I LOVE the Sony ES-Series...
|
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."
|
 |
I am looking for a Sony
TA-F505ESD, if you want to sell one please let me know. Thank you!
|
 |
 |
A stunning line-up
|
 |
The ES-series has always been a superior ('ES' stands for 'Elevated
Standards') family of Sony components, not as zany as the ESPRIT series
but all made with great care
|
 |
I own several ES-series components, namely a 630ESD amp, a X222ES CD
player, an S505ES FM tuner, a 59ES DAT deck.... they all show extremely
good qualities, they sound well, have a nice interface, are very well
built and even better designed (like one expects for any of Sony's best
components) and today they can be bought for good prices
|
|
 |
The 630ESD is a strange machine, a powerful and very well built
classic integrated amplifier with an added D/A converter to hook digital
sources to it (bottom pic). It's a great amplifier, too bad that some
welding problems make the converter less reliable than it ought to be....
|
 |
Later Sony MD-players, like this MDS-JE780, allowed its user to name
each individual track on the MD punching the data directly on a common
QWERTY Keyboard. Very handy, especially when combined with the almost
endless possibility of editing and rearranging the tracks offered by the
MD itself
|
 |
Sony DA50ES
|
 |
 |
 |
Heavy (it weighs nearly 15 kgs), strong, well-built and with a practically
unparalleled flexibility, the DA50ES is the perfect super-amplifier for
both worlds, analogic and digital (though it works better in all-analogic
mode, both inputs and outputs). You can forget the 'video' thing and enjoy
an extraordinary piece of machinery where you can hook all your equipment,
DAT, MD, CD, cassettes, Reel-to-reel, turntables, tuners, whatever; and
you can find it at very convenient prices nowadays. I paid mine 150 Euros (admittedly, w/o
remote control) and this must rank as one of my best buys ever
(the DA50ES pics were taken from the
excellent site
audiocostruzioni.com)
|
Sony ES on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/fxPfXQZ0J3Y
|
https://youtu.be/H5zSvSNWcCU
|