FS: Sony TA-F333ESL Integrated Amp, Minty!

billbillw

EDIT: SOLD TO Derek Murray. Enjoy this beauty man!

Well,
Here it is. I'm selling my beautiful, rare Sony ES integrated. I finally scored the equivalent Sony E80ES preamp so I'm going full effect into separates so that my Mirage can get the power they really need. I'd love to keep this amp around for the future, but I can't have any more systems (3 in the house, 1 in the garage now) and its just too nice to keep boxed up in the attic. I hope someone will love it as much as I have.

See pictures of the Integrated in this thread post:
http://www.polkaudio.com/forums/showpost.php?p=507624&postcount=215

The integrated amp is extremely clean, no flaws that I can see, and its been adjusted (bias/offset) to factory spec, all the pots/switches have been cleaned with deoxit and the as you can see, its very clean, inside and out. I have the orignal owners manual, the original remote control, and an electronic copy of the service manual that I will include on CD.

This amp is nearly identical to the TA-F707ES/TA-F770ES, but its a worldwide voltage version (120/220/240).

Fans of the Vintage Knob website will be familiar with this amp.
http://www.thevintageknob.org/SONY/sonyes/TAF707808ES/TAF707808ES.html

Its highly biased to class A, (probably the first 15-20 watts) so it does make significant heat. Don't plan on putting this in a closed cabinet unless you add a fan. It makes a clean 100 watts/channel into 8 ohms (140 watts into 4 ohms) with that lovely mosfet sound. Mate this amp to any moderatly efficient speaker (90dB or better) and you will find it makes beautiful sounds. This sounded fabulous with my Monitor 5A. It sounded great with the Mirage, but you could tell the speakers were wanting a little more umph.

Its was Sony's best effort in the late 80's/early 90's quality wars. I'm not sure of the original price, but I'm sure it was in excess of $1000. It has a great phono stage too with MC loading adjustments.

This amp is extremely rare in the US. I've never seen another one (333 version) for sale. The 770/707 version is also quite rare.

I think its probably worth at least $300, so that's what I'm going to ask here.
(EDIT: I checked Orion's BlueBook value on this. Take it with a grain of salt, but they say its worth $450 in Best and $400 in Better condition, so maybe I'm pricing it too low)
I will ship double boxed, actual FedEx Ground cost.

If no interest in a few days, I'll go to Ebay.

billbillw

I can email the service manual to anyone who is interested so that you can see the specs and/or the scats. It really is one of the most impressivly built integrated amps I've ever seen.

derek_murray

I may think I might want this. I am located in georgia as well. Do you think I might be to come over and audition this amp?

Derek Murray

billbillw

derek_murray wrote:

I may think I might want this. I am located in georgia as well. Do you think I might be to come over and audition this amp?

Derek Murray

I'm sure we could work something out. PM me your phone and we can talk about it.

Edit: For others who may be interested, this does not constitute firm Dibs for Derek.

billbillw

Ok,
Derek has dibs and a pending sale.

billbillw

Unless I hear from Derek in the next day or two, I'm going to consider him to be no longer interested.

Any other takers?

This amp really is solid and clean. Took her out of the rack last night, all 48lbs of her. Quick wipe with a soft cloth and I must say, it really looks like it could be a museum piece. I found two very tiny dings/nicks, both the size of a pin point. Otherwise, perfect. Checked the DC offset to make sure it hasn't drifted since last spring, it was still spot on, <0.5mv on each channel. Not sure if I mentioned before, but I went through this amp, top to bottom when I got it last spring. Cleaned every switch/pot with deoxit, cleaned all the terminals, adjusted bias and offset to factory spec. BTW, bias is spec'd in the service manual at a whopping 35mv. If you know what that means, then you know how good this amp sounds.

billbillw

Ok, This is finally sold, to Derek. Thanks bro! It was nice to meet you. Enjoy the amp, but don't judge it in the first 10 minutes. This is definetly a piece that sounds noticably better after warming up. Shoot me your email and I'll send the Service Manual like we talked about.