Sony PS-HX500 Turntable Review

Can vinyl be high-res?

by Ed Selley
Hi-Fi Review

28

Recommended
Sony PS-HX500 Turntable Review
MSRP: £450.00

What is the Sony PS-HX500?

The Sony PS-HX500 is a belt-driven unsuspended turntable that costs £450. On the face of it, one look at the pictures does not suggest that this is especially newsworthy, let alone worth putting through a full review process. However this is not a product to simply acknowledge the existence of and then go on our way because, for two interlinked reasons, this is an important record player.

The first of these reasons is that it wears the Sony name – the very name that helped to develop the CD and then put much of the early running into popularising it. This is the same company that tried to push us beyond CD, into a world of high resolution audio in the form of the flawed but fascinating SACD format. This is the company who is still pushing the envelope in the 4K TV and projector categories with some bold and innovative products. Sony has given the world some technological blind alleys but it remains a trendsetter – a trendsetter that is building a record player.

The second is that Sony has equipped their baby with abilities that are unique in a turntable at any price. As the company has been pushing the concept and potential of High Res Audio, the PS-HX500 needs to fit in with this message and that means that it has the ability not simply to digitise vinyl but to encode it at sampling rates and in formats that are firmly exotic. As such, there's some important reasons why this is a very significant turntable but is it a good one?

Features

Sony PS-HX500
The Sony is at one level almost determinedly conventional. Like the vast majority of tuntables available at this price point, the Sony is a full plinth design that is unsuspended and driven by a belt. In the past, Sony produced some decidedly unusual turntables when the format was the main outlet for home listening but the PS-HX500 looks like it has been designed with practicality, familiarity and simplicity in mind.

It has also been designed with a view to working with as much equipment as possible. Like a number of designs we have seen hit the market of late, the Sony has a phono stage built into the output. This means that you can connect it directly to any line level input on an amp or preamp and away you go. Just as usefully, you can switch it out and connect it to an external phono stage if you wish and Sony has remembered to fit an external ground too.

The PS-HX500 makes use of a cast aluminium platter that is relatively thin by the standards of such devices. Sony has additionally countersunk it into the plinth so it barely protrudes over the top. As a thin piece of aluminium is not the perfect surface to place a record on, there is then a 5mm thick rubber mat to provide dampening and to increase the overall thickness and mass of the platter.

If there is an area where the Sony is a little more unusual, it is the arm. The design is not radical in itself – it is a nine inch, straight arm with a fixed headshell – but the use of such features on a deck for a Japanese turntable is more unusual. Traditionally, Japanese manufacturers preferred the use of S or J shaped arms and detachable headshells – two things that are apparent on the Audio Technica AT-LP5 by way of example. The fitment of such an arm on the Sony gives it a vaguely European appearance.
Sony PS-HX500
The arm comes fitted with a moving magnet cartridge that is completely unmarked and of origin unknown but dimensionally and in design terms looks uncannily like a Grado unit. Sony aren't big on commenting where their bits come from so there's no immediate clues in this direction. It does have one minor but underrated feature in the form of a small white line at the front of the cartridge that runs in vertical alignment with the stylus, making cueing a little easier.

The only other physical feature of the Sony that is worthy of note are the feet. Where most rivals use a single piece rubber foot, the PS-HX500 uses a two piece design that places a damped rubber suspension inside a plastic tube. It isn't much to look at but it does seem effective at keeping the Sony free of vibration and interference.

The 'killer app' of the PS-HX500 is lurking in the guts of the device though. Like a few turntables we've already tested – the Pro-Ject Essential and Audio Technica AT-LP5 – the Sony can apply analogue to digital conversion to the signal and output it via a USB-B connection on the back. Unlike the other two models, the Sony isn't happy to settle with a 'CD sized' 44.1kHz or 48kHz signal. While it can do these sample rates, it can also encode to PCM at 96kHz and 192kHz. Not content with this, if you have equipment that can handle it, the Sony can encode to DSD at 2.8MHz and 5.6MHz.

DSD is short for Direct Stream Digital and it represents a completely different approach to high resolution digital. Instead of a multi-bit signal being handled at multiples of 44.1 or 48kHz, it is instead a 1 bit signal sampled at 64 times the 44.1kHz sampling rate of CD but at only a fraction of the format's 16-bit resolution. There are pros and cons to DSD over PCM but DSD is Sony's baby (along with Philips) and while the company has pretty much accepted that SACD is a dead duck, has kept up with DSD. In creating the PS-HX500, they have in some ways covered off the shortage of bespoke DSD material.

The other part of the Sony's encoding that is worthy of note is that along with the hardware, Sony has created software that can be downloaded from their website to carry out the process. This sounds trivial but is important because most rivals are designed to use Audacity which is not custom designed to rip vinyl. This can make the process fiddly and irritating so if Sony has applied any of the flair they periodically demonstrate with software, it promises to make the process a little easier.

Design

Sony PS-HX500
Let's be completely honest here – the Sony is visually dull. In a field that includes a resurgent Rega making minimalist masterpieces, Elipson channelling their French flair into something at once quirky but practical and even Audio Technica making something that feels purposeful and semi industrial, the Sony feels almost completely lacking in the same sense of purpose. The overall effect is of a very black piece of engineering that was the result of a committee and probably not a small committee either.

This being said, the key bits of the Sony feel well assembled and well thought out. The arm moves in a confidence inspiring way and feels solid and well assembled. The platter spins up quickly and seems to be consistently pitch stable. The PS-HX500 isn't pretty but it seems to be put together with reasonable care and attention. You also get some niceties like a lid and electronic speed control as well which aren't always givens at this price point.
Sony PS-HX500
The PS-HX500 isn't pretty but it seems to be put together with reasonable care and attention

How was the PS-HX500 tested?

