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Sony PS-X7 Turntable Direct Drive goodness

post #1 of 12
5/21/08 at 2:23am
Thread Starter 
So lately I have been on a vintage turntable tear and have researched the heck out of some of the late 70s and early 80s decks and I cam across this table. The table has an outstanding direct drive unit and while the table looks plastic it it made out of metal. The tonearm is made from a carbon fiber composite and was only available in the US and Europe. I have owned a massively upgraded Linn for 10 years and loved and hated that table for the entire time. Loved it for its musical presence and hated the fidgety nature of the suspension and the ungodly price of the upgrades associated with it.
The Sony deck is on par with this upgraded Linn deck surprisingly besting it in some area and losing in others. The sony's bass response is significantly better and there is absolutely no smearing at all in any of the frequencies. It has amazing timing and neutrality besting the Linn in those areas but is just a smidge thin in the mids compared to the linn. Overall a great deck and a testament to Japan's engineering prowess in the late 70s. Future upgraded are to take the ultra nasty rca cables off the rear of the deck and replace them. This is a big job and I will need to take a weekend to take apart the table and solder on new cables. The heashell leads are crap and will be replaced with cardas leads and if I an figure out how to replace the tone arm wire I plan to do that as well. I would like to shop this table to some other headfier rigs to see how it compares. Overall very satisfied and it has made me a direct drive convert. Do not believe the BS that DD tables are noisy and full of rumble, the better ones are not. I would heartily recommend the upper end Sony (ps-x800 to 500, ps-x5-7 and ps-x70s) to someone that wants to get great performance at pennies on the dollar. I vastly overpaid for this table as it is in great condition but you can find the for $100-150 on ebay. Just try to buy local as they get trashed in shipping.

Here is a few pics on action with my ZYX cart.


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post #2 of 12
5/21/08 at 8:43am
Nice. I have had a few of the Sony Biotracer decks and been pretty impressed with them especially at the prices they go for these days.

You should definitely try to rewire the tonearm as this will make a big difference. It'll be a labour of love

The Sony you have is luckily one of the simpler ones before they went crazy with "Bio" sensers etc... so much easier to work on. The arm could be removed in fact but I would personally go for a restoration job rather than butchering a classic vintage deck like this.

In terms of DD performance though a modern Technics SL1200 with a Rega arm will best most of these older vintage decks and be much less of a headache in servicing terms.
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post #3 of 12
5/21/08 at 10:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by memepool View Post
Nice. I have had a few of the Sony Biotracer decks and been pretty impressed with them especially at the prices they go for these days.

You should definitely try to rewire the tonearm as this will make a big difference. It'll be a labour of love

The Sony you have is luckily one of the simpler ones before they went crazy with "Bio" sensers etc... so much easier to work on. The arm could be removed in fact but I would personally go for a restoration job rather than butchering a classic vintage deck like this.

In terms of DD performance though a modern Technics SL1200 with a Rega arm will best most of these older vintage decks and be much less of a headache in servicing terms.
In the end I am hoping to score an sp-10mkll and have it custom mounted in a birch ply plinth that way the skys the limit on a tone arm. Funny I have a biotracer as well the sp-x500 and it is a very good table in its own right. these tables sold for around $350 in 79 so in todays dollars they would be in the $1500 range. The arms tend to be the weakest part but this arm is not to bad at all.
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post #4 of 12
5/21/08 at 11:27am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jp11801 View Post
In the end I am hoping to score an sp-10mkll and have it custom mounted in a birch ply plinth that way the skys the limit on a tone arm. Funny I have a biotracer as well the sp-x500 .
Yes I also dream of owning a restored SP10II one day but at the moment have no more space left for turntables.
I had a PS-X600 which was lovely but now I only have the PS-FL77 because it can be discreetly stacked and sounds good enough for headphone use. All the auto functions are brilliant too compared to purist audiophile decks, no getting up to take off the record for fear of damaging a pricey MC cart

Their '80s Heli portable decks are very good for the size too and very handy. I'm still looking for a perfect example of a PS-Q7 with built in headphone amp Sony #88: FH-7, Heli

Did your PS-X7 come with the original silicone fuid damped mat, surely one of Sony's best vinyl innovations...
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post #5 of 12
5/22/08 at 12:19am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by memepool View Post
Yes I also dream of owning a restored SP10II one day but at the moment have no more space left for turntables.
I had a PS-X600 which was lovely but now I only have the PS-FL77 because it can be discreetly stacked and sounds good enough for headphone use. All the auto functions are brilliant too compared to purist audiophile decks, no getting up to take off the record for fear of damaging a pricey MC cart

Their '80s Heli portable decks are very good for the size too and very handy. I'm still looking for a perfect example of a PS-Q7 with built in headphone amp Sony #88: FH-7, Heli

Did your PS-X7 come with the original silicone fuid damped mat, surely one of Sony's best vinyl innovations...
that sony rocks and would make a cool desktop source!!

Yes it has the silicone fluid mat and is in pretty good shape. Overall I love this table and think it is a decent source that I would stack up with $1k decks out there today. I like it's sound more than I liked the scout which I felt was dark sounding.
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post #6 of 12
2/28/09 at 5:03am
Well now if this doesn't strike the nostalgia button, nothing will!

This very turntable was what got me into audio. One of my earliest memories is my dad teaching me how to cue up a record, namely Conway Twitty's Merry Twismas, on this very turntable. I couldn't have been older than 4 or 5 at the time. Once I learned how to operate this thing it was on like donkey kong.

