Not counting the big league ESPRIT preamplifiers, the TA-E77ESD was Sony's first preamp since the late 1970s' TA-E7B or TA-E88B. And there never was an ES preamplifier/amplifier combo in Japan, before the 77 combo... or after. The E77ESD is the companion to the TA-N77ES pôwerhouse.

Feeding everybody is a large toroidal transformer -seemingly the same as in the contemporary TA-N55ES and the european TA-N80ES- plus a small transformer for the logic circuits. Multiple windings feed separately the digital and analog sections, all separated by copper bus bars and a very clean main board. Naturally, the E77ESD rests on a G chassis.

The E77ESD was Sony's equivalent of Denon's DAP-5500 - better looking, though. Made to accept the sources which, then, were starting to offer digital outputs: CD, DAT, ED Beta and Laserdisc. But that wasn't much to justify a dedicated preamp, considering that DAT never made it and Sony's politics toward Laserdisc were -even then- rather discrete. Mostly, the evolution of digital chips was then still raging which could render the included d/a converters quickly "obsolete". However, unlike Denon's units, the TA-E77ESD sold extremely well worldwide !

Available as well, but quite discreetely and only in the north-American market as a TA-E77ES, sans "D" : doing away with the S-Video i/o terminals and all digital circuitry but retaining the composite video i/os. Very very rare version of which I unfortunately have not a single image.

The TA-E77ESD was replaced by the strictly analog TA-E80ES in 1990 ; the latter borrowed some of its panel functions and layout but the structure and internal design were very different. The TA-E80ES went on the be just as successful as its elder, although the USA strangely started to greet Sony's high-end units with marked indifference... In Europe, however, there are as many E77ESDs as E80ESs - and that total makes plenty.