I mentioned earlier a couple of Sony cassette decks, Sony TC-RX80ES and Sony TC-K333ES that I own.

I found  an original printed manual of the era that I have to scan from:-

Still occasionally enjoying cassettes, some already recorded metal and a bunch of TDK chrome, some still unused.

Don't know the first one, late 80s ?

But have seen the second, not bad, does yours have the wooden side cheeks ?

Apr 12, 2021 10:49:22 GMT 12 michaelw said:

Don't know the first one, late 80s ?

But have seen the second, not bad, does yours have the wooden side cheeks ?

Sony TC-RX80ES was 88-89 according to hifiengine

www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/tc-rx80es.shtml

But I think I bought it along with the CDP-308ESD from the Queen St Sony Shop closing down sale in 89-90. 91? ... looking for receipt.

At that time, I'd been reading What HiFi & the like, sources important, I had a job, put them on HP.

I only had some AWA Murphy slider controls amp at the time... and big old Richard Allan speakers. Later still at that time came a Kef 104AB pair.

A little later, after trying a couple of Sony receivers from Bond&Bond (incorporating Electric City!) I find I swapped back the trial (these were the days when with a credit card you could trial at home and still swap out) a STR-D1090 receiver - even though the remote control was great, the DSP effects wore off real fast, in days, and even in 2-channel stereo everything seemed flat & 2-dimensional (again, influenced by reading UK hifi mags at the time) - for a straight stereo amplifier, Sony TA-F540E, and a separate tuner, ST-S570ES.

Much better!

(It was a few years later that I bought the TA-AV670, 'half-price' at ~ $1299 from the retail $2499 from another St Lukes Sony Shop closing down.)

The TA-F540E amp was $900 and the ST-S570ES tuner $539 in March '93, according to that receipt!

I'm pretty sure I paid about $500 each for the TC-RX80ES and the CDP-308ESD, I should have the receipt somewhere ... in the paper file cabinet.

OK, I sense most of the above could be in a separate post about my system, but just as conversational background;- I'll update that later there, then.

As for the Sony TC-K333ES, I bought it from TM much, decades, later, parked it. I'd bought a couple of duds, no answer from the seller.

That not so bad. No, no wooden side cheeks, but around the same time I couldn't resist a second TA-AV670 on TM for about $100, albeit with faults, and come to think of it maybe I transferred the original new ones from the first purchase to it while it's on the shelf to be re-inspected, because everything else in the rack doesn't have them either...

But I know now how they work, and I could cut my own exotic wood side cheeks if I had a mind to ... ;=}) 

And if / when I build my valve amplifier, I'll keep wood in mind! ;-)

I think the TC-RX80ES was quite a clever deck though, with its easy bias and calibration system, and also the convenience of auto-reverse - the heads flipped 180 degrees.

Early on, I felt quite picky, was the B side sound slightly different from the A side? Asked a good Sony tech tech to check, he may have made a tiny adjustment, it sounded the same after that, but he commented that he'd thought it was quite a good deck. Anyway, it's still in the rack for the rare occasions that I revert to cassettes.

Easiest to explain the bias adjustments by scanning a couple of pages from the manual. Open in a new tab for the full size.

Pretty good for a two-head deck I thought.

Sony TC-RX80ES manual p.16.gif

Sony TC-RX80ES manual p.17.gif

But when I did briefly check out the TC-K333ES, I did think it had potential to sound better.

It's all in abeyance at the moment!

Thanks for your interest! ;=})

I bought a Sony cdp - in the early 90s? before I moved on to Arcam cdps. It wasn't an ES but was a model number like 990? It had great build quality and digital glass fascia. Wish I'd kept it.

Apr 14, 2021 22:57:22 GMT 12 RdM said:

Apr 12, 2021 10:49:22 GMT 12 michaelw said:

Early on, I felt quite picky, was the B side sound slightly different from the A side? Asked a good Sony tech tech to check, he may have made a tiny adjustment, it sounded the same after that, but he commented that he'd thought it was quite a good deck. Anyway, it's still in the rack for the rare occasions that I revert to cassettes.

Entirely possible !

Due to the vagaries of cassette production Nakamichi recommended setting azimuth, bias, eq for each side.

Going by the indicators on my ZX7 there can be noticeable differences on each side, even with name brands.

Later the fancier cassettes used alloy frames, ceramic shells and tape guides etc. in an attempt to equalise performance in each direction.

Apr 15, 2021 10:17:49 GMT 12 rmc001 said:

I bought a Sony cdp - in the early 90s? before I moved on to Arcam cdps. It wasn't an ES but was a model number like 990? It had great build quality and digital glass fascia. Wish I'd kept it.

There is a CDP-990 (from 1990-91) here:

www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/cdp-990.shtml

There's also a CDP-991 (1991-92) (funny that;- as though they named some at least from year of introduction?) with a colour pic and some glowing reviews.

That's in my NZ 1993 printed catalogue so maybe they took a year or so to filter down here...

www.hifiengine.com/manual_library/sony/cdp-991.shtml

The first review mentions "ES type like"  and details some upgrades.

There's some great details there. No wonder it says, "Thank you, thrift store God's". 😊 And the dac was only 2-off the top-of-line one..