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.
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.