Archive for the ‘Sony PS-F5’ Category

Tidy Looking PS-F5 For Sale on U.S. eBay

Saturday, January 7th, 2012

Looks fairly tidy, boxed with what looks like all the original items. Shame the photos look like they’ve been taken through an ice cube.

As I type this the bidding is up to US $224.60 and its still not met its reserve price with 6 days to go.

Seeing that manual reminds me, does anyone have one they could scan so I can share it on this site? That’d be nice.

eBay Auction page

Posted in ebay, Sony PS-F5 | 2 Comments »


Happy 2 Year Anniversary to ps-f5.com- Here’s the gifts!

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Well, the site’s made it through 2 years. Cheers to all visitors past, present and future and thanks to everyone who’s written in with help and support.

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

Posted in maintenance, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9 | No Comments »


Protect Your Battery Terminals

Friday, May 20th, 2011

Yesterday I was installing a new HTPC here at home. When looking up the best way to install the coax satellite cable’s F Connectors, I found this page on the use of silicone grease, which linked to this page of other uses. This section caught my eye:

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.

Posted in maintenance, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9 | No Comments »


About Page Updated

Thursday, May 12th, 2011

I made some updates to the About page today, including a real life recording of the PS-F5 in action, kindly donated by a friendly visitor of the site from France called Emmanuel. Thanks to you for that.

Posted in Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9 | No Comments »


PS-F5 for repair on eBay

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

This is worth a look if you’re in the USA and after spares for your PS-F5 or one to repair:

Sony Linear Tracking Stereo Turntable PS-F5 for repair – eBay (item 200589266795 end time Mar-27-11 21:21:06 PDT).

Posted in ebay, Sony PS-F5 | No Comments »


New PS-F5 YouTube Video

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011

Shonky quality, but good to see another one in use.

Interesting how the user inserts the records in their sleeves. Not sure if that’s really necessary, specially as he seems to pull them back out to see which way round he’s put the record in.

Posted in Sony PS-F5, video | No Comments »


What is the PS-F5 & PS-F9 Cartridge? (It’s not P-Mount)

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Well, having wondered for a while about the type of cartridge used, I had read somewhere that it was a P-Mount (also known as T4P), which was a standard mount used by Technics and other Japanese manufacturers on some of their turntables in the 80s. I’m now certain it’s something else.

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…

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in ebay, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9 | No Comments »


New(ish) PS-F5 for sale on U.S. eBay

Monday, October 4th, 2010

This is being sold as new, only out of the box once to photo & test.

What doesn’t quite add up to me is why the seller would have removed the It’s A Sony sticker from the front of the player and stuck it on the cardboard box. Weird. Anyway, I guess you could try to stick it back on, but I doubt it would go back all that cleanly.

So if money’s no object and you want an almost Fresh-Out-the-Box clean example, throw in a bid now.

Update:
It only received one bid, but sold for US $1,200.00!

The eBay page with the auction completed.

Posted in ebay, Sony PS-F5 | 1 Comment »


Retr0Bright – De-yellow your Sony?

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

After the question posed by A.R. on this post, and my request for a “magical chemical solution” he did some amazing detective work and found a possible solution to the yellowing problem that many Sony PS-F5s and PS-F9s exhibit in their old age. This is mainly brought on by exposure to Ultra Violet radiation which reacts with chemicals in the ABS plastic of the case.

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!!’.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Retro, Sony PS-F5, Sony PS-F9, Weird & Wonderful | 5 Comments »


Clean & Complete PS-F5 for sale on Craigslist

Thursday, May 13th, 2010

This looks to be a mighty fine example. I’ve seen worse go for more money on eBay. If you’re looking for a clean PS-F5 with all the trimmings (apart from a case & power supply) and have a spare 500 bucks to spend, this could well be for you.

The description reads “comes with original box,manual,rca cables,sony mdr-30t headphones,it plays record and sound good,clean battery compartment”

View the ad here

Tags: ,
Posted in Retro, Sony PS-F5 | 1 Comment »