WEGA Lab Zero

The WEGA version of Sony's TA-N88 and TA-E88. The tuner is supposed to be a 100% WEGA design and not an import from Sony but other sources indicate that this was a collaboration between Wega and Sony, the latter finally not including it in the ESPRIT 900 series... A turntable was planned, even built, but finally not produced ; it was an update version of Sony's PS-X7 besteller.

Production-wise, it is interesting to see that the function layout of the preamp retains the features present on the TA-E88's last pre-production unit but trashed for the production E88: headphones socket and reverse stereo mode.

249 pieces of each WEGA LAB ZERO were produced ; only 200 were planned at first, the 49 of each remaining was to be kept as spare units for service - they finally went on sale.

These were not straight rebadges, however, as they carried some WEGA mods, albeit not many - thanks to Mirko Essling for his reviews of (his own) Lab Zero units.