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This is very rare SONY PUA-7 tonearm with original manual and mounting templates. Cartridge alignment method was developed by SONY, so the original template is necessary to set up your cartridge correctly (if you don’t want to use alternative methods). In terms of usability this is the best toneam i’ve ever owned, it has the most precision and very smooth armlift mechanism (always spot on when you up and down it), VTA on the fly and very easy to use antiskating.
After release of the PS-X70 turntable with similar but simplified arm, SONY developed stand alone high-end version of the arm (PUA-7) and it’s a wonderful souding arm! While the simplified/cheaper version was available ONLY with PS-X70, 60, 50 turntables and designed for use with SONY turntables, the brand new PUA-7 was sold as a separate unit only, it was designed for use with almost any turntable from any manufacturer. The original PUA-7 was expensive tonearm, the best toneam SONY ever made along with PUA-9. Not everyone understand it.
To understand what is PUA-7 look at the image in the genuine manual, this is stand alone PUA-7 as it is.
People normally remove simplified version from SONY PS-X70 turntable to sell it as the PUA-7, but the arm is way different from rare and expensive stand alone PUA-7 you see on my pictures. Look at the armlift mechanism and the way it’s attached to the arm base, look at the DIN connector and mounting nut made of bronze, look at the armbase. I hope now you will recognize the original PUA-7.
The rigidity of the aluminum arm pipe is 8 times higher than conventional version. The PUA-7 has long span vertical bearings and precision radial bearings, high sensitive and low fulcrum. The stand alone PUA-7 is "resonance free" toneam. Parallel copper litz wiring reduces transmission failure due to inter-line capacitance fluctuation. DIN terminal pins and headshell pins are gold-plated. Sony SH-165 shell is made of carbon clad and aluminum. Headshell plug chucking mechanism reduce resonance. I like everything about this particular model. The negineering of PUA-7 is superb, it was made in Japan in the early 80’s. This toneam can be used with wide range of cartridges from lightweight high compliance MM to heavyweight low compliance MC up to 27g with shell (with optional subweight provided by sony).
The price difference between the stand alone (rare) PUA-7 and simplified version removed from Sony turnables is HUGE.
I use my PUA-7 as it is, no need for rewire, it’s a high quality arm. But i use better headshells with it.
I appreciate that - I correct one thing though - the Sony Ps-x9 had a PUA 9 arm, not the PUA 7 - it's a longer arm.
Mine is without doubt one lifted from another deck and sold to me on the premise that it was a PUA-7. All said and done I'm not losing too much sleep over it because it is one of two arms that are going to go onto my Sony tts 8000 and apart from anything else I am going to experiment with a Townshend Rock 3 trough (made in plastic so it can be cut so as to fit the lip around the TTs 8000 platter - the trough tends to take the arm very much out of the sonic equation and just allows the cartridge to sing.
lohanimal@ I found the TB-2000 plinth on yahoo Japan together with a very nice TTS-8000. Allthough quite expensive I thought I had made the deal of my life since the TB-2000 are so rare (rumour says only 150 were ever made). The price of shipping 40 kg. Plinth & Turntable safely to Denmark (together with customs, tax etc) has made me reconsider the whole deal as "Deal of my life" - at least from an economical view ;-)
I have enjoyed another TTS-8000 in the smaller "Resinamic Sound" plinth for a about a year, which has convinced me that TTS-8000 will be my final table (comes from Garrard 401 & The Voyd).
The "new" TTS-8000 is now being restored at "good old hifi" in Berlin. They are Vintage Sony experts (and fans) and I don’t want to worry about old caps etc. when the project is finished.
My Helius Omega is great with a Lyra Delos, but not as good with my other cart (Benz Ruby Z). I keep dreaming about upgrading it to a Benz LP-S, and need to find a second tonearm which matches sound- and quality wise.
Having an audio doppelgänger is good - together with all the wise experts in here.
@noneggativwhere did you find the TB2000 - it's even harder to find than a good TTS8000. I have to make my own plinth that's gonna feature quite a few nice design touches.
I've always sought to find my audio doppelgänger - there's not many other people on the forums that have a Helius arms - the people I know with them tend to have the cyalene on a voyd TT and tend to be from the UK - where are you?
On another note the only person i could find in the UK to work on the PUA 7 can only start in around November.
