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Why doesn’t Sony Hi Fi gear get much Coverage or Respect?

CharlieBee

CharlieBee

Super Member
I have loved Sony electronic gear for over 50 yrs. It started with a $10 AM radio, the size of King size pack of cigarettes, that had a great robust sound and a great AM tuner that picked up AM signals for 1000 + miles at night. Then there were cassette players and recorders, Walkman AM/FM radios including the headphone type I still use, portable cassette and CD players, dual cassette stereo players/recorders, 5 disk CD players, TV sets, a shortwave radio, and numerous AM/FM ac/dc radios all of which are still working except the SW radio which I accidentally ruined by operating it under a towel. I have owned a Sony RTR with tubes that was sold and have a solid state Sony RTR.


I have settled on Sony 5 disc CD players and Sony dual cassette players/recorders for most of my stereo systems.


The best Sony I have is a Sony PS-X6 Direct Drive Stereo Automatic Turntable with cast aluminum base and finger conductive controls.


I have noticed Sony made some stereo receivers like the STR-V5 and V7 (latter 150 w/c) but I have never seen one but they should be well made and perform well since they are Sony’s. I know the Sony hi fi gear were not top sellers and their line-up is sparse and would not rate a Sony Manufacturer Forum on AK. Sony chose to concentrate on more consumer products and not emphasis competing for the audiophile type customer as evident by their small lineup of hi fi gear.

Let’s hear from those with good experiences with Sony Hi Fi gear and let many of us see what we missed.

Charlie
 
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Sony built some killer equipment in the 70's and even into the 80's. The cool.thing is a lot of that early Sony equipment tends to fly under the radar. Being cheaper in many cases compared to Sansui, Marantz, Pioneer, etc. You can pickup a Sony receiver cheaper than other brands and those 70's to early 80's models were well built and sound really good.
 
I've had some fantastic Sony equipment over the years. The MDR-V6 headphones for example, were introduced in 1985 and are still industry standard in broadcasting and many other professional audio applications. You constantly see them being used by baseball announcers, radio DJ's, and even in movies, etc, and they make good headphones for simply listening to music also. The fact that they are still in production after all these years says a lot. And the Sony Trinitron technology was my absolute favorite for CRT monitors and older TVs before I eventually had to make the transition to flat-panel displays. Aside from headphones I have not had tons of experience with Sony audio equipment but if it seemed to match what I needed I certainly would not turn it down just due to the brand.
 
I noticed you mentioned that you had owned a tube sony RTR. That touched some good memories for me. My first sony was a tube RTR. I eventually sold it and regretted doing so.
There is a lot of love on this site for sony.
Other sony audio eq which I have owned:
Receivers - 6800, 7065, 6060f, 6050
Amp - 1120.
I still have the 6060 and the 6050.
 
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CharlieBee said:
I have loved Sony electronic gear for over 50 yrs. It started with a $10 AM radio, the size of King size pack of cigarettes, that had a great robust sound and a great AM tuner that picked up AM signals for 1000 + miles at night. Then there were cassette players and recorders, Walkman AM/FM radios including the headphone type I still use, portable cassette and CD players, dual cassette stereo players/recorders, 5 disk CD players, TV sets, a shortwave radio, and numerous AM/FM ac/dc radios all of which are still working except the SW radio which I accidentally ruined by operating it under a towel. I have owned a Sony RTR with tubes that was sold and have a solid state Sony RTR.


I have settled on Sony 5 disc CD players and Sony dual cassette players/recorders for most of my stereo systems.


The best Sony I have is a Sony PS-X6 Direct Drive Stereo Automatic Turntable with cast aluminum base and finger conductive controls.


I have noticed Sony made some stereo receivers like the STR-V5 and V7 (latter 150 w/c) but I have never seen one but they should be well made and perform well since they are Sony’s. I know the Sony hi fi gear were not top sellers and their line-up is sparse and would not rate a Sony Manufacturer Forum on AK. Sony chose to concentrate on more consumer products and not emphasis competing for the audiophile type customer as evident by their small lineup of hi fi gear.

Let’s hear from those with good experiences with Sony Hi Fi gear and let many of us see what we missed.

Charlie
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Sony made huge mistakes in their USA marketing, which effectively made them a non starter. Big issue. In the USA, there were 2 Sonys. There was tape recorders (Imported to the USA by SuperScope, with a superb dealer network, and superb parts and service networks and representation). SuperScope was everywhere. When Sony began making audiophile equipment in 1965 beginning with the classic TA series transistor integrated amplifier, their tuners, and turntables, Sony HiFi in the USA was handled by the USA branch of Sony Corporation. This organization had very limited distribution, had very few dealers for many years, and overall made Sony really not much of a factor until the early 1980's.

