ozcal Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Some time ago I picked up as Sony TA777ES AV amp.The amp came with a Bose acoustimass 10 system which I sold on for $500 so effectively the amp cost me nothing. The amp is a beast @ 23.5 kg but as it turned out it has the common digital board problem and consequently the rear chn's have no output when using a digital feed. Alan R very kindly had a look at the digital board but despite all his work it was not repairable. HOWEVER;) the amp still works on all the front chn's in digital mode and works perfectly as an analogue 5.1 amp. The dacs in the beasty are BB1704'S and feeding a 2ch digital signal from my media tank results in quite amazing sound quality. I have my Denon 2900 connected to the analogue 5.1 inputs for SACD and DVD-A and so all bases are pretty much covered for music replay. A big thanks to Alan for all his work , he checked and reset the bias on all the power amps as well as tackling the digital board. The Sony blows my previous Denon 3600 Avr out of the water for sound quality and so I am a rather happy chappy. [ATTACH=CONFIG]32380[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]32381[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]32382[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Some of those older AVRs are terrific value for money, nice one. I notice you have the Gales pretty heavily toed in- have you done much experimenting with that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Telecine Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 The Sony ES series gear has always been of high quality. I am running a Sony ES series receiver myself. Glad to hear that you are enjoying it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith_W Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yes Ozcal I agree - Sony used to make great stuff. The 777ES SACD player was my first exposure to Sony high end esoterica (but regrettably I didn't own it) - better built than a battleship. I was hoping that they would release some nice things when they launched Blu-Ray, but the BDP-1 was nothing compared to Sony's previous efforts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aslan Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yes, and I've got an old silver STR-DB1070 AVR that still does sterling duties in my surround sound. Big, heavy and reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) Some of those older AVRs are terrific value for money, nice one. I notice you have the Gales pretty heavily toed in- have you done much experimenting with that? Hi Bear , just rejigged the Gales again the other day.Had them less toed in for a long while but this position seems to give the best balance of stage width , focus and most importantly tunefullnes ( coherancy). The Gales are imho very sensitive to positioning , they will always sound pretty good but once you hit on the right position the speakers just disapear and you are rewarded with an almost holigraphic sound presentation. Gale recommeded corner positioning for the speakers with the axies crossing just in front of your listening position but this doesn't work in my room as the sound is to diffuse and lacks bite Edited May 22, 2011 by ozcal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) Yes Ozcal I agree - Sony used to make great stuff. The 777ES SACD player was my first exposure to Sony high end esoterica (but regrettably I didn't own it) - better built than a battleship. I was hoping that they would release some nice things when they launched Blu-Ray, but the BDP-1 was nothing compared to Sony's previous efforts. Keith I well remember all the early Sony ES cd players. I was also lucky enough to hear a range of the Sony Esprit range of pre and power amps and the build quality made the ES stuff look humble. Edited May 22, 2011 by ozcal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard260 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Yes some of that es series stuff is very good. Do they still make anything of that quality anymore. I still have my sony 508 es cd player i bought decades ago Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 (edited) The Esprit power amp :[ATTACH=CONFIG]32383[/ATTACH] Edited May 22, 2011 by ozcal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 22, 2011 Author Share Posted May 22, 2011 And the cheaper of the 2 preamps :[ATTACH=CONFIG]32384[/ATTACH] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith_W Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Well there are two types of Japanese high end. The first type are the engineering driven companies - like Sony, Accuphase, Esoteric, Rotel, and Pioneer. For sure they make a lot of mass market rubbish but when they want to they can make some unbelievably nice stuff. The second type are the cottage industry high enders - Kondo Audio Note, 47 Labs, Zanden, Wavac, Yamamoto, and Leben. The two halves of Jap hi-fi are surprising in different ways Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
proftournesol Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Well there are two types of Japanese high end. The first type are the engineering driven companies - like Sony, Accuphase, Esoteric, Rotel, and Pioneer. For sure they make a lot of mass market rubbish but when they want to they can make some unbelievably nice stuff. The second type are the cottage industry high enders - Kondo Audio Note, 47 Labs, Zanden, Wavac, Yamamoto, and Leben. The two halves of Jap hi-fi are surprising in different ways Keith you forgot to add Luxman to the first group! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Hensa Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Bit of a closet Sony fan, myself. Here's my PS-8750 - cracking turntable! [ATTACH=CONFIG]32386[/ATTACH] System's looking great, Ozcal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bomber Rock Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 Hi ozcal, Bit off topic, but... i see you have your TV sitting on top of a separate shelf with a component underneath. Is this shelf something you made yourself or did you buy? This would be perfect for me to place my center speaker in. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly0071 Posted May 22, 2011 Share Posted May 22, 2011 I understand that Sony still sells high end speakers to the general public. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 23, 2011 Author Share Posted May 23, 2011 (edited) Hi ozcal,Bit off topic, but... i see you have your TV sitting on top of a separate shelf with a component underneath. Is this shelf something you made yourself or did you buy? This would be perfect for me to place my center speaker in. Cheers, I found the 'hutch' during a verge clearance, BR Contact Aslan ( above ) as I am sure Andrew will be able to build something to suit from his new range of equipment supports Edited May 24, 2011 by ozcal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozcal Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Bit of a closet Sony fan, myself. Here's my PS-8750 - cracking turntable![ATTACH=CONFIG]32386[/ATTACH] System's looking great, Ozcal. Thnaks Hensa. The room always looks narrower in photos than it is in life. It's a comfortable room that really contains 2 systems : one for sitting down to and one for casual listening. The addition of the VA777ES has raised the sound of the casual listening side to a much higher level. Your turntable looks very nice indeed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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