Well I've probably had many of the best decks out there. Only exceptions is that I have yet to own a Nak TOTL, or a Revox. That said I got this deck to replace a Pioneer CT-93 I had since I wasn't that impressed with that deck. I used to own a Sony 909ES deck which I had for over 14 years. It served me well and was my first real serious deck. So after some knowledge on Sony decks, I searched out an A7ES deck to compliment my Tandberg 3014A deck which is my main deck. Since this is a Japanese only deck, meaning it was never sold outside of Japan, I had to also buy a step down transformer so I could use it on 120 voltage. Not the best way to power a deck, but my only option.

I had this deck sent to a knowledgable Sony service tech who repairs these old decks. While he had the deck, he commented this A7ES is unlike any other Sony deck in terms of its design and parts. I was hoping there would be a R Core transformer that could be swapped in this unit so I could use it on 120v, but nope. He did try 120 volts with the stock transformer, but he mentioned some parts were running hot, and advised not running the deck this way. While he did the repair he commented on all the capacitors in the audio chain in the deck, plus quite a few op amp chips in this thing. Not a good sound design using those parts, as they degrade the quality of sound. He confirmed this when he noticed the stock deck sound worse even in source mode then compared to the original audio signal. So those parts were in fact degrading the sound in this deck. He called the sound the stock deck make as an artificial type of sound, and not at all pleasing. He had older Sony decks like the 666ES which sounded way better then this A7ES. So he ended up modding this deck by replacing over 20 capacitors in the audio chain, plus many of the op amps. The result- a huge difference in sound quality. This time the deck was actually quite pleasing to listen to. It made all the difference. Anyone thinking of getting this deck, should talk to Alex at ANT Audio in the UK to do this mod. The sound compared to my Tandberg- the A7ES has (with mods) about 95% of the quality my 3014A deck has.

The dynamics aren't quite as strong, nor is the bass as full, as my 3014A. But the clarity in the high end is every bit as clear and extended as my Tandberg. I wasn't able to compare this deck over speakers, since my system is in flux at the moment. What I used was my preamp headphone output into a set of AKG headphones. So because of this way of listenning, I cannot say how the Sony does with depth, and placement of instruments in music. This will have to wait till I get better speakers. The 3D sound quality is one thing my Tandberg does well compared to other decks, so Im curious as to how the Sony will fare. The deck itself is quite heavy. Build construction is excellent for a Sony. Not quite as over engineered as the Pioneer the Sony replaced, but still well designed none the less. This deck comes in both black (which is what I ended up getting), and the more popular champagne finish which commands more money.

Finding this deck online for purchase is a rarity if not in Japan. I see these sold on Yahoo Japan Auctions all the time, but you will need to get it shipped outside of Japan of course. There are ways to do this though. I got my deck from a website member that had it listed on Ebay. These sell for well over $1000 in most cases, because they are rare. Not exactly good value for the money, especially compared to the deck's stock sound quality. But if you must have Sony's last best engineered ES cassette deck, then this is it. It easily beats the Aiwa XK-S9000 I had before. The Aiwa had great sound quality, but lacked dynamics in the music. This Sony isn't lacking there. Maybe not as warm a sound as the Aiwa had.

There are reasons people still buy cassette decks in todays world. Nostalgia is one reason. Keeping music in the analog domain is another, especially when recording vinyl. Better sound quality then CDs is another reason. Tape can even make CDs sound better by warming up the sound and taking the edge off CD music. The top decks will however record music faithfully, warts and all. My Tandberg is an example- if the CDs sound bad, so will the tape.

So on all this I cannot recommend this deck in stock form. Modded yes. Compared to Naks, Revox's, and other Tandbergs- it still second tier. But its not far from them in terms of overall quality. But you can get a Nak Dragon for the same dollars as this Sony, and the Dragon is a better deck. That said Im keeping this Sony because its close enough, and it also has Dolby S which I need for my older tapes made on my 909ES. Make sure if you get this deck, you get it serviced, because all these decks by now will have aged enough that would require some service to get more years out of them and keep them in spec. Keep in mind there is no available service manual for this deck anywhere, so get a compitent tech (like Alex), and get it aligned and tuned up.