In Tennessee, in 1969 only Memphis had a dealer. There was no dealers in Georgia, and one dealer in Birmingham, Alabama. This was when Sony built their finest equipment. By comparison in Tennessee, there was McIntosh dealers in every major Tennessee city (Memphis, Nashville, Chattanooga, Knoxville, Oak Ridge, Johnson City). Marantz was almost as well represented likewise. (Oak Ridge the exception).

Sony tape recorders were in every one of those cities too (often the same dealers too). So in short, for many years, Sony audio was hard to find, had such limited distribution, had so few dealers, and while it got good press in the HiFi magazines, it was lesser known in the USA due to very inept marketing and limited dealer networks (unless it was a tape deck). And this affects how much respect and coverage it got. In areas like New York, California, and Florida. Sony had a somewhat normal dealer network then. But there were sometimes entire states with none or 1 dealer. You had to really know it existed, and were willing to drive in many cases several hundred miles to even audition it. No wonder, Sony then was such a little known company in audio. And their best gear was as fine as anyone's then.
 
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More Sony love here too!

I've had a great experience with Sony products over the last 40+ years. From a Walkman in the late 70s/early 80s when they first came out to the Discman portable complete with gooseneck car mount. Later when I moved out, I built a home theater based on a STR-D990 which was the best of that model lineup I could afford at the time - that D990 lasted almost 25 years (11 of them in an open-salt-air environment beachfront!!) - a SuperVHS VCR, a 27" Trinitron TV, and something else that IDR right now.

Now I have currently in use a STR-D1090 (a significant step up in that same model line I had 30 years ago) running the main system out in the livingroom while my Sony GX9ES is being repaired.

IMG_E8498.JPG


Even the little clock radio back here in the office is Sony. LOL

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And at this very moment am listening to Eddie Palmieri through an excellent sounding pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones.

IMG_8052.JPG



I'd highly recommend finding that album's studio version of El Resbaloso on your streaming service ;)



In short, yeah, Sony's terrible, always has been, probably always will be.

Too bad too, they have a nice logo. LOL

JK, They're some of the most long term satisfying purchases I've made over the years.
 
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CharlieBee said:
I have loved Sony electronic gear for over 50 yrs. It started with a $10 AM radio, the size of King size pack of cigarettes, that had a great robust sound and a great AM tuner that picked up AM signals for 1000 + miles at night. Then there were cassette players and recorders, Walkman AM/FM radios including the headphone type I still use, portable cassette and CD players, dual cassette stereo players/recorders, 5 disk CD players, TV sets, a shortwave radio, and numerous AM/FM ac/dc radios all of which are still working except the SW radio which I accidentally ruined by operating it under a towel. I have owned a Sony RTR with tubes that was sold and have a solid state Sony RTR.


I have settled on Sony 5 disc CD players and Sony dual cassette players/recorders for most of my stereo systems.


The best Sony I have is a Sony PS-X6 Direct Drive Stereo Automatic Turntable with cast aluminum base and finger conductive controls.


I have noticed Sony made some stereo receivers like the STR-V5 and V7 (latter 150 w/c) but I have never seen one but they should be well made and perform well since they are Sony’s. I know the Sony hi fi gear were not top sellers and their line-up is sparse and would not rate a Sony Manufacturer Forum on AK. Sony chose to concentrate on more consumer products and not emphasis competing for the audiophile type customer as evident by their small lineup of hi fi gear.

Let’s hear from those with good experiences with Sony Hi Fi gear and let many of us see what we missed.

Charlie
Click to expand...

I believe you just answered your own query.

Some Sony gear I have that's superb.

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Took an hour long road trip (each way) to get a STR-7065 receiver a few months ago that will need some work and is currently on the project shelf with the others. Looks like liquid spilled in went down across the rectifier diodes and formerly green mylar caps are now black. Works but with noticeable distortion. Huge transformer. Not the neatest on the inside. Was curious about the older Sony models and like the look of the older vintages. Further down the to-do list but look forward to seeing how the old Sony performs once restored. I believe these units were sold in the early 70s.
IMG_20190522_122730.jpg IMG_20190522_122943.jpg
 
Sony gets plenty of respect. Some of the stuff was really high end, see TA-NR1 amp. They invented the CD player and were innovators, see CDP-XA7ES. Sony wasn't great at speakers but some are classics such as the SS-M9. Silver era Sony were not so splashy but some pieces are innovative such as the use of VFET's in TA-5650 and TA-8650. Of course, Sony Trinitron was simply the best CRT TV on the market. Betamax was a failure but the picture quality of some of the pro models is astounding, see CGS-50 and SL-HF1000.
 
reydelaplaya said:
I have been wanting one of those for quite a while after hearing all about how good the CD portion is - any idea what's the specific model number to look for within the PS1 line?
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I think you would be much better off with one of the top two Sony players I posted. Original retail $1000, found each above for $80. The top player only in black (I have two), still can't find one in silver that isn't in Russia selling for $300 lol.
 
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