Sony TA-F808ES problems

[wezra]

Hi all,

So to set the scene, I'd been after one of these for a long time. One came up on eBay from a seller in Germany at a reasonable price, the item was cosmetically flawless, and according to the seller issue free. The seller had 100% feedback and a decent high number of recent positive feedbacks, so having bought from Germany previously with no issues, I went for it.

To add, this was to replace a 700ES which worked flawlessly, so I know all the cables, speakers and other devices are all good.

So the item arrived in bomb proof packaging, in fairness, I've not seen something better packed and on opening the item condition was incredbile, you'd have thought it was new, remote was spotless also.

However on wiring it up, it has a lot of problems sadly.

So far this is what I've noted

1. Turning the amplifier, there is a significant 'whoosh' for lack of a better word, and a lot of noise internally in the amplifier, cracks, pops and electrical noises. This calms down once it's finished it's power on cycle.
2. There is a very loud electrical noise (hum I guess) from the amplifier when turned on and it has completed it's power on. It is loud enough that you can hear it from a distance.
3. Using any of the source direct, mode or tone controls creates a lot of noise and electrical pops and cracks when cycling them.
4. Using the phono input, records are unplayable. They are distorted, one of the channels drops out continuously.
5. There is a very large amount of static noise at any volume level on the phono input, a vast amount more than my existing Sony 700ES.

I'm going to get my old cd player out to test that input tomorrow.

I am in the process of discussing the issues with the seller to see if we can come to a return or other arrangement.

However if that goes south and I'm left with it.

Question is, is it something that can be resolved? Are there any users with experience of Sony ES amps of that era that could advise? I've heard such good things about this amp and I don't want to give up on it yet.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Matt.

 

[Furyous]

It’s 30 years old and if it’s mint it’s probably sat in a box most of its life. Probably dried out caps partially to blame.

Clearly it needs a service/repair and you won’t know how expensive or possible that will be until you have an engineer look at it. There is a risk that something like that of that vintage needs difficult (or impossible) to find parts.

So either send it back for a refund, agree a partial refund and take it on yourself to fix and hope it’s not too complicated or expensive, or agree with the seller that they fund the repair cost (whatever it turns out to be). If you end up with a freshly serviced/recapped unit at their cost that would be a good outcome.

 

[Mike P]

A lot of the problems you describe are due to dirty switch contacts, of which there are loads in a TA-F808es.

If it is from Germany it'll likely be a 220v unit too and should be run from a external bucking transformer which knocks off 20vac from the incoming 240v mains we have here in the UK.