::reminiscing off - questions on::

Ok so question. After being home this past Xmas I spied this same turntable sitting storage. It hasn't been touched in 10 years and before that it was used twice a year at best. It probably has not seen regular use since pre 1987. In the meantime I have amassed a small vinyl collection (about 40 titles) without owning a turntable. Much to the amusement of my wife and friends might I add. I've been holding out for that day when I could get something in the $3K price range and would have a collection of material to play on it.

By using an older 1970's era turntable, am I risking screwing up my records? I suppose my thinking is there has to have been advancements in turntables. Or it is quite possible that I am just being paranoid as hell and I should just listen to the thing.
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post #7 of 12
2/28/09 at 12:07pm
There have been few if any advancements in turntables because most people consider it defunct technology.
With a couple of exceptions like the Laser Turntable, most decks being made today, at least in the price-range you are talking about are based on simple beltdrive designs which havn't progressed much since the 1970s. Companies which continued working on turntables after the advent of CD, were small specialist engineering outfits like SME and there was a watershed in tonearm design in the mid '80s, but the decks themselves are some of the simplest designs possible.
The top of the line Japanese decks like that Sony were technological tours de force which were frighteningly expensive back in the day, two or three times the price of a Michell or Linn which you'd pay 3K (and then some ) for today.
This is the source main potential problem you might encounter now, because they were based on 70s ICs which are no longer made, if there is anything seriously wrong with the deck it's unlikely to be fixable.
It might be advisable to replace the oil in the spindle which could have seized up after so many years of inactivity. Vinylengine.com will have a manual. Fire it up and leave it running for a few days to make sure the speed is stable and blow out the cobwebs.
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post #8 of 12
2/28/09 at 7:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by memepool View Post
There have been few if any advancements in turntables because most people consider it defunct technology.
With a couple of exceptions like the Laser Turntable, most decks being made today, at least in the price-range you are talking about are based on simple beltdrive designs which havn't progressed much since the 1970s. Companies which continued working on turntables after the advent of CD, were small specialist engineering outfits like SME and there was a watershed in tonearm design in the mid '80s, but the decks themselves are some of the simplest designs possible.
The top of the line Japanese decks like that Sony were technological tours de force which were frighteningly expensive back in the day, two or three times the price of a Michell or Linn which you'd pay 3K (and then some ) for today.
This is the source main potential problem you might encounter now, because they were based on 70s ICs which are no longer made, if there is anything seriously wrong with the deck it's unlikely to be fixable.
It might be advisable to replace the oil in the spindle which could have seized up after so many years of inactivity. Vinylengine.com will have a manual. Fire it up and leave it running for a few days to make sure the speed is stable and blow out the cobwebs.
Interesting. Luckily I have all of the original paperwork, including the paper protractor. I suppose I am most concerns with the arm tracking all funny and wearing one side of the grove more than the other and totally screwing up my records. I suppose I should play the darn thing and stop worrying about it.
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post #9 of 12
4/17/09 at 7:05am

Greetings

First post, trying to navigate board.

Know 30day/50post rule to sell, willing to prove myself so here goes.

Worked in consumer electronics for 24 years, at one time had over 3500 LPs.

Found my last TT in the attic, found this board looking for its value.

Sony PSX 600. I forgot that I had stashed away three headshells, might make someone real happy.

Please link me to a beginner's board, and I'll "Shure" do my best to contribute. Thanks
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post #10 of 12
4/17/09 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sayjaybay3 View Post
Sony PSX 600. I forgot that I had stashed away three headshells, might make someone real happy.
Nice. See here
Sony PS-X600 & PS-X500 on TVK

and here

HI-FI WORLD - OLDE WORLDE - SONY BIOTRACER PS-X600 TURNTABLE

I sold mine for about UKP80 a few years back. They don't keep their value so well as there is just too much that can potentially go wrong. You'll probably make a decent amount selling the headshells separately on ebay though.
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post #11 of 12
1/24/12 at 3:12pm

I actually have two PS-X7's.  One is equipped with a standard (non amplified cartridge) and the other with an Ortofon (sorry I don't remember the #'s) cartridge with an Ortofon Preamp. Either of these will play phenomenal sound from mastered records.  In fact I would be willing to put the PS-X7 with the Ortofon cartridge and Preamp against any Rotel on the market.  Using like for like system setups, I would defy anyone to tell the difference between the two in a double blind test.  In fact I believe the tonal quality of the PS-X7 may even garner more votes than the Rotel from a purist listening standpoint.  

 

So, in answer to your question, if you make certain that the vintage player is set up properly and has a decent cartridge, you have no worries whatsoever in playing the finest mastered vinyl one can buy.  (BUT... and this is a BIG BUT... you must make certain that the vintage player is in fact set up PROPERLY! and that the cartridge is and needle are up to the task!

 

PapaJohn, Ph.D.

(Please note, my degree is in Finance... NOT Electronics or Sound Engineering so my opinions should not be given any more weight than any other long term audiophile)!    

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post #12 of 12
1/24/12 at 3:55pm

I forgot to mention that the Rotel to which I referred in my last post was actuallt the Transrotor Argos... not Rotel. My apologies. The Transrotor sells for $250k. You can find it here... http://danielstout.com/2009/03/the-new-top-end-of-turntables-the-250000-transrotor-argos/ .  Sorry for the confusion, my memory isn't what it use to be...LOL   

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