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Sony PS-LX500 / LX510 / LX520 / LX55 / LX57 knowledge thread

illini

illini

The Past is Alive
Okay. So.

There isn't much information about these turntables on Audiokarma, so I'm starting this thread hoping to capture some knowledge and experience from other members. If you have anything to share regarding these turntables, please chime in. What I have to offer is below:

I found a near mint Sony PS-LX510 at the thrift store for cheap, installed a new at92ecd cartridge, and put it through the usual hi-fi news record tracks. It performed better than my Technics SL-7's. I also checked the VTF using a digital scale and a slip-mat. The table works perfectly. There's still a "It's a Sony" sticker on the dust cover.

1 - I cannot locate an owner's manual for the PS-LX510, so I'm using manuals for the 500 and 520.

2 - According to the PS-LX500 owner's manual, the turntable requires no periodic lubrication. This depends, I suppose, on what is considered to be the life span of the turntable.

3 - I did locate a service manual for the 510 and the platter motor appears to be similar to the Denon DP-7F, judging by the schematic. The manual refers to it as Sony's BSL (brushless and slotless) motor. The platter is lightweight aluminum, easily removed from the turntable.

4 - These models have an optional remote control and are also designed to synchronize with certain Sony cassette decks.

5 - There is no ground wire connection.

6 - Transparent and 10" records cannot be played automatically. Attempting to play a 10" record automatically or any non-12" record with the turntable mat installed incorrectly can cause the stylus to lower onto the platter. See here: http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/i-played-my-platter-recently.747631/

7 - Care must be taken when installing the rubber mat (see 6, above).

8 - The 510 is much lighter in weight than the Technics SL-7, and seems more 'modern'.
 
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I own a PS-LX500 and a PS-LX520. The 510 has some very desirable features:

1) The first upgrade is a Quartz Lock for speed control and stability (does not exist on the PS-LX500)
2) The straight tube arm has the +/- VTF increase/decrease sliding weight (the 500,510 have it, the 520 does not).
3) The PS-LX520 arm electronics are more sophisticated, it's not a Bio-Tracer, but it does have more sensor and electro-magnetic design and I think that's why it does not have the sliding weight in the arm.
4) The PS-LX520 has a traditional ground wire. The PS-LX500 has none but is internally grounded via the phono cables.

The remote control feature was a Data-Link cable that connected up to Sony's remote control receivers of the time, and the other connection was for tape deck synchronization for LP to Tape Deck start, pause, stop controls.

I have the PS-LX500 in my bedroom system and use it daily. This table is in near mint condition, the dust cover is in perfect condition. The arm tube had one annoying problem that I repaired. One of the internal female wire connections in the arm tube was shorting out and not making a positive connection and I would loose a channel. Bending the cartridges pins slightly helped temporarily, but that stopped working, and the affected female clip git pushed back in the arm tube and required a full tear down of the table to repair the problem. I learned a lot about these tables doing that repair. I bent the small copper feeler for the arm position sensor and spent a bunch of time fixing that issue. Which leads me on to how I acquired the PS-LX520. This table was on E-bay and my Sony was in the middle of me attempting to repair it, for weeks I tinkered with it, then put it away and come back to it, thinking and knowing it had to be a simple thing I was missing. The PS-LX520 was a very low bid auction that I won to my disbelief for $7.88 plus shipping.

Part 2 of the PS-LX520: It was very poorly packed in a under sized box, minimal bubble rap, diagonally packed in the box, platter left on the spindle, a nice AT phono cartridge AT-231EP was included and thankfully it survived. The platter bounced around under the dustcover and table chipping the decks paint and scratching the inside of the dustcover. I did a complete tear down and sanded the tables surfaces, primed and sprayed with Krylon Black Lacquer piant, then polished out the dustcovers inside and outer top side. Cleaned the transport, new belt and it works like a champ.

One thing that is still dogging me, is playing the thicker 180 gram records, the PS-LX510 table the arm has issues playing them. I even made a thinner platter mat out of rubber shelf liner, tried all of my P-mount cartridges, the issue is the arm will hangup and trail behind, but only on 180 gram records. The PS-LX520's arm works fine with any record I have played.

I upgraded both tables platter light for the record detection to a clear LED, nice and bright. I have made a few LP transfers with the PS-LX520 and a Shure 110HE cartridge to make some LP to CD recordings and the transfers sound really good.
 
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I'm not a regular here at AK though I've been a member for a long time. I found this thread while searching for information on my new turntable. I picked an LX520 up at a thrift store a week and a half ago. Thought I'd share my experience here for anyone who is interested.

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this at a Thrift store on a Saturday afternoon. I've been looking for turntables at thrifts for years and have never found a single one worth taking home. This time however was different. It was filthy, but I thought there may be a diamond in the rough here.

