremely bassy, but that was limited to the station I was listening to and a quick cut of the bass control fixed it. Other stations were not impacted. Although not as quiet as my Sony HD tuner in analog mode, performance was still extremely impressive.

My apologies for not having a picture of the listening setup. My digital camera seemed to be in a mood last night.

AM isn't nearly as exciting. It seems like the AM tuner was mostly an afterthought. It doesn't sound bad, it's just not all that interesting and doesn't do anything special, such as decoding AM stereo broadcasts.

I'd like to pose a question to any other Sony ES-550 tuner owners who are out there...does your tuner remember its presets and programming when unplugged? This one is not, and I'm wondering if I need to be looking for a backup battery, supercap or some other energy storage device that has failed. Sony's manual did not say much about this.

 

[RichPA]

Once upon a time, I owned that tuner - I mean, that exact one, unless cableguy got a second one somewhere. I'll look and see what Radio X did to it; I think I've still got some email on it somewhere. It used to remember its presets, so there likely is something that's failed. Great tuner that I'd still own if there was FM worth listening to where I live.

 

[Punker X]

C703 is mounted on the front panel display board. .1F 5.1v super cap for back up. I'd try leaving plugged in for a while then set your preset and see if it keeps them. Even a super cap can't hold the charge for infinity. If has been unplugged for a long time it will need to charge back up.

As far as what was done to the tuner. Can't remember. Think it was just the opamp and output coupling cap, which at that time I was using Blackgates which are now priceless.

 

[RichPA]

As far as what was done to the tuner. Can't remember. Think it was just the opamp and output coupling cap, which at that time I was using Blackgates which are now priceless.

Found the correspondence:

> installed a socket and by-pass cap for
> >the opamp and
> >put in a Burr-brown OPA2604A,
> >Recap the power supply:
> >Blackgate bipolars in the audio path: Hexfred Stealth diodes in
> >the power supply:

This stuff was done in summer 2005; also aligned at that time.

 

[uxwbill]

Once upon a time, I owned that tuner - I mean, that exact one, unless cableguy got a second one somewhere. I'll look and see what Radio X did to it; I think I've still got some email on it somewhere. It used to remember its presets, so there likely is something that's failed. Great tuner that I'd still own if there was FM worth listening to where I live.

That's pretty cool to know a little bit more about where it came from. There are still some decent FM stations here and I'm sure that I will get a lot of enjoyment from it. Just out of curiosity--and if you don't mind my asking--did you buy it new?

C703 is mounted on the front panel display board. .1F 5.1v super cap for back up.

I'll try that and see what happens. Its first run of any significant length was last night, when it played for about three hours.

Think it was just the opamp and output coupling cap, which at that time I was using Blackgates which are now priceless.

What makes a Blackgate cap special or priceless? (I'm coming into this discussion somewhat uninformed about them, so if there is a thread I could read that would explain it, feel free to point me there.)

> installed a socket and by-pass cap for
> >the opamp and
> >put in a Burr-brown OPA2604A,
> >Recap the power supply:
> >Blackgate bipolars in the audio path: Hexfred Stealth diodes in
> >the power supply:

This stuff was done in summer 2005; also aligned at that time.

Thank you for taking the time to look it up! I really appreciate both your and Punker X's time to look this up and explain it.

 

[Punker X]

Blackgates were considered the best sounding electrolytic coupling cap. Production ceased several years ago and the are pretty much no longer available. Making them very valuable.

To do the same modifications on that Sony would probably cost close to three times what you paid for it. Just the modifications not including the cost of the tuner. I really like the 550ES. Nice simple tuner with very good sound. I have one in the garage I use for burning in stuff.