I have a 1000 going to yahama amps going to Klipsch cornwalls and lascalla's and after searching for an audio/video pre amp from high end to low end this was the one I ended up with, found it in a pawn shop for $150 in the original box, bought it just to check it out and now it's here to stay. This amp is amazing in how it projects sound from video. Don't pass one up if you see it.

Yeah, what he said! I have the 1000, that is the TA-1000ESD or whathave you, and it is a super fully featured pre-amp. Only downside, it
is a little too digital to mate with a tube ampflifier, i.e. "ting" plus
"ting" = *TING*, but otherwise, it's just darn impressive. The coax
digital in is great. The DSP processing graphic eq (only 3 channels)
is great, slope+magnitude at 3 points anywhere... just a perfect eq
device. And the sound is very, very good. But like I say, it's thinness
complements the same thinness if you use a tube amp, so just use solid
state amplification and I think you will be darn happy. I've seen the
1000 go as low as 350-400 and the 2000 in the 400-500 range, so they do
become available once in a while. Good pre-amp even if you ignore all
of the dsp crap!

i have owned this thing for a few years and what a piece of junk,a tiny balance control that doesnt work when in source direct.my biggest complaint is that i cant crank up the input level control enough to get a good output out of my nad208thx or my parasound hca2003 without it going into clipping and making a loud popping through my speakers ( wich damaged my polk sda srs 2.3 tl's by the way)i am going to buy the adcom gfp 750 to replace it and use this thing for a proccesor only. do not buy or use this thing to drive large high current amps it doesnt have enough output voltage 2.5 volts most good preamps have 5 to 7 volts. it would be ok if it didnt clip all the time.
i definitly will not be buying another sony product,thier customer service was of no help they will not stand behind thier product at all

I've had my E2000ESD for 5 years now, and it is (almost) everything I want it to be. I use it primarily for stereo listening, so the lack of Dolby Digital is not a problem. I would have liked a stereo balance control on the remote control though. It's pretty amazing how much the left-right balance can change, particularly through a compilation or greatest hits album. I guess some mastering engineers must be using their peak reading VU meters exclusively, and not actuall listening.
I definitely love the ability to manipulate the tonal balance in the digital mode. Subtle tweaks can make that "distant" recording so much more listenable for example. After all, who knows what the mastering engineer used as speakers to balance the recording. Probably some studio monitor with a very revealing (read forward) midrange and hot treble output. Then of course too much high level monitoring probably means their hearing is probably shot anyway. Well, at least their bright speakers will help compensate a bit for their hf hearing loss... .

As for reliability problems, I've had none. The popping noise some people have experienced is caused by input overloading. There is a set of input attenuators, one digital and one analogue, under the control panel which need to be backed off a bit if the input "over" load light in the display starts flashing during music peaks. One word of caution though, the overload indicator doesn't work if you don't run the display mode "everything on". As the A/D and D/A converter is a good one (fine s/n ratio and convertor linearity, much better than on the 1000ESD which I also have) there is really no need to run the pre-amp too close to "overload" to maximize these parameters. All in all, I love what the machine can do and it sounds good to me both operating "digitally" and as a "source direct" preamp.

More flexible EQ and surround funcitons

Reverbs do NOT sound as good - just did a lot of A/B comparisons with the 1000 - the 2000 has a 'sproingyness' and lack of realism absent in the 1000

I just compared, in depth, the reverb capabilities of these two units - the 1000 and the 2000, and the 1000 DEFFINATELY have better sounding reverb! Absolutely certain. So if you want these things for the lush, realistic reverb - get the 1000 hands down. I tried messing with the 2000 it just has a fakeness to the sound - not 'bad' but not like reality. The 1000 really has the ability to make it sound 'real' - like the sound is REALLY in a church, etc - takes some tweaking but it will do it! :)

I have been getting these things like M&Ms lately - will be selling off the 2000 units and getting more 1000 for friends instead - they just sound a bit better for the reverb stuff. If you are using this preamp but NOT using the reverbs - you should sell them and get something similar becasue NEITHER one of them has the clearest dry sound. Go to something like a switch box for that LOL

The 2000 has a lot more "Yamaha tone" to the reverbs - the reverbs simply sound cheaper and faker than on the 1000 - they are even missing some of the tweakier parameter adjustments! In favor of making all of them more dolby adjustable - but who cares. Like I say if you want clean, you shouldn't even be getting either of these - these are for reverb!!! They are up there with lexicon and the rest no joke.

Similar Products Used:

other sony preamps

Good Overall Sound,Dolby Pro Logic mode

Bad Solder work by Sony, Low output, hard to determine correct input attenuator setting.

I have had the TA-E2000 for many years now. I bought it new and like many others on this site, developed a popping sound out of the left channel. Sent it in to Sony the first time and they resoldered some connections but that fix did not last. Finally I ordered the service manual from Sony, took it apart and re-soldered all of the connection around the D/A converter and the problem has been fixed for about five years now. It has been a good unit, however I was dissapointed in Sony's lack of ownership with regard to fixing what was their problem. I would have to think twice about purchasing a new Sony 9000 preamp given my experence with this unit.