@lohanimal : Please let us hear your impressions of the PUA-7. My current project is a bit of a clone of yours: A TTS-8000 being restored in Germany right now will be mounted in a TB-2000 plinth with my Helius Omega Ruby as one of the tonearms. I only need to figure out which other tonearm to use...I love this hobby ;-)
Dear @best-groove : You can make the SAEC/cartridge set up using Löfgren A or B in exactly the same way you do with any other tonearm/cartridge.
The " best " ?. Well exist audiophiles that like the double knife bearing design, even today some of them are enthusiast of the vintage 3009 and 3012 by SME that comes with knife bearing kind of design.
SAEC is very good looking tonearm but for me certainly not the " best ".
Btw, my take with all those vintage japanese tonearms is that as me in those times they did not understand very well the critical importance of true/real alignment accuracy and obviously ( like me. ) did not understand in deep the advantages of Löfgren A and B and the terrible disadvantages of Stevenson alignment.
Before I really understand in deep thw whole alignment subject and to understand in deep each one of the different ( normal ) alignments I used the protractors that came my Technics, SAEC, Dynavector and other japanese tonearms. But every one has the " rigth " to learn and a few years ago I learned. Today exist several " audiophiles " that just don’t understand in deep the whole subject and I think that perhaps they will never do or maybe yes, who knows.
Examples: Technics EPA-100 by its specs the effective length is 250mm and according Stevenson alignment the overhang should be 14.593mm instead the Technics specs of 15mm and in the offset angle the correct value is 20.824 instead 21 and the P2S is wrong too. Yes, nearest but non-accurated.
In the PUA-7 is worst according Sony specs: overhang should be 14.617mm instead the 14mm in specs. SAEC is the same but the 8000 model.
But what really confirm their " misunderstanding " on the whole alignment subject is that they choosed Stevenson alignment and additional out of accuracy.
Anyway, good that you finally will mount your PUA-7.
Sony PUA-7 method is not Stevenson Technics method is also not Stevenson but very close
Template is very helpful because the user must drill not only a big hole for tonearm shaft, but also an additional small hole for armbase to prevent rotation of the armbase while the vta on the fly mechanism is in use.
Perhaps I have not explained myself correctly; I don’t need a template to correctly position the cartridge on the shell, but I need to use a tool to position the whole PUA-7 on a new plinth.
Dear @best-groove : Look, not only Sony but Technics or Dynavector comes with its dedicated protractor. Almost all tonearms comes with.
The PUA-7 is no exception. According to SONY manual the P2S distance is 235mm and the overhang around 14mm. These Sony information means that the alignment of your tonearm is not something " special ". Sony decided ( as almost all japanese vintage tonearms. ) to use Stevenson alignment that's the worst kind of alignment with the higher tracking distortions and tracking error over all the LP surface but the last 3mm. Go figure ! ! !
That's what you want to listen? Higher everywhere distortions?.
If I was you I will use any other protractor but Sony one and choose between Lôfgren A ( Baerwald ) or Lôfgren B where both kind of alignments has way lower any kind of distortions.
Already discussed in many other threads that Stevenson is a universal ABERRATION and a great MISTAKE for we true music lovers and true audiophiles take it seriously. For me is a big " joke ".
Yes, same template designed to point the mounting holes in the plinth (one big and one very small).
Would it be possible to privately obtain a scan of your template for my personal use? I would be very grateful to you,I don't have this item and I wouldn't know how to place the arm exactly on the virgin plinth.
The issue when 2 arms are actually not the same can also be found with the Micro Seiki MA-505.
When MS sold table models including this arm it was actually not the same arm when bought separately.
No guessing which one is superior.
Exactly what i'm trying to say. It's a good example of the obvious difference between something that comes as a package deal with turntable and something that offered as a separate unit for audiophiles for use with any turntable (from the different manufacturers). Micro Seiki did it many times with their OEM tonearms, one of them is Luxman TA-1, same name, but two completely different version made. The stand alone version with removable armtube and stabilizer is so much better engineered and pimped up compared to the simplified version that comes with the table only. The price difference between two versions is huge, but the model number is the same.
Only blind man can't see two different versions of PUA-7, the cheaper and simplified version is the one that offered with SONY turntable only. Some people who comment on here may never had the original PUA-7 i am talking about. No questions that the arms are different and better design.
