Stefano Pasini

 


I LOVE the Sony ES-Series...
 

 

(Written by Stan Wyman in the Audioreview Forum, July 15, 2001,
about the Sony TA N55ES power amp)

"...There are a LOT of myths that are running rampant in audio land. The first great myth is that you have to take out a second mortgage in order to buy an amp that'll be satisfactory to your needs. The next great myth is that large companies like Sony, who have multi-million dollar R&D budgets and top engineers, cannot compete with people who make their amps in their garage and sell them for $30,000.
The fact is Sony, and particularly the ES line, are the "Best" value components in the world!! As I said above, they devote millions to the development of their products and hire the best and the brightest. In addition, they've achieved great economies of scale that allow for them to produce products "Very" reasonably and pass that savings onto their customers. Consequently, when you buy a Sony ES product, you're getting a well made and excellent sounding product that is superior to everything in its price class and better than many costing 2-6X more!
I have bought Sony ES products for years and the TA-55 happens to be the latest purchase of mine. Anyhow, I'm extremly impressed with this giant killer. As I said in my strength listing above, it has a taut bass that is second to none. The bass that this amp creates will satisfy all those who listen to chamber music or rock music. Next, it has great dynamics. It makes the music really come to life. In addition, the sound is not fatiguing at all unlike most power amps. I could listen to this amp for hours without any ear problems. There are many other things I enjoy about this amp but the one characteristic that stands out most in my mind is the quickness of this amp. It seems like so many amps simply aren't quick enough to keep up with piano and other sounds but this amp has NOOO problem with that as sounds just flow out effortlessly!
This is, in my opinion, the best value power amp on the market and I've auditioned nearly every one under 1k. As usual, Sony produces a giant killer!"

--------------
Personally, I think that very few audio enthusiasts (and journalists) have ever understood the extraordinary overall quality of the best Sony products as well as mr. Wyman. Stuff like the PS-X9, the La Voce and SS-GR1 speakers, the 'ES'-series and the Esprit electronics....! They are 'Halo' equipment, where the Japan Moloch invested its enormous knowledge and financial power to redeem the profitable but not pleasant 'low-end' image of its cheaper products. The PS-X9, for example, is way above the level of any Technics or Denon real or alleged professional deck and it is even better than the splendid AEG/Telefunken studio turntables: it is a worthy challenger of the best direct-drive EMT broadcast machines.  
Today's snobbish (and always fashion-obsessed, but often sadly uncultured) 'audiophiles' invariably look down at any equipment carrying the 'Sony' badge with open disdain. They seem happy to take a second mortgage to buy some obscure junk, not understanding that many of these Sony machines, often directly inspired by the better European products and sometimes even manufactured in the Old World, are objects of great beauty, superb sound, and, very often, extremely convenient price. Thanks Stan!
 


From the excellent TheVintageKnob site:

"The first ES series became an instant hit: while Matsushita still had five tubed components, ditto Sansui, Kenwood a quartet of unrelated units and Pioneer still was an industry minor, Sony was selling its STR-6060, TA-1120, TA-3120A and TTS-3000 by the thousands and thousands - worldwide.
The second ES series, although never named as such, followed on that success : TA-1130, ST-5150, TC-755, SQD-2020, PS-2250, TTS-4000 etc all sold like hotcakes throughout the world.
The third ES series was known in Japan and somewhat in Germany as "ESII"
The name itself mainly pointed to a design difference but also makes a clear marker of when hi-fi truly became a market-for-the-masses : 1973/74.
This is when Yamaha launched its real NS series, when Kenwood came with the Supreme and the ATC Series and when all others augmented lineups to have them as plethoric as Sony had them since 1970.
Sony again sold oooooodles of components from the ESII lineups (TA-5650, ST-5950, PS-4750 etc) and managed to produce several all-time bests such as the TC-880-2 or SS-8150.
After that, 1976/77, the hi-fi market is running full-speed and a sort of quality segmentation appears.
The late ESII gives way to its gems (TA-F6B, TA-N7B, ST-A7B etc), sided by an unbelievably successful push toward "higher-end" (TA-E88B, TA-N86B etc - the pre-Esprit) and lineups getting really plethoric and often market-targeted.
From this stam the ESPRIT series, which took some of the mousse off the ES series.
ES, as a coherent set of components, got relegated to bit player while new technologies, smaller enclosures, new manufacturing technologies and the multiplication of flashy features made the news.
Paradoxically, this is when the second "official" ES logo appeared : 1979. It was however put on a component, the TC-K88B, directly descending from the pre-Esprit and accompanied by another logo, ESPRIT, something which that component wasn't either !
October 1982 is the rebirth of ES and the birth of it for us westerners : dedicated lineup, dedicated catalogs and the ES logo clearly, plainly, simply, silkscreened on the front plates. It took seventeen years but "ES" was at last palpable, visible and materialized !
This ES series, the fourth, sold extremely well as well, helped by the little sales boom which followed the introduction of CD (TA-F555ES, PS-X555ES, TC-K777ES, CDP-501ES etc) even if Sony managed to insert some incoherences in design and technologies.
The fifth ES series came to in 1986 and, again, sold like french croissants on a sunday morning. Worldwide, again : TA-F800ES, TC-K700ES, CDP-555ESD etc.
The sixth ES series is the one everybody remembers clearly : it holds the stream of X7 and X5 CD players, the flurry of F555ES amplifiers, the TA-E1000ESD or the well-remembered DAT recorders, all outselling all other brands until 1994.
With the seventh ES series, 1994, "series" became a somewhat overstated definition. Lineups were downsized to half a dozen units in all : high-fidelity sales had started to dwindle due to the bursting of the financial "bubble", upcoming home-theater on one side and the "QS" series Sony deemed interesting to flank ES with on the other. ES again was relegated to bit player."
 


http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-ES.html
 
https://www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony.shtml
 
 


 

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