corElement
Well-Known Member
Hello all
2 months ago I acquired this 1994 model Sony ES receiver STR-GX909ES off USA Ebay for 40 US dollars / INR 2200. It was a present to my sister during my visit to the us for june july aug.
It's original retail price was 1500 USD and is 1 generation after the TA 77ES and TA 80ES ERA, the pinnacle of sony's audio technology. The 909ES is the second last ES receiver series with the rosewood sidepanels and the optical legato linear A system..better known as the twin drive where it operates in class A at low to medium volume and Class B at medium to high volumes.
It is 80+80 continuous and 175 at dynamic watts @ 4ohms
The specs and technical information of it can be found here
When I received it it did not power up.
I opened it up
found the power supply board broken in half.
I did a trace of the broken relays and with the help of my friend Jorge from California, we rejoined the PCB with superglue and bridged the broken relays with solder.
At this point I was not sure it would work or power up or if it was just 2000 Rs down the drain but if it did work it'd be a monster coming back from the grave. Lo and behold we hooked it up and pressed the power button and it powered up!
The 909es is a multichannel receiver however it's surround capabilities and dolby pro logic performance is 1st generation and quite poor. Luckily it is completely separate from it's stereo performance and has to be activated separately through a sound field button. I tested it on flat equalizer without any effects.
Speakers used for pure stereo testing
Insignia b2111 with coaxial driver (USD 200 value) - Sisters which have been sitting in the closet for 5 years without an amplifier to play them on.
Performance with amp: The sound appears to be very mild with blurry lows and hazy highs but acceptable midrange. It's can play fairly loud if I push the volume without much distortion. This speaker sounds like it would be a better match for class ab given it's mildness. Texture is not really evident and subtle details are absent. This is probably too critical but for $200 it's worth every penny compared to present 2012 model mini hifis one gets from sony and samsung and what not.
Jamo d830 (USD 2800 Value) - Taking these back to India with me
Performance: First off, these are biwireable however I did not have enough cord so just used jumpers and 1 pair of leads leading to speaker zone A on the amplifier rear
The next thing was as soon as I powered it up was the sound from the right speaker in the Jamo's tweeter was intermittent when i tried some tone tests. I found the binding post in the jamo was loose. This was most likely due to transportation. So I took off the jamo woofer to access the crossover inside.
I noticed there were 4 nuts which had come loose inside. I simply tightened them and checked on the rear and the loose contact was gone. I put the woofer back together and sat down to listen.
Source : lenovo x220 with crappy conexant audio via 3.5mm jack on generic crappy 3.5mm to dual rca cable.
The jamo's compared to the insignia had a huge soundstage that made me go wow. Voices were thrown out and the bass was lean but tight compared to the insignias which were more of a hum hum bass than a punch.
My test tracks were Carpenters flacs, blade runner flac soundtrack, Purple mood trance tracks, Lion king soundtrack, wolfgang, Billy Joel, Lionel Richie.
The sony ES + Jamo d830 combo is a good combo because the sony's sound signature is somewhat warm, it is infact very similar to the cambridge audio azur 840a that I use back home, a class XT amp which also works in class a at low volume and class b at high. The warm signature combined with the bright d830 made for good synergy.
Within this synergy I find that the sony has a thick and wet mid range which makes voices sound better than electronic music on the d830. I am not sure if this is due to the Jamo's very high crossover of 2500 or because of the nature of the amp itself.
Texture within sound is not as sharp as a class AB amp however the tonality of the sony is fatigue free as a result. One can listen to it for hours and not get bored of it. I did not have to raise the volume beyond 30% to get the jamo's to sing. I'm assuming this is low volume and within class a limits.
It's a very musical sound signature, the best way I can describe it is it's very late 80's/ early 90's warm musical sound as compared against the modern day avr's I've heard.
Verdicts of the GX909es using genertic cables and avg performance between the insignia and jamos:-
Power: can easily drive a 150w @ 3.3ohm minimal speaker at 30%
Aesthetics: Classic
Sound signature: Mildly warm
Strengths: Vocals & details
Weakness: texture
Original MRP: 1500 USD
Price bought from ebay: 40 USD
Year of production: 1993-4
Weight: 14 kg
Height 3 units
A photo from google of a GX909ES at it's best condition:
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