Sony TA-F5000

From a set of high-end separates in very good looking shoebox format - with an itch :
footprint-people don't buy high-end,
high-end-people unfortunately don't buy Sony,
and design-people still have a crush on B&O.

The same fate did befall the first Precise P7 and Falcon sets (both 1978), the Syscon 353CD ('82) and, somewhat differently, the Scenario S7 and Placido components ('91). Some things obviously never change.

In the Series 5000 (# 5000), the 10mm front is reminiscent of what was planned for the pre-Esprit and ESPRIT series - the rest is very different. The slabs of aluminium making the sides and top are reminiscent of the Precise P7 units - but the rest is very different :-)


In the TA-F5000, powering everything is a Torus toroidal transformer : a really round section core for more even flux, less vibration and just as much power as a regular transformer but in a small size.

Like in the TA-F808ES and all later FAxES amplifiers, MOS-Fets are used for the entire power output stage : pre-drivers and drivers.
The output stage has fixed optical bias which separates the heat sensor from the heatsink for a more stable operation ; before all that, Spontaneous Twin Drive (STD) is used as well to completely separate the voltage and power stages.

Already present in the Precise P7 and Falcon systems, the TA-F5000 can take MC phono cartridges, as well as MM if you have to :)

As always with Sony's top components (then), caps and resistors are all select and expensive items, often quite oversized - Elna for Audio, Muse, sealed Takamisawa relays etc. The pots are not ALPS (for once) but high-quality Panasonic. Heatsinking and copper busses are generous as well and the entire chassis acts as heatsink.

The chassis combines steel (bottom and back plates) and extruded aluminium (top, front, sides and knobs) to cancel out potentially similar resonant frequencies ; the feet are of the "eccentric" kind for the same reason : by not placing the fixing screw in the middle, resonance coming from the shelf or table is diminished.

As most 1990s high-end Sony amplifiers, from the TA-F707ES to the TA-NR10 monoblock monsters, the TA-F5000 was designed by Takashi Kanai.


Unlike what is commonly believed, the # 3000 and # 5000 separates are NOT part of the ES series.

Sony in Germany and, briefly, in France, attempted to unload its stocks more easily, late in time, by adding an ES logo next to the model scripting, and on the cartons, and in the manuals.
This however remained unseen elsewhere, including Japan, and was just plain bad marketing miscalculation.