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Sony TA-F870ES from 1991. Any good?

Mr Magoo said:
The 870ES arrived today. The amp is physically substantial at 24kg. All hooked up and I have to say it sounds remarkably good. In fact, I’d have to say it’s excellent. Still early days though, but I’m very impressed. The phono (MC in my case) is very good. Plenty of power, very balanced sound and more to come as it gets in to its stride.

Thanks for all your positive comments and advice. Glad I bought this amp.

Peter
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I really like them and I’d love to give one a home at some point, be great with a high end Sony DD deck and some big JBL monitors or something... totally different to anything I currently own but bags of fun.
 
Great stuff. It'll show a clean pair of heels to some very fancy amps for sure.

Get that bucking transformer sorted a.s.a.p.
 
Mr Magoo said:
The 870ES arrived today. The amp is physically substantial at 24kg. All hooked up and I have to say it sounds remarkably good. In fact, I’d have to say it’s excellent. Still early days though, but I’m very impressed. The phono (MC in my case) is very good. Plenty of power, very balanced sound and more to come as it gets in to its stride.

Thanks for all your positive comments and advice. Glad I bought this amp.

Peter
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So glad your pleased with the amp Peter. Enjoy!
Ray
 
stevec67 said:
I wouldn't bother with SS gear. If it's CE marked it's designed to 230V + 10%, -5%. As soon as it gets in the case it's down to 40-0-40 or similar, so 10% overload is 44V, a whole 4V over. I wouldn't sweat it. Valve gear is another matter.
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I disagree. This is a 220v version not a 230v. Sony also made a 240v version. Why would Sony bother making a separate 240v version if the 220v was happy at 240v?
 
Well, all I can say is that the amp is performing superbly. I have a good quality front end in the form of a Well Tempered Versalex and 17D3 which certainly helps things. I have Shawline speaker cable which is excellent. The PMC Twenty 23 speakers are doing a fine job too. Just need some Shawline speaker jumpers to replace the standard ‘rods’.
I’m pleased this all worked out so well. Having had a Naim multibox system for many years, there’s a lot of WAF too. Thanks to everyone who gave me the pluck to buy this amp. Serviced too, so should be good for more years than I have left :)
 
stevec67 said:
Feel free to disagree. I've my opinion, you yours. Neither is changing soon. This is the audio section, remember.
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In fairness, Mike is an engineer who knows Sony ES gear better than most... I’d advise using a bucking transformer to lose about 20 volts. Whilst it’s unlikely to let out magic smoke on the first use, it will make the regulation circuitry work harder and dissipate more heat, which can shorten component life, that’s not opinion but fact.
 
Mike P said:
I disagree. This is a 220v version not a 230v. Sony also made a 240v version. Why would Sony bother making a separate 240v version if the 220v was happy at 240v?
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I run my 220v 700ES with a bucking transformer. Before using that it would occasionally go into protection mode if the weather was hot. No issues since.
 
harmonica98 said:
I run my 220v 700ES with a bucking transformer. Before using that it would occasionally go into protection mode if the weather was hot. No issues since.
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I too own a 700ES. I did this simple mod to allow it to be run on our voltage 'swap two wires around' the info can be found here: https://redirect.viglink.com/?format=go&jsonp=vglnk_156690549918812&key=7e51c1edcf74d4431ed8286703ccf9c1&libId=jztr2g32010009pj000DA8k9l6l5t&loc=https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/sony-ta-f870es-from-1991-any-good.230963/&v=1&out=https://www.stereo.net.au/forums/topic/67986-sony-ta-f700es-mid-80s-excellence-comparathon/&ref=https://www.pinkfishmedia.net/forum/threads/sony-ta-f870es-from-1991-any-good.230963/page-2&title=Sony TA-F870ES from 1991. Any good? | pink fish media&txt=Sony TA-F700ES Mid 80's excellence Comparathon - Product Reviews & Opinions - StereoNET


Regards
Ray
 
 
Isobarik said:
Nothing to

Nothing to lose Peter, and a very simple procedure as long as you can wield a soldering iron.
Regards
Ray
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The 770ES was available in three voltage region versions:

AEP/German - 220v
UK - 240v
E - Multivolt (switchable for 120v, 220, and 240v)

I'm pretty sure the AEP/German model doesn't have different transformer taps like your 700ES does.

Using a 20v external bucking transformer is the sensible thing to do.

Although UK mains voltage is nominally 240v it can very quite a bit. Mine is 250v most of the time plus or minus a few volts.
 
I’ve recently been encountering an issue with the amp as one channel (right) fades and even cuts out. I loaned a CD player to confirm whether the phono input was the problem, or whether the fault lay somewhere else. Plugging in the CDP confirmed all was fine with the line level inputs. The problem is therefore the MC phono input.

This raises the question of whether to look for an external phono and by pass the fault, or get the fault sorted. I don’t know who could take this ‘repair’ on should I decide to get the repair done. Should I move the amp on at some point, I wouldn’t want to sell knowing there was a fault.

The amp is heavy at 24kg, so shipping to/from any repair will be quite costly. I’m located near Ludlow in shropshire. Can anyone recommend someone who can repair this phono issue. Ideally within reasonable travelling distance.

Many thanks
Peter
 
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