And only a much better version has been offered alone in the box for high price. This tonearm is better engineered. Anyone can look at the armlift (see how it works?) and at the mounting base, this is what completely missed or simplified in the cheaper version. I have this PUA-7 and my previous SONY arm was the 1600S (NOS).
The PUA-7 has its own geometry, different alignment method and their own Sony protractor. Stand alone PUA-7 version is 4 times more expensive than those arms removed from the turntables.
Dear @totem395 : only for your records this is a second source that confirm too that the PS-X70 tonearm is the PUA-7 and not an inferior design. Sony can't do that with a TT that in those times seen a fierce competition against Denon/ Pioneer, Kenwood and the like and if we take a look to its specs even today is really competitive:
I could not find ANYTHING valuable about Sony PUA-7 on audiogon for many years, i think we have only 2-3 users of the real PUA-7 here. I have asked everyone for an opinion about PUA-7 but no one can answer, never! So i bought the arm and I have this arm right now on my turntable. The arm removed from the SONY turntable is not the same and in fact a different simplified (cheap) version compared to the stand alone PUA-7 version that was ONLY available as a separate unit for high price at the time it was made. Here is the arm lift mechanism i have mentioned before, the best armlift ever, anyone who tried can confirm!
SONY PUA-7’s geometry and alignment method is different from conventional Baerwald, Lofgren, Stevenson. The original tamplate i got with my PUA-7 is here.
While the Mexican prefer to bla-bla-bla about cables that will make a big difference, let’s face the facts that the two version of the PUA-7 arms itself are very different and the market value for these arms are totally different (there are the reasons for that).
Anyone can buy and compare these versions to make sure.
I would prefer to discuss new facts about the difference between the arm installed on automatic sony turntable and the high-end separate unit designed for much better turntables (from the different manufacturers), but not an old article from vintageknob or vinylengine that everyone seen years ago.
@totem395
The issue when 2 arms are actually not the same can also be found with the Micro Seiki MA-505.
When MS sold table models including this arm it was actually not the same arm when bought separately.
No guessing which one is superior.
Thanks. Exactly what i’m trying to say. It is so strange that we have to point people to the simple facts. I had the arm designed by Micro Seiki for Luxman, my version was a separate unit TA-1 (with removable armtube and tonearm stabilizer) and it was a way different from the cheaper TA-1 that Luxman offered with their turntables (with non removable armtube and without stabilizer). It is so obvious that for a stand alone version a manufacturer will do the best (different materials, different features, just overall a much better arm) for higher price of course. Micro Seiki (made the arms for Luxman) or SONY with two different version of PUA-7 is a good example.
Below is the only comment from anothe user i could find on audiogon:
@radicalsteve Also the Sony PUA-7 and PUA-9 have a similar design and the PUA-7 is a ridiculously good sounding arm for the money, I have not heard the PUA-9 and would be interested to know if anyone else on this thread has heard that arm. Also the Ikeda arms use a rubber (or similar compound) O-ring between counterweight and arm tubes, and probably there are other designs like this out there?
How many people on here own the original stand alone PUA-7 tonearm ? I couldn’t find anyone who can comment on anything related to this particular model, except for the links to the vintageknob website.
I have the rare PUA 7 already for a different months, but I have not yet had the opportunity to install it on a plinth and connect a cartridge. I prefer not to pronounce incorrect information until the time of the test.
Dear @totem395 : Could be with MS but not with this Sony tonearm where in this link you can read is the PUA-7. The only differences with the stand alone version is the tonearm mount base and the arm lift and that's all, the tonearm design is exactly the same no doubt about. The information in the link is very clear and only the Sony tonearm designer could says a different " tale ":
as @lohanimal pointed out his tonearm was lifted from that Sony TT model.
Btw, @frogman is rigth the AN is the best internal tonearm wire we can use but before pull the triger the OP needs to be sure the tonearm is in perfect operation condition and if it's then is worth to invest in the AN rewiring. All vintage tonearms must be up-dated with a top today internal re-wiring due that the oldest original wire is totally outdated after 20-40 years. Certainly in those old times just does not exist a wire with the quality level as the AN, no way.
As afact the internal wire quality level in any tonearm design is extremely critical to preserve " intact " the valuable and sensitive recorded signal information that the cartridge pick-up from the LP.
