To set the record straight, part 2

For those who haven't read part 1, read it first then come back : http://www.thevintageknob.org/tvk_talk/viewtopic.php?f=1512&t=1832
Sony PS-HX500
So Sony apparently "comes back" to vinyl as well, after Technics got back on the train with a 7th version of the famed SL-1200.
Wow ! Are we going to get a PS-X8000 or a TTS-9000 at last ?
Not sure, but a come back for Sony it is indeed as all it had since the mid 1990s in its catalog for LP replay were crappy-crap items made in China, weighing less than a kilo and a half and sometimes shared with others like Pioneer.
Denon never really left the niche, even if it built all of its recent TTs in China or Taiwan based on Technics motor/rotor/tonearm rip-offs ; Luxman left it a million years ago, when it still was owned by Alpine, and delved back with a beautiful but outlandishly exorbitant effort which apparently sells as much as possible - were it on sale on the far side of Saturn.
So, the Sony.
Ha, well, no : it ain't no PS-X8000, even if very well designed in looks, reminiscent of the '77 period of Dieter Rams at Braun - the good spot.
But for the rest the HX500 is a low-end whatever made in China weighing a few kilos with a tonearm straight out of the Jelco/Sumiko flurry of variants since the late 1970s, a diecast aluminium platter (speechless we are !), a "newly designed 5mm rubber mat" (WOW !) a "highly stable belt-drive system" (WOWWOW !) and other such whatevers which mean nothing and make the expected retail price already NOT acceptable even before it is mentioned : 500£.
Read all about it here : http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/audio-components/ps-hx500/specifications (and laugh) (or cry).
I won't even go into the "hi-res" thing, if only to say it is a clever effort on brand(ing) synergy.
But maybe Yamato Tanikawa, director of home entertainment and sound at Sony should look into websites such as TVK to get a grasp of the history of the brand he's working for ?
Perhaps even actually know which product to reissue ? Because the "new" Technics is actually a mk7, the crappy DP-A100 is a disguised DP-900/1300M reissue and the Luxman
is a clear re-take of the Micro-built PD-300 - all items which sold extremely well worldwide.
All Sony had to do was : reissue, say, an updated PS-X65, add its USB out for DSD ripping - et voilà !
Something which would have really added value, and quality, to a "come back" worth its name.
But as it is the PS-HX500 is, literally, pointless.
Skip, find a second-hand PS-X50 for 100$ and never mind the bollocks.
Sony PS-HX500
So Sony apparently "comes back" to vinyl as well, after Technics got back on the train with a 7th version of the famed SL-1200.
Wow ! Are we going to get a PS-X8000 or a TTS-9000 at last ?
Not sure, but a come back for Sony it is indeed as all it had since the mid 1990s in its catalog for LP replay were crappy-crap items made in China, weighing less than a kilo and a half and sometimes shared with others like Pioneer.
Denon never really left the niche, even if it built all of its recent TTs in China or Taiwan based on Technics motor/rotor/tonearm rip-offs ; Luxman left it a million years ago, when it still was owned by Alpine, and delved back with a beautiful but outlandishly exorbitant effort which apparently sells as much as possible - were it on sale on the far side of Saturn.
So, the Sony.
Ha, well, no : it ain't no PS-X8000, even if very well designed in looks, reminiscent of the '77 period of Dieter Rams at Braun - the good spot.
But for the rest the HX500 is a low-end whatever made in China weighing a few kilos with a tonearm straight out of the Jelco/Sumiko flurry of variants since the late 1970s, a diecast aluminium platter (speechless we are !), a "newly designed 5mm rubber mat" (WOW !) a "highly stable belt-drive system" (WOWWOW !) and other such whatevers which mean nothing and make the expected retail price already NOT acceptable even before it is mentioned : 500£.
Read all about it here : http://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/audio-components/ps-hx500/specifications (and laugh) (or cry).
I won't even go into the "hi-res" thing, if only to say it is a clever effort on brand(ing) synergy.
But maybe Yamato Tanikawa, director of home entertainment and sound at Sony should look into websites such as TVK to get a grasp of the history of the brand he's working for ?
Perhaps even actually know which product to reissue ? Because the "new" Technics is actually a mk7, the crappy DP-A100 is a disguised DP-900/1300M reissue and the Luxman
is a clear re-take of the Micro-built PD-300 - all items which sold extremely well worldwide.
All Sony had to do was : reissue, say, an updated PS-X65, add its USB out for DSD ripping - et voilà !
Something which would have really added value, and quality, to a "come back" worth its name.
But as it is the PS-HX500 is, literally, pointless.
Skip, find a second-hand PS-X50 for 100$ and never mind the bollocks.