The N1 should be used balanced, it is superior and by some margin. Thought I'd add that I heard one run via an EAR Yoshino 912 Tube based fully balanced PreAmp and that was an amazing synergy. Balanced the dryness of the poweramp so well I was even considering looking for the Sony for myself. I now at long last have a 912 in my system and it is a top shelf world class line stage preamp with the added bonus of a fully configurable dual mono transformer driven twin phono stage for MC and MM with mono too. I may still give in and take the Sony poweramp if one became available though.
I love how built quality was accentuated back in the day. I totally get shivers when see those copper parts. I have been looking for the SCD-1 SACD player for a while now. Hope I manage to obtain one 😊
Yeah, that amp certainly is a beauty. Not sure my boyfriend would agree though. He's not really very into audio gear, so for the time being I should consider myself lucky that he's okay with me having a fairly large Pioneer surround receiver set up with some nice Dynaudio (front and center) and PSB (rear) speakers.
"Since then Sony gave up making quality products and started producing s*** for the masses". Lol. Harsh but fair (i admit I laughed loudly at a few snarky comments within this one. Amused me greatly.
Sony is just an amazing company, period. If I ever come into mega-million$, I will commission them to make 4 of them for my ultimate club system! They’re simply the most fabulous amps that I’ve ALWAYS loved, and Sony needs to very seriously bring the back.
I have it since 1 year together with the E1 preamp, a little refurbished..These have very, very DC sensitive transformers for the 230V AC supply built in. You had no mechanical hum from the TA N1 ? Finally I solved this by supplying the 230V by a big Torus Power filter transformer from Canada.. All those DC blockers made with capacitors ( bridged by diodes ) have a time constant, DC on the mains is not really a constant DC Voltage, but is changing a bit over time...the ifi DC Blocker worked surprisingly good. But no match to the Torus Power. When there is no mechanical hum from these, sound is simply the best amp I ever had ! I use electrostatic speakers PioSound Eagle.. have fun, Philipp
When I talk about being able to hear an expansive sound stage it generally goes without saying that all the instruments can be heard clearly and in their locations, so for you to say that you can hear all the individual instruments clearly yet the sound stage is poor, is confusing to say the least.
I have the Sony TA-e1 preamp and its sound signature is of warm, ultra smooth, almost boring frequency response so maybe the trick was to mix that with the TA-N1 and blend each personalities, intro and extroverted in a just right sound. Could it be?
You are giving missed information about gold transistors. Sony TA-N90ES also use same gold transistors. And also after 95 all top model es series integrated amp are use same gold transistors