I didn't open the cover at first; my first look was at the back to see if it had regular RCAs and ground cable. The remote control pin connecters made me suspicious since that's the kind of connector that the worst of the cheapo 80s rack systems all seemed to use, but the standard ground and L/R RCA cables were there so I was happy. I'm aware that Sony has had a lot of different oddball remote control cables over the years. I immediately noted that even if this was once part of a "rack" system, that it would be usable with my living room system.

It looked like this:
IMG_5370_zpsvonipj7z.jpg

The price tag was $18.50. The gunk you see on the upper right hand corner was also on the inside under the cover. It washed right off.

Opening up the top it looked good inside, if extremely dirty. The "Quartz Lock" light was welcome to see since I'm a big fan of stable platter speed. The cartridge was the OEM included VL-45G (Ubiquitous AT P-mount stylus type), probably with the original needle.

Cantilever slightly bent:
IMG_5384_zpswhdcxa10.jpg


Not a concern for me, as one of my backup carts is an AT 311EP, and I had two spare syli for that in a drawer, one brand new which had never played on a record. I did a quick search on my phone browser and determined that yes this was coming home. I didn't even plug it in at the shop because I know the people at this thrift do a basic check on electronics before they put them out.

I came home and plugged it in - looked online for some "how-to"s on this table. The arm did not move at first on its own, but I could push it; I felt the rail and it was tacky. I opened the bottom and cleaned out some of the dried grease, checked the drive belt movement (and ordered a replacement drive belt). I cleaned the table thoroughly with window cleaner including the rail and applied some silicon lube lightly with a paper towel. I then installed an old much played needle on the cart and let it go at both 33 and 45 on some old crappy records for a while to make sure it would play through and keep rocking.

Finally I brought it to my family room system for which I have wanted a turntable for a long time. I played a record and it seemed to work just fine.

My last step was to put the brand new stylus on my AT311EP and install the 311EP to replace the Sony cart. I've been listening to records for a while on this and it sounds good and works well. My only complaint is the dust cover is pretty badly scratched.

temporary_zpsphgg62ex.jpg


temporary_zpsjrqmrwhz.jpg
 
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The Dustcover will clean/buff up very nicely with 3-M Headlight Restoration Kit from any automotive parts store. A variable speed power drill, and some added polish products and clearcoat or headlight polishing compound and your in business. For deep scratches you may need some heavier to very fine grit wet-dry sandpaper. I have polished 3 or 4 with my kit and polishes, each look 10x better, and a couple look almost like new.
 
9. I can confirm that my PS-LX510, using a vtf of about 1.4g and the at92ecd cartridge, plays 180g records with no problems.
 
Yeah, I own the ps-lx55ii which I inherited from my dad 20 years ago when he was going to just throw away all his old Vynil and such. It has performed flawlessly through many moves until recently and the tone arm started to stick. I've been meaning to lube the arm up but in the meantime ordered a ps-lx 520 via ebay. She works, but it's interesting that the footprint is so much bigger than the 55ii. It's weird how no one gives these players much love. I've yet to notice any definitive sound differences than any other linear p-mount players I've heard. Which begs me to ask, what cartridge and stylus would you guys recommend? Is there a combo that will make a definitive upgrade in sound quality? I have various AT carts like the at92e and AT311ep and NOS DR950 And don't hear much difference between them. I'd really love to upgrade if at all possible because the wonderful thing about these players is the ease of use. IOW, I can leave them in a main system in the living room and don't have to worry about visitors or my girlfriend messing up my records
 
ericc129 said:
Yeah, I own the ps-lx55ii which I inherited from my dad 20 years ago when he was going to just throw away all his old Vynil and such. It has performed flawlessly through many moves until recently and the tone arm started to stick. I've been meaning to lube the arm up but in the meantime ordered a ps-lx 520 via ebay. She works, but it's interesting that the footprint is so much bigger than the 55ii. It's weird how no one gives these players much love. I've yet to notice any definitive sound differences than any other linear p-mount players I've heard. Which begs me to ask, what cartridge and stylus would you guys recommend? Is there a combo that will make a definitive upgrade in sound quality? I have various AT carts like the at92e and AT311ep and NOS DR950 And don't hear much difference between them. I'd really love to upgrade if at all possible because the wonderful thing about these players is the ease of use. IOW, I can leave them in a main system in the living room and don't have to worry about visitors or my girlfriend messing up my records
Click to expand...
I've used a Stanton L737-E- with an old D74S stylus, an Audio Technica AT311EP (pictured above), and the stock Sony VL-45G cart with an Audio Technica ATN3472SE stylus. All three of these have their plusses and minuses, but IMO Sony didn't match the Sony VL-45G with this table by accident. It is well balanced and sounds very very good. I'd like to try a microline stylus on it some day but I'm pretty happy with the sound of the stock cart, it's a very good match for the table. The ATN3472SE is an elliptical, and the VL-45G base cart came with a conical stylus.

