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

I always thought the "ES" series was Sonys TOTL gear and was pretty good.
I was aware of the SuperScope/Marantz connection, did not know of the SuperScope/Sony connection until now.
I've learned something today.:thumbsup:
 
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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Depends on which post you choose to believe, so I just bought the cheapest available at the time..
 
SoCal Sam said:
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.
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Sony TV sets, Radios and compact Stereos could be had through distributors, likewise the VCR machines, and had good availability in most reasonable size cities. HiFi is what I mentioned about the inept marketing/poor distribution/very small dealer network. For every 200 SuperScope Sony tape recorder dealers, there was 1 HiFi dealer or a ratio close to that. The Southeastern USA a major example. and much if not all of middle America. This didn't change until around 1978-1979, when Sony HiFI became available widely. And there was one Sony selling HiFi and tape decks. California had plenty of Sony HiFi dealers (New York, and Massachusetts the other big states with plenty of Sony HiFi dealers). Florida had Sony HiFi dealers in good number, also.
 
S
goodolpg said:
I always thought the "ES" series was Sonys TOTL gear and was pretty good.
I was aware of the SuperScope/Marantz connection, did not know of the SuperScope/Sony connection until now.
I've learned something today.:thumbsup:
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Sony Esprit, ‘R’ and ‘1’ series sit at the top of the Sony audio gear hierarchy. WEGA was nice too, but not available here at all. We did get one ‘R’ component.
 
Oh, yeah, my 1st venture into Hi-FI was a Sony AM-FM record player.. I got it when I was 11,12.. A lot of us in the TV world are still sore they dumped our beloved Trinitrons-Nothing else really ever came close.
 
I bought a 'really nice' Sony clock radio in 1970 in the PX in Yokosuka for $70, which was a lot of money at the time. It was kind of 'up-scale' in quality, the most expensive one. It 'looked' super fine.

It worked daily for 35 yrs. And the radio sounded super nice too.

I do miss that unit.
 
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dly66 said:
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Big brother to one of mine!
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SONY.jpg
 
I hear you all about Sony being hard to find to buy in the 1960s. I bought the Sony Stereocorder 464-SL tube RTR Tape Deck, 1962 by mail from one of those NY city Hi Fi and camera stores like 47th Street store. I lived in the out back of south Texas and we bought lots of things by mail like a Kenwood 6160 receiver also. I would read about them in magazines and buy site unseen but Sony was not pushed as much by reviews as Pioneer, Kenwood, Marantz and Sansui. We bought most electronics from Allied Radio or Radio shack by mail and hobby stuff like balsa wood and model air plane kits and motors by mail. Sears catalog stores were used for other stuff. Shopping by mail was like eBay and Amazon today.
I bought the $10 Sony small AM radio at a PX at Ft. Bliss, TX but not Hi Fi gear as I had no way to get it home.
Charlie
 
CharlieBee said:
I hear you all about Sony being hard to find to buy in the 1960s. I bought the Sony Stereocorder 464-SL tube RTR Tape Deck, 1962 by mail from one of those NY city Hi Fi and camera stores like 47th Street store. I lived in the out back of south Texas and we bought lots of things by mail like a Kenwood 6160 receiver also. I would read about them in magazines and buy site unseen but Sony was not pushed as much by reviews as Pioneer, Kenwood, Marantz and Sansui. We bought most electronics from Allied Radio or Radio shack by mail and hobby stuff like balsa wood and model air plane kits and motors by mail. Sears catalog stores were used for other stuff. Shopping by mail was like eBay and Amazon today.
Charlie
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Were credit cards in common use back then? Or did you send a personal check and hope for the best? I mean to a place like 47th St Photo or whatever it was back then. I guess the risk was a good reason to patronise only major dealers at the time. No PayPal to CYA FWIW.
 
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?
Click to expand...

Look for SCPH-1001. I have one and it does sound good. Doesn't have the bass or treble extension of my DAC, but the midrange is very nice and it sounds very smooth with surprisingly good soundstage.
 
