Sony TA-N902

Here is other x-rare Sony ESPRIT unit : the one that appeared last, when the entire ESPRIT adventure was about to be shelved, forgotten and abandoned. Too bad - it is the best of the series.

The TA-N902 bears no technological similarity with the TA-N901, nor the original TA-N900 : no Heat-Pipe, no PLPS, no slimline design , and no ultra-high frequency response as in the TA-N9.
Just 2x 300VA transformers (JP version), 4x 22,000µf ELNA Cerafine caps and large visible heatsinks - powerhouse old style. We're at Sony so ELNA Cerafine and Nichicon MUSE abound.

The power transistors are Hi-fT bipolars as in the TA-N86B bestseller and not MOS-Fet as in the N900 but the N902 did keep the pure Class A output as in the TA-N900 monoblocks. The two power transformers were also used in the contemporary but Japan-only TA-F777ES - not to be mistaken with the ultimate TA-FA777ES.

The reason why Sony waited so long to launch this ultimate ESPRIT component, more than three years after the N900s and two after the N901s is multi-fold and I won't go into that here. But it partly had to do that the Sony engineers wanted to use a special oxygen-free cable for the wiring which Hitachi was working on when the N902 was put under development in 1981.

So... Sony waited on Hitachi. A strange move however : Sony was among the first, if not the first, to develop its own highend loudspeaker and modulation cables (RK series) since the early 1970s, even offering Litz wires versions - there must have been some exchange of something else elsewhere :)


The "Visual Communication Display" here sports a green indicator that turns red when the heatsinks' temp exceeds 90°C and a peak meter with 6 level bars ; at power-on, the indicator is blue until the stages are warm enough to go green.
Monoblock mode is possible, for a whopping 400W between 20Hz and 20Khz - in Class A.

Anyway - the TA-N902 arrived on the scene too late, complementing earlier siblings which, however good and respected, were all old as the hills in 1984 : TA-E900, SE-P900, TA-D900.

It was welcomed briefly, sold very well in Japan, barely in Europe. That's it.
Too bad : it is the best of the series.


A real one here.