We all know that at each single link in the whole system audio chain that the cartridge signal always is more or less " heavy " degraded so we have to take care at each single link and we have to remember that after the transducer/cartridge the first degradation link is that tonearm internal wire ( along the headshell wire/conectors. ) and the audio signal that must pass through the tonearm internal wire has to run on it not for 3cms. but a lot more and at each fraction mm. the signal is suffering degradation and we don't want that and need to put at minimum that signal degradation.
AN makes a paramount quality level differences for the better. Yes, manufactured with silver that's way better conductor than cooper and that at that extremely critical link we need nothing but the best because the information we lost in that internal wire we just can't recovery in any way, it's losted for ever ! !
Simply in the interest of helping the OP who apparently is learning about tonearms and tonearm wire options, I would point out that no one has said silver is better. The AN wire is a fantastic wire; it simply happens to be silver. There are great copper wires. In my experience, the AN is an infinitely better wire than the Cardas, which happens to be copper. It is also an exceptionally flexible wire which can only benefit a tonearm with possibly not the greatest bearings. Worth the extra money? Personal call. I think a better question is will there be an audible improvement in sound? I would say, definitely; and if one considers what many spend two hundred bucks on with very questionable results.....
Your arm is not the PUA-7 but a simplified cheaper version with different base and without proper armlift sony designed for their best models. I must admit the armlift mechanism on the original stand alone PUA-7 is one of the best ever (i own many tonearms but none of them have such precise armlift, this is very important to have precise armlift, especially for expensive cartridges with delicate cantilevers). There are many reasons why the arm removed from PS-X70 is 3 times cheaper than original Sony PUA-7 made for all turntables as the separate unit. The stand alove version is better, it’s rare and hard to find, expect to pay over $1k if you looking for a mint condition PUA-7, while the simplified version is very easy to find and not rare at all.
Knife-edge bearing must be avoided, some modern cartridge manufacturers do not recommend to use knife-edge bearings with their cartridges.
You can buy Cardas Litz tonearm wires for about $50 set. It’s absolutely crazy to pay 200-300 quids for 4 internal toneam wires. It’s a rip-off, especially for such a cheap version of Sony tonearm. Normally high quality vintage tonearms will impress listeners with stock internal wiring.
It is not necessary that you will prefer silver wire over copper wire, just because someone said silver is better.
How many people on here own the original stand alone PUA-7 tonearm ? I couldn’t find anyone who can comment on anything related to this particular model, except for the links to the vintageknob website.
My Sony PUA-7 is fine with stock internal toneam wiring.
@best-groove Oh no - it was less than £200ukp - I primarily got it as I liked the idea of the TTS 8000 having a matching Sony arm. My intention is for it to have an everyday workaday cartridge like a Denon DL103 - the others arm is a brand new Helius Orion that's gonna house a much fancier cartridge - likewise I have a few other arms too. Seeing as I have the arm - I have to give it a little love
I bought the arm on the premise that it was a pua 7 after reading into it more I realised it was ps x...😭 that said it’s gonna be a multiple arm mount plinth and I am gonna experiment with a townshend trough
Is the Ps X arm worth spending getting AN or say Ikeda wire?
it would be worthwhile to have bought the arm that was sold separately, the one supplied on the turntable and a version that resembles the PUA 7 but is not the exact same thing; construction tolerances and bearings have friction different, but perhaps you are already aware of all this. If it were identical, it would not explain why Samurai electronics on ebay never manages to sell it for some time (a few years) Now that you have it, fix it without getting too crazy about the choice of wiring IHMO
I reckon it is the one fitted to the PSX 70 because the standalone PUA 7 has a slightly different arm base and I think a connector at the base. This one was sold to me on the premise that it was a PUA 7 but the wires are just hanging out at the bottom.
That's the reason that I need to get it re-wired.
I spoke to a good tech in the UK and he actually recommended kabob's super flex as it's the most flexible wire due to being in silicone.
The alternatives are: Incognito - silver or gold that goes from the cartridge to the phono plugs
Is the Ps X arm worth spending getting AN or say Ikeda wire?
Dear @lohanimal: My take is that first find out if that tonearm is in good operation condition and for this you have to mount it in your TT and listening to it before you can or could think in a tonearm up-date.
Yes, silver Litz. The Audio Note UK wire; NOT the Kondo/Audio Note Japan wire which, as Lew says, can cost a small fortune. There is a bit of mystery around what exactly differentiates the two versions of the wire. Some claim the Kondo is the best. I use the AN UK wire in my ET2 and I think it is fantastic.
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