Looks like this now:

temporary_zps2ehgzmjv.jpg
 
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PhilBiker said:
I've used a Stanton L737-E- with an old D74S stylus, an Audio Technica AT311EP (pictured above), and the stock Sony VL-45G cart with an Audio Technica ATN3472SE stylus. All three of these have their plusses and minuses, but IMO Sony didn't match the Sony VL-45G with this table by accident. It is well balanced and sounds very very good. I'd like to try a microline stylus on it some day but I'm pretty happy with the sound of the stock cart, it's a very good match for the table. The ATN3472SE is an elliptical, and the VL-45G base cart came with a conical stylus.

Looks like this now:

temporary_zps2ehgzmjv.jpg
Click to expand...


I have one of the Sony (AT) VL45G cartridges paired with Pfanstiehl's Hyper Ellipticals in rotation and it does sound very good, even passes my sibilance test with flying colors!

Over the year or two I have scooped up:

Technics P-23, P-24 & P-28 (They all are basically the same, I think I paid $30 total for all of them) No original needles though, just some aftermarket Pfanstiehl 718E, and a couple of EVG's.
Pickering TL3 with a original Hedron stylus, (2) XL-33U
Ortofon TM14 body and EVG stylus and a tEI one.
Shure 110HE body with aftermarket Pfanstiehls .2 x .7 $12 stylus that sound great.
 
I trimmed an AT-311EP and use an AT95VL stylus on my PS-LX520 with fantastic results. It came in just a touch light at 1.4 grams VTF, so I discreetly added a little weight to bump it up to 1.9.

Underrated table for sure.
 
I have a PS-LX500 that I picked up locally. Performed the usual lubricant check, and replaced the arm drive belt with an O-ring that's slightly loose but does the job well anyway. It came with a M92E. I fitted the M92E with a stylus from a M97xE, and was able to rebalance the arm for 1.25g VTF at the stylus with the brush down. I also have a NOS Stanton L737E that I want to try. Works great when it plays except for one intermittent problem: the arm frequently (usually mostly) refuses to cue down when I activate the arm lifter button. I have service manuals for the PS-LX510 and PS-LX520, but the circuit and board layout for the 500 is slightly different. I was planning on checking the electrolytic caps in the arm lift circuit, but had to delay that project because we recently moved. If anyone else had that problem and solved it, I'd appreciate help. Likewise, if I figure it out first, I'll post my findings here.

Ray K
 
rread13 said:
I have one of the Sony (AT) VL45G cartridges paired with Pfanstiehl's Hyper Ellipticals in rotation and it does sound very good, even passes my sibilance test with flying colors!

Over the year or two I have scooped up:

Technics P-23, P-24 & P-28 (They all are basically the same, I think I paid $30 total for all of them) No original needles though, just some aftermarket Pfanstiehl 718E, and a couple of EVG's.
Pickering TL3 with a original Hedron stylus, (2) XL-33U
Ortofon TM14 body and EVG stylus and a tEI one.
Shure 110HE body with aftermarket Pfanstiehls .2 x .7 $12 stylus that sound great.
Click to expand...
Where if you don't mind me asking did you pick up the Pfanstiehl Hyper Elliptical?
 
In this case, the white 4-pin connection is for the Sony/Sony ES Control S connectivity, not some cheap entry level component stack. It's used on my ES DST (Digital Signal Transfer) system components, for example.

I suspect that support for the LX-520 on that bus is limited though. I had the TT at one point and didn't see any way to leverage that with the TA-DM1000ES preamp or the RM-P1 remote, not surprising since the preamp lacks a true phono input. Probably one or more of the preamps or receivers from the same year lineup as the TT will have it though.Would have allowed remote start/stop and possibly FF/REW as well.

John

PhilBiker said:
The remote control pin connecters made me suspicious since that's the kind of connector that the worst of the cheapo 80s rack systems all seemed to use, but the standard ground and L/R RCA cables were there so I was happy. I'm aware that Sony has had a lot of different oddball remote control cables over the years. I immediately noted that even if this was once part of a "rack" system, that it would be usable with my living room system.
Click to expand...
 
rread13 said:
I have one of the Sony (AT) VL45G cartridges paired with Pfanstiehl's Hyper Ellipticals in rotation and it does sound very good, even passes my sibilance test with flying colors!

Over the year or two I have scooped up:

Technics P-23, P-24 & P-28 (They all are basically the same, I think I paid $30 total for all of them) No original needles though, just some aftermarket Pfanstiehl 718E, and a couple of EVG's.
Pickering TL3 with a original Hedron stylus, (2) XL-33U
Ortofon TM14 body and EVG stylus and a tEI one.
Shure 110HE body with aftermarket Pfanstiehls .2 x .7 $12 stylus that sound great.
Click to expand...
It is not doing well on my sibilance torture test, but it still sounds very good and I believe it is an upgrade from the A-T elliptical.
 
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