They sound pretty good for their size. Powered by a 6 V AC adapter or 4 x C cells in the left hand speaker which houses the amplifying circuitry. I was initially a bit stumped as to why the right hand speaker also had a battery cover, space for 4 cells and the metal contacts for the speakers until I noticed a sticker stating “Put the spare batteries here”! So it’s both a way for Sony to save production costs by only having one moulding they used for both speakers and a way to carry a spare set of cells should you wish. I guess the metal springs & contacts are to stop the cells rattling around in there. The leads are both integral (main signal in and lead from right speaker which plugs into the left speaker with a mono 3.5mm jack. There’s room for them to stow away under the battery doors so they’re neat when not being used. They’ve also got wall hanging points, so I could mount them either side of my wall hung PS-F5 if I was so inclined…

Sadly I didn’t receive the carry handle, but happily both have their original “It’s a Sony” sticker.

Most things I’ve been sent have ended up on the site, sometimes straight away, sometimes after a while and I still have things that I need to get on one day.
Two such examples that some kind people sent me to stick on the site that I haven’t got round to sticking on till now are the workshop manuals for both the PS-F5 and PS-F9. Thanks to those people for helping the rest of us keep our turntables going.

PS-F5 Service Manual (PDF)

PS-F9 Service Manual (PDF)

They’ll get a proper link in the main menu one day, but for now those links will just be available in this blog post.

So keep checking back, or subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed to be updated of updates as I’ll be steadily adding to the site and trying out de-yellowing one of my PS-F5s in the near future.
And if you have any info that you’d like to see on the site, hit me up on the contact page.

Cheers,
Marcus

Leaking battery cells will cause the spring contacts to corrode. You can help prevent this by coating the contacts with silicone grease.

You can use it in any equipment that uses battery cells – from remote controls, model boats, model cars to hearing aids.

Seems like a sensible, easy and cheap precaution to take on our turntables to me.

I plan to add a maintenance section to this site one day to which I’ll add this, but in the meantime I thought I’d post this info here as it may help others and to remind me to add it to a more permanent part of the site one day.

As for the subject of portable Sony turntables- this video of a PS-F9 in action was posted to YouTube yesterday. Enjoy

I saw this UK eBay listing for a P-Mount with a decent photo:

This is what a VL-44G cartridge from a PS-F5 turntable looks like (with stylus installed):

The difference is plain to see

So the question remains, is there another Audio Technica model number that these cartridges go by? That would surely help in tracking down replacement/ upgrade cartridges. The quest continues…

Some vintage gadget enthusiasts have come up with a home-brew chemical gel that can be applied to yellowed plastic which restores it to its original colour. This wonderful sounding product’s called Retr0bright.

“We have now proved on several forums that plastics yellowing can be completely reversed in hours without damage using our mixture.”

There are a number of recipes on their Wiki. Thankfully all of the chemicals involved are easily obtainable (at least here in the UK) and all are safe apart from Hydrogen Peroxide, which is the main ingredient in hair bleach and is to be treated with respect. Be sure to wear gloves and goggles and work in a well ventilated room.

I was initially concerned about any chemical solution affecting the printing on the case, but then I saw this Lego piece in the Retr0Bright gallery, which is painted. The paint appears unaffected by the process:

Although the Problems and Pitfalls page on the site does show some examples of label fade, the printing on the PS-F5 is generally of good quality with a heavy black ink, so hopefully this won’t be too much of an issue, especially if the Sony’s not too yellowed, and therefore doesn’t require many applications.

There are other examples in the gallery with stickers and paint too, all of which suggest that it should be safe. Something I’m not sure about is whether the smoked transparent plastic on the front of the case would need to be removed prior to applying the gel. Maybe masking would be safest, attempting to remove the glued in smoked panel may cause breakage.

I’d like to give this a try, but would really appreciate it if anyone out there has a spare case (or piece of case, ideally one with some printing) for their PS-F5 that they’re willing to experiment on and report back to the site so I can let everyone know for sure that this works on our Sonys and is safe.

“There were an incredible number of people at first that said this was impossible – that was until they saw the pictures, then tried it and proved it for themselves. The usual reaction was ‘No way!’ then ‘WOW!!’.

Need a new or better stylus for your Sony PS-F5 or PS-F9? Patrick Radzewitz has researched the options and written up his findings which are now available on the new Styli Page. Thanks Patrick!