Archguy

The only credit card I had in the 60s were gasoline credit cards. I sent personal checks at least a hundred times from Jr. high school and after without an issue. Companies like Allied Radio, Heathkit, and 47th ave Camera and others in NY City were major companies and advertised in magazines nation wide and proved to honest at least to me.

Charlie
 
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I have had Sony Dream Machine clock radios for decades. This is my second one. My old one I had for well over a decade got fried by Connecticut Light & Power in 1999. Equipment malfunction - lines crossed and sparks flew - at least that what the neighbors told me. I was out of town. Fortunately the power strip my stereo equipment was plugged into fried protecting them, the strip my TV and VCR were on did not. I think part of my apartment got 230+ Vac instead of 120. I think a hot crossed to common on a feed line affecting 3 buildings containing 24 apartments. Talking to management about half the refrigerators had to be replaced. Got a settlement from Northeast Utilities (CP&L parent) for the stuff I had to fix or replace.

Liked the green LED display of the old one better. Was the same package. Took a photo of the current one off the web, light conditions in my bedroom pictures don't come out well.

dream machine.jpg
 
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The old days of mail order. Fill out the order form and mail it with a check to them. A couple of weeks later it would show up, usually UPS. Speakerlab, McGee Radio & Electronics in Kansas City, and Madisound I did that with back in High School (early 80s). That was the way mail order was back in the old days. Ordered a Sansui receiver from 6th Avenue Electronics back in college (1990) sent COD. Give the UPS driver the Cashier's check (or Money Order, etc) at delivery. You had to hand over the check to get it. I don't think they do COD much anymore, used to be pretty common. You paid an extra fee for it, just a few bucks.
 
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Started my Sony love affair with a Sony transistor radio my Dad brought home from active duty with the Navy in the mid 1960s. On my own in the early 1980s, in Charleston, West Virginia, our go to TV store ….Sodaros was a strong Sony dealer. They were great on allowing trades and home demos...they are still in business. Had a series of 4 Sony receivers…. STR D2020, STR GX99ES, STR DE845, and ending with a DA4ES after purchasing a troublesome Onkyo TX NR808 with terminal HDMI board failures (twice!). Then there were the players...5 CD Disk CDP-C7ESD, the DVP-NS900V SACD player and the blu-ray...BDP -550, …...had a massive like 350 pound TV...the KV-36XBR450 ...best picture of any TV ever...but gave way to a wall mounted Sony 850. Never tried Sony speakers or turntables.

So, while I always give Sony the first look when upgrading, they just have not kept up in my mind in terms of receivers, players, etc...other than TVs...which remain in play at our place. But I guess I will always consider myself a Sony person!
 
Per the attached, their recent receivers appear to be expensive relative to the competition who have cultivated more positive audio names over the years. Curiously this $1,700 unit is a light 29 lbs and has no phono input, 1 coax input and is only 7 channel. They appear to be catering to HT fans and not music types and for the price it's not that attractive to the HT crowd.

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_158ZA3100E/Sony-STR-ZA3100ES.html
 
For me it was the way they market their product. Failure to deliver as promised on time and then introducing new product to be available soon just after have received the current product made for difficult selling and owners finding out what they just bought was already obsolete and worth nothing. Sony could be quite a bargain in the used market and in pawn shops. Thats not to say Sony was a bad product. It sounded as good as any middle of the road stuff. Bit it never matched up to Denon, Marantz, or Pioneer Elite. Sony ESS was better than average, but here again Sony shot them selves in the foot with their marketing. Sony loved to give end of the year kick backs based on numbers. So dealers used heavy discount to move large numbers to get the big bonus at the end of the sales cycle. If Sony had produced well researched and constructed products with maybe up dates every 5 years or so, pre-owned sales values would be much higher and Sony would have a much better reputation. Sony Professional and Broadcast stuff was a little different. The models didn't change as often, but there was still the big discounting going on.
 
KentTeffeteller said:
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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Kent - quite a bit of history there. Thanks for relaying it. I for one had no idea.
 
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