Sony TA-N7B
Sony TA-N7
(april 1977 - 1981)

One of the very very few units I wish I'd own... which I do own :-)

A masterpiece of understated looks holding 6 pairs of Sony's original VFETs. After the 1st series (the xx50 units, all from 1974), the pre-Esprit TA-N88B (1977), the N7/B was -along the TA-F7B integrated- the last Sony unit to sport V-FETs and a fairly different design because of its hybrid BJT/V-FET power section. Fully DC, with 2 transformers for the regulation and 2 toroidal transformers for the power stages. And a total 88,000µf of caps.

The "B" color varies from the dark grey of some versions (Japan - right) to the soft greenish/bronze of others (Europe - above)... It seems however that these color differences were restricted to a few per-production samples as all produced N7B habe the "euro" bronze/green tint. The TA-N7 is silver and is extremely rare.
The production run must have been around 1500 or 2000 units, tops, worldwide, so the N7 is... quite exclusive.

Some versions have a hardcover for the 4 caps, some not. Just as for the TA-8650 / TA- 5650 / TA-4650, there are a few safety mods to be performed before using a TA-N7/B daily - flaky diodes, resistors, bias current, DC offset etc.

The TA-N7 can be seen as an early equivalent of the DTC-2000ES recorder, the SS-GR1 or the MDP-999 Laserdisc monster - statement units produced when things have got to be shelved because they're too expensive - a last hurrah of sorts.
Its sound is difficult to describe because there is no "sound" - just pure musical bliss.