Front and rear panel views of TA-E9000ES. The unit also comes in black for the US and Canadian markets.
This
page is designed for those who are technically inclined as I am, but are
a bit hesitant to lift the hood on this beast to take a look at what makes
it tick. To satisfy that need without blowing your warranty out of
the water take a look at the pictures below.
External Appearance
Front and rear panel views of TA-E9000ES. The unit also comes in black for the US and Canadian markets.
Internal Construction
Lifting the top cover and removing a copper shielding plate reveals the internal electronics. Note the extensive use of heatsinking on the power supply regulation board in the foreground. This might explain where all that heat comes from. Sony appear to have used quality components throughout the design. The massive power transformer is of a construction that would conservatively be rated at about 200VA, albeit the rated power consumption of the pre-amp is a modest 72 watts.
I counted no less than
fourteen printed wiring board (PWB) assemblies in this unit; five of which
were allocated to power supply applications, one for digital audio processing,
one for video, one for analogue audio, one for the display, one for Dolby
Digital AC-3 RF conversion, and a host of other boards serving minor functions
such as input switching, volume control and headphones. Interconnecting
the PWB assemblies is a network of stranded, shielded and ribbon cables.
I did not see the point in disassembling the unit further with the view
to getting a better look at the workings. This would have involved
removing dozens of screws and some connectors, and I could see no advantage
in doing so. Of what I could see the unit was extremely well
constructed with all components and connectors clearly designated.
The chassis is of considerable weight and this contributes substantially
to the ruggedness on the construction. One thing that did puzzle
me was the fact that nearly every heatsink had what looked like plastic
adhesive tape placed across the cooling fins. This can be clearly
seen in the photograph above (right hand side). I have no idea
what purpose this practice serves but I'm sure Sony have something in mind.
What makes it tick?
The digital magic that
makes this pre-amplifier so impressive is the 32bit Digital Signal Processing
(DSP) SHARC chip from Analog Devices. This is where all the
action takes place. Principally employed to perform MPEG, Dolby
Digital and dts decoding this device gets its instructions from the software
uploaded into the amplifier via the RS-232C connector on the rear panel.
Some of you may have already done a firmware upgrade or two via this method.
Part of the instructions that the binary file contains controls the decoding
functions of the SHARC device.
Performance Specifications
These are Sony's published
performance specifications for the TA-E9000ES
| AUDIO SECTION | f | |
|
|
|
|
| Harmonic Distortion | All sections with soundfield processor and equaliser bypassed | Less than 0.05% |
| Frequency Response | PHONO: | 20Hz to 20kHz RIAA +/- 0.5dB |
| k | LINE INPUTS : | 20Hz to 20kHz +0dB / -0.2dB |
| Signal to Noise Ratio | DIGITAL INPUTS: | 100dB (A weighted / 20kHz LPF) |
| n | PHONO : | 82dB (A weighted) measured at REC OUT |
| m | LINE : | 94dB (A weighted / 20kHz LPF) wrt 2.5V input |
| Input Sensitivity (Analogue) | PHONO: | 5mV / Impedance 50 Kohms |
| o | LINE: | 250mV / Impedance 50 Kohms |
| Input Sensitivity (Digital) | DVD, LD, CD (co-axial) | 0.5Vp-p / Impedance 75 ohms |
| p | CD, MD/DAT, TV (optical) | |
| q | LD (AC-3 RF) | 1.0V / Impedance 75 ohms |
| Outputs (Analogue) | MD/DAT, Tape, Video 1/2/3 (Rec Out) | 250mV / Impedance 1 Kohms |
| r | PRE OUT (Front L/R, Centre, Rear L/R, Sub Woofer) | 1.0 V / Impedance 200 ohms |
| s | HEADPHONE | not stated, but suitable for both low and high impedance headphones |
| Outputs (Digital) | MD/DAT (optical) | h |
| Sampling Frequency | Analogue inputs | 48 kHz |
| Equalisation | BASS: | 99Hz - 1kHz +/- 10dB |
| t | MIDRANGE: | 99Hz - 8.6kHz +/- 10dB |
| u | TREBLE: | 1kHz - 8.6kHz +/- 10dB |
| Decodable Digital Formats | Dolby Digital | Bitstream and AC-3 RF |
| v | MPEG | Bitstream |
| w | LINEAR PCM | Bitstream |
| x | dts | Bitstream |
| VIDEO SECTION | j | k |
|
|
|
|
| Inputs | Composite video | 1 Vp-p / Impedance 75 ohms |
| y | S-video | Lumimance: 1 Vp-p / Impedance
75 ohms
Chroma: 0.286 Vp-p / Impedance 75 ohms |
| Outputs | Composite video | 1 Vp-p / Impedance 75 ohms |
| z | S-video | Lumimance: 1 Vp-p / Impedance
75 ohms
Chroma: 0.286 Vp-p / Impedance 75 ohms |
Bug Reports
These are some bugs in the V2.01 firmware upgrade (not neccesarily known by Sony). If you come across any other problem please e-mail me with the details so I can include them on this list.
Display
error: S.WOOFER
The
display shows that the sub woofer is active when the headphones are plugged
in, even if the sub woofer is not selected in the <<< SP SETUP
>>> menu. Good news is that this is purely a display error
and no output is directed to the sub woofer outputs on the rear panel connectors
when the headphones are plugged in.
Links:
Review and general information page on the TA-E9000ES
Review of the new V2.01 firmware upgrade.
Frequently Asked Questions about the TA-E9000ES
The Sony TA-N9000ES matching 5 channel power amplifier
The
Sony TA-P9000ES Multi-Channel Analogue Pre-Amplifier
About the Author
For comment, feedback and suggested improvements to this page you can contact me by e-mail at rutlidge@mail.iinet.net.au
All text and images are copyright - Alan Rutlidge January, 2001
Last
updated 6th May, 2002.
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