New Sony HX500 turntable looks nice. How have Sony tables been historically?

To promote a turntable that likely wasn't really intended for real vinyl lovers.

 

The Sony PS-X800, which came out in 1981 just before the CD format was launched, was extremely highly regarded. It was the reference turntable of the german AUDIO magazine back then.

http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-PS-X800.html


Of course today, a "high-tech" turntable with a tangential arm is considered totally uncool in audiophile circles, because vinyl is associated with vintage design.

 

Although the girl in the video 'couldn't wait' til it was released. As if there weren't already 100s of turntables currently available!

 

That table looks like it is actually intended for real vinyl lovers to me. Tonearm looks serious and sexy. No Crosley or low end Hanpin junk here. DSD sound? Who could that possibly be aimed at other than audiophiles. The promo video is pretty embarrassing, but the product itself looks very nice from here.

 

Exactly! watching this video I have a feeling, that it mostly targeting a certain demographics - 20+ years old. A huge selling point - "compatible with several different MOBILE DEVICES" (!) Really?! Who gives a **** about that when buying a turntable? Besides, it will be "made in China" most likely - for sure a turn off for me.

 

Wow, the platter is metal! That's because so many people use plastic platters? The REST of it is plastic. And that platter design sucks. After you've worked with Lencos with that low-profile platter, you soon figure out the world of difficulty that kind of design brings. The only selling point of this table is that it makes Hirez files, but what is that? A chip somewhere? You can squeeze that technology into a tiny Firefly dac. Yeah, it's a new selling point, but the table itself looks like utter garbage. My favorite line in that video is "The arm is actually hollow and it's a cylinder to cut down on vibrations" Cutting edge!

 

It's not "just" for archiving. You can play your records too! What a novel concept. I can see this "record player" being quite popular with the hipster crowd who buy their occasional new record at Barns and Noble to display on their bookcase.

 

I picked up a c. 1980 or so PS-X50 a bit ago for 100 clams, now that's a nice unit. I seriously doubt this new one is even close to it, although I'm sure it's nicer than a Crosley or Ion.

 

I don't get all the hate. Looks like a decent $400-500 turntable to me. Probably better than the Hanpin clones and it will do DSD which I suppose will be worthwhile to someone (though I have no idea who).

 

I like the way the female talking head says this is a "vinyl record player"

Had to get that damn VINYL in there for the hipster crowd.

I guess it COULD have been designed as a shellac record player. Mood thing they made that distinction

 

Wow! I've lived in dry (harsh winter) places my whole life and owned maybe a dozen turntables with all kinds of tonearms and dust covers and I've never experienced that. And I generally don't 'lock' the tonearm to the table if possible, lest I'm moving the table itself.

In any case, it's not the kind of, er...feature I would clearly illustrate in an advert, that's for sure! What a strange video.

 

I am currently rocking a Sony PS-8750 which predates the biotracers but is supposedly a solid turntable. I doubt modern gear can really compete; just like the vinyl pressings of yore these guys don't seem to have much push for competition and better production in the consumer world.

I hope it sounds good though, the bottom line is we need less Crosleys out in the wild.

 

"Digital Ready" always killed me. In fact I remember it being placed on boxes of say Infinity speakers that had been on the market for 15 years, unchanged. Reminds me of the fairly recent Hi Def (HD) craze in marketing. It became such a buzzword that everyone jumped on board. There was 'shaving cream with HD closeness'. "These sunglasses have HD technology, and if you act now, we'll send you 10 more pair for just $9.99. You heard that right, HD Sunglasses, 11 pair for $9.99!"

 

Breaking news: as well, unlike the TechDAS Air Force One, several VPI's and Clearaudio's, TW Acustic Raven GT, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

 

Here's a sticker that Sony can put right next to the Hi-Res Audio sticker. This is a sticker from the Sony MDR-V6 headphones. Headphones "for DIGITAL". This is a turntable "for DIGITAL". When articles mention that Sony has an app for a turntable and spend more time talking about digital file formats than they do about what makes a turntable actually work then the turntable is just another bit of digital gear.

 

It's a sticker. Take it off.

 

Hey my HD sunglasses were a few hundred bucks.. (polarized prescription sport Nike frames.... Pretty much any prescription glasses make my life "HD". Very LOW DEF without them!)

 

Expensive TV's

 

Except I think it's gonna be a lot more than that. I'm seeing 400 UKP bandied about, which is closer to what now? $600? $800?

And I don't get the whole digital angle, at all. It makes WAV files? Or DSD files? WTF? Sounds like it has a built-in analog preamp, probably of very low-quality, which is dumb.

If they're gonna go digital, they should make a turntable with a digital preamp - that would be new, unique and potentially very useful to collectors, since it could support essentially an unlimited number of equalization curves.

At this price, they really need to go all-out, resurrect one of their classic linear tracking turntables from the '80s, and slap in a digital preamp and USB, TOSLINK and HDMI connectors. That would get them some positive attention. I'm sure they could bang those out in China for about $1,000, including a decent P-Mount cart. Hell, with a digital preamp the cart wouldn't even need a particularly flat frequency response - they could adjust for that in the preamp...

 

haha. Just saw a Monster "4k"! power bar.

 

Wow. Lots of hate. I hope it is a decent table, sells well and encourages new vinyl sales. I've seen worse looking tables.

 

It's pretty enough, I'll grant them that. But Sony always made the best-looking Japanese equipment in my opinion.

 

Is there actually a Sony design staff and factory or is everything made by out-sourced lowest cost jobbers?

 

That's what caught my interest. I'm curious about the design lineage, if any, at play here.

I don't have a need for a turntable with DSD recording and all that, but I think Sony has made a aesthetically pleasing device, at least to my eyes.