Any excellent repairers for Sony TA 770ES 2 ch amp? In UK.

[GoldSubmariner]

Sadly my trusty beloved Sony TA 770ES after 28 years just lost the right channel?

Are they fixable?
Can people get the parts? ( equivalent substitutes I guess )

Honestly is it worth repairing? Or is it time to move on?

I assume your normal Sony Repair Centre is not the right place for this, as Sony have sacked all the ES clever folks?

Someone said this was one the last of the good Sony Audio era Amps, was it ? Or had it all gone cheap as chips by then ... it does weigh 20Kgs. LOL

Maybe not the reason, but I did put a Y Splitter on the SUB OUT of the Sony STR DA7100ES AV Reciever.
This has an output of 150mV 1kohms.

And it was connected to the AUX In on the TA770ES which has an input sensitivity of 150mV 20kohms.

I did check with Sony Technical and they said it would not harm either.
It was basically used to power 2 channels in Stereo with a 10” 4 Ohm sub on each.
They gave me the calculation (as to be honest by then, I was sceptical as most of the clever Sony ES engineers had be sacked ) might have it somewhere.
And it did run like this playing 2 or 3 movies and say 2 hours of CD s per week for 6 years.
So maybe the death of the right channel is nothing to do with this.

I never could understand this input and output sensitivity thing. And yes I know it is VIP.

Any recommendations for really clued up repairers etc appreciated.

Also I realise it aint a Bryston so maybe BER!

If it could be fixed properly for say £200 I could live with that.
Regards
Peter

 

[TLS Guy]

Sadly my trusty beloved Sony TA 770ES after 28 years just lost the right channel?

Are they fixable?
Can people get the parts? ( equivalent substitutes I guess )

Honestly is it worth repairing? Or is it time to move on?

I assume your normal Sony Repair Centre is not the right place for this, as Sony have sacked all the ES clever folks?

Someone said this was one the last of the good Sony Audio era Amps, was it ? Or had it all gone cheap as chips by then ... it does weigh 20Kgs. LOL

Maybe not the reason, but I did put a Y Splitter on the SUB OUT of the Sony STR DA7100ES AV Reciever.
This has an output of 150mV 1kohms.



And it was connected to the AUX In on the TA770ES which has an input sensitivity of 150mV 20kohms.

I did check with Sony Technical and they said it would not harm either.
It was basically used to power 2 channels in Stereo with a 10” 4 Ohm sub on each.
They gave me the calculation (as to be honest by then, I was sceptical as most of the clever Sony ES engineers had be sacked ) might have it somewhere.
And it did run like this playing 2 or 3 movies and say 2 hours of CD s per week for 6 years.
So maybe the death of the right channel is nothing to do with this.

I never could understand this input and output sensitivity thing. And yes I know it is VIP.

Any recommendations for really clued up repairers etc appreciated.

Also I realise it aint a Bryston so maybe BER!

If it could be fixed properly for say £200 I could live with that.
Regards
Peter

I personally know Geoff Kremer who owns Servicesound at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. I know him personally, and can vouch for him. I have visited him there several times. He will be able to tell you if it is repairable or not. Gear in the pre chip era is much easier to get up and running. That unit is new enough that it is likely there may be NLA IC issues.

 

[MrBoat]

And don't forget to check the obvious such as fuses that may be inside the unit.

 

[GoldSubmariner]

I personally know Geoff Kremer who owns Servicesound at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. I know him personally, and can vouch for him. I have visited him there several times. He will be able to tell you if it is repairable or not. Gear in the pre chip era is much easier to get up and running. That unit is new enough that it is likely there may be NLA IC issues.

Thanks I will try him.
Whats NLA?
I too heard that stuff pre 1988 was easier to-mend.
As it was their Flagship then, I just hoped the older tech. Was used.

Regards Peter

 

[GoldSubmariner]

And don't forget to check the obvious such as fuses that may be inside the unit.

Thanks, I was so upset (purely as this was the first bit of decent Audio gear I ever had) I had forgotten about internal fuses.

Especially because of my concerns using the Y splitter.
Regards
Peter.

 

[GoldSubmariner]

I personally know Geoff Kremer who owns Servicesound at Bexhill-on-Sea in East Sussex. I know him personally, and can vouch for him. I have visited him there several times. He will be able to tell you if it is repairable or not. Gear in the pre chip era is much easier to get up and running. That unit is new enough that it is likely there may be NLA IC issues.

I tried Geoff, lovely chap sadly mine is the dreaded modern IC type amp and he doesnt work on them .
Ref my earlier question NLA .. no longer available. Lol
So the search is still on.

 

[highfigh]

Sadly my trusty beloved Sony TA 770ES after 28 years just lost the right channel?

Are they fixable?
Can people get the parts? ( equivalent substitutes I guess )

Honestly is it worth repairing? Or is it time to move on?

I assume your normal Sony Repair Centre is not the right place for this, as Sony have sacked all the ES clever folks?

Someone said this was one the last of the good Sony Audio era Amps, was it ? Or had it all gone cheap as chips by then ... it does weigh 20Kgs. LOL

Maybe not the reason, but I did put a Y Splitter on the SUB OUT of the Sony STR DA7100ES AV Reciever.
This has an output of 150mV 1kohms.

And it was connected to the AUX In on the TA770ES which has an input sensitivity of 150mV 20kohms.

I did check with Sony Technical and they said it would not harm either.
It was basically used to power 2 channels in Stereo with a 10” 4 Ohm sub on each.
They gave me the calculation (as to be honest by then, I was sceptical as most of the clever Sony ES engineers had be sacked ) might have it somewhere.
And it did run like this playing 2 or 3 movies and say 2 hours of CD s per week for 6 years.
So maybe the death of the right channel is nothing to do with this.

I never could understand this input and output sensitivity thing. And yes I know it is VIP.

Any recommendations for really clued up repairers etc appreciated.

Also I realise it aint a Bryston so maybe BER!

If it could be fixed properly for say £200 I could live with that.
Regards
Peter

Some of the Sony (and others) integrated amplifiers have corrosion problems in the speaker relays, including my TA-F500ES. Some of these can be cleaned but you (or someone else) will need to open the unit and look at the relays for some indication that it's possible to open its plastic shell. Once the amplifier's cover is off, you could turn it on and tap on the relays with the plastic butt end of a screwdriver, to find out if the sound returns. If it does, it should be easy enough to fix.

 

[M Code]

A major concern when working on old vintage audio components are the availability of parts..
Older tube components are more straight-forward to work on.. However for solid state products the opposite is true, many unique internal components & ICs are no longer available...

Just my $0.02...

 

[TLS Guy]

A major concern when working on old vintage audio components are the availability of parts..
Older tube components are more straight-forward to work on.. However for solid state products the opposite is true, many unique internal components & ICs are no longer available...

Just my $0.02...

Yes, and in times past I used to do service work for friends and colleagues. I quickly learned to not take on anything Sony. The circuits were unnecessarily complex. That is a fault of Far Eastern electronics in general. Elegance of design does not generally come from that quarter. However the Sony gear was just thrown together as a rule.

I can well understand why my friend wants to steer clear of it.

But yes, ICs only have one production run as a rule and when they are done they are done, and that's it.