The Sony has principally been used with its own phono stage directly into a Naim Supernait 2 integrated amp and Neat Momentum 4i speakers. It has then additionally been tested into a Cyrus Phono Signature Phono Stage as a more absolute test of the arm and cartridge. All equipment has been connected to an IsoTek Evo 3 Sigmas Mains conditioner.

Ripping has been carried out onto a Lenovo T530 ThinkPad and the resulting test files have been tested via jRiver into a Chord Hugo, via UPnP into a Naim ND5XS streamer and XP5 XS power supply and also via a Pioneer XDP-100R portable audio player. A mixture of PCM and DSD files have been created. In all cases, the test material used was vinyl.

Vinyl Playback

Sony PS-HX500
From the moment you connect it all up (a largely painless procedure), the Sony manages to get a number of the basics right. Connected to the Naim amp via RCA cable with no ground – the Supernait 2 doesn't have one – the Sony is to all intents and purposes silent at idle and background noise levels stay commendably low under all conditions.

Listening to the stunning pressing of Låpsley's Long Way Home, the Sony is able to put in a good account of itself. The presentation has plenty of air and space to it and the PS-HX500 feels tonally even across the frequency response. Vocals are well handled and there is a space and three dimensionality to the way the Sony makes music that is very pleasing to listen to. For various reasons – both down to the quirks of the format and psychoacoustics, vinyl often can sound wide but lacking in stereo definition. Here the Sony does a good job of creating a believable stereo image.
Another area where the PS-HX500 is strong is the bass response. The Sony manages to produce low end that is both deep and detailed. This bass in turn integrates well with the rest of the frequency response and this means that the PS-HX500 never struggles to produce the scale and impact demanded of large scale recordings. Its ability to scale this back and deliver smaller pieces without sounding overblown is also admirable.

Where the Sony is less assured is the upper registers. With good quality recordings that have luxuriant production values, the PS-HX500 is happy but older pressings and those where less effort has been paid to the mastering, the results aren't so good. Where the Sony is especially problematic is with end of side recordings and peaky material. Matters are improved by switching to the Cyrus Phono Signature (although at £1,200, you'd have to hope so) and with careful system matching, the worst excesses can be ameliorated but compared to the smooth and refined Elipson, the Sony can feel rough and ready.

Ripping and Encoding

Sony PS-HX500
As I have noted before, ripping vinyl is usually a thankless task. In a world where ripping and tagging digital files has got ever simpler and more refined, doing something in real time that is easy to screw up can come across as appallingly frustrating. Where the Sony gets off to an excellent start is that the software created to enable it to rip and encode is good. The layout is logical, the business of splitting tracks is self explanatory and the integration of tagging and metadata into the same software is a very good idea. In short, Sony has dragged the concept of vinyl ripping from something that you do if you absolutely have to into something you might seriously consider.

The software isn't perfect – it has no gain adjustment and as it can't go to a full screen setting, if you aren't careful, you can click off the edge at the wrong moment and send it to the back of the stack but by and large, this is commendable software indeed. More importantly, the rips themselves sound pretty good too. There is unavoidably going to be a degree of the character of the Sony that imprints on the rip but this is not too severe.
And perhaps equally importantly, there is definitely an argument that DSD has some benefits as the format for the ripping. The DSD 2.8MHz setting is a sweet spot in the options as the file sizes remain manageable and the 5.6MHz didn't seem to add much to proceedings. With the kind permission of the band The Slow Readers Club, I have made three 90 second rips at 24/192kHz WAV, 2.8MHz DSD and 5.6MHz DSD which can be downloaded HERE. You will need to have software and hardware able to play the files as this is simply a link to the files themselves.

If I was thinking of using the Sony for ripping a significant collection, I confess I'd probably alter the fabric of the unit before doing so. Swapping the rubber mat for something like a Funk Firm Acromat and changing the cartridge for something with a similar profile but smoother top end like a Nagaoka or Ortofon would still work into the internal phono stage but hopefully provide a higher quality rip. The beauty of the Sony, like all turntables, is that this would not be hard to do.
Sony PS-HX500
Sony has changed the concept of vinyl ripping from something you'd only do if you absolutely had to into something you might seriously consider

Conclusion

Pros

  • Superbly implemented ripping
  • Punchy and dynamic sound
  • Solid build

Cons

  • Can sound a little harsh
  • Looks incredibly boring
  • Can be outperformed by less specialised rivals at the same price

Sony PS-HX500 Turntable Review

The Sony PS-HX500 is a slightly odd device in the turntable category because when it comes down to the basics, this is a device at least partly designed to only play records once. Considering that this is the case, Sony has to be commended on not making the PS-HX500 an obviously 'one shot' device – it is easy to live with and capable of good performance, even if some less specialised rivals are capable of more.

As a ripper though, this is a device in a category all of its own and unless Sony really goes niche and develops a phono stage with this functionality, it represents one of the most impressive analogue to digital convertors on the market. It may well be that the actual market for the PS-HX500 is more people like myself with an interest in the ripping side rather than people looking for an affordable turntable but nonetheless, the PS-HX500 is a very clever product with solid implementation that deserves recommendation.

Scores

Sound Quality

.
.
8

Build Quality

.
.
8

Connectivity

.
9

Ease of Use

.
9

Features

10

Value for Money

.
.
8

Verdict

.
.
8
8
AVForumsSCORE
OUT OF
10

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