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Beautiful Sony PS-22 Turntable Repair

Leave a Comment / Turntables & Vinyl, Repair, Service / By / / direct drive, PS-22 repair, Sony, Sony PS-22, Sony turntable
Table of Contents:

Join me as we look at another great and affordable vintage vinyl spinner, the Sony PS-22 direct drive turntable!

You’ve got Liquid Mike in low power mode today, but that won’t stop me from writing an article about this lovely Sony PS-22 direct drive turntable I’ve just repaired. I’m a few kg and some energy and cash lighter than this time last week, recovering from the worst gastroenteritis I can recall. I’m going to lose more workshop time, unfortunately, but let’s see if I can at least write this article today.

Background

One question I’m frequently asked is: “Can you tell me about more affordable vintage turntables?”, and it’s a great question to ask. I’ve written many articles about affordable vintage turntables, and there are hundreds I’ve not written about, way too many to list here.

Affordable vintage turntables are almost always better options than new ones. There are some decent, affordable new decks, and I’ve written an FAQ about this to help those new to turntables. Buying vintage gets you something so much better, cooler, and more interesting, for the same money, though. Who doesn’t want better, cooler and more interesting?!

The Sony PS-22 direct drive turntable is a fully automatic model from 1977, a good year for vinyl. The absolutely stunning and range-topping Sony PS-8750, a turntable I’ve repaired a few of over the years and a personal favourite, also hails from this great line-up, something we can see here, courtesy of hifi wiki:

Sony PS-22
Don’t worry about the German; you can still see and understand all the basic specs for the purposes of comparison. The funny thing with specs like these is that they all look similar, but the decks sound quite different, for a variety of reasons.

Direct drive means that the platter sits directly on the motor, effectively becoming part of it. There are various technical advantages to direct drive operation, something I’ve written about. That’s why record cutting lathes – the things that MAKE the vinyl records we love – are direct drive. This doesn’t exclude the possibility of great belt drive decks, of course, but another article, another time, when I have more energy!

Fully automatic operation, for folks who don’t know, means that the turntable can play one side of a record without the user ever needing to touch the tonearm. This is great for folks new to vinyl as it reduces the risk of vinyl or stylus damage (we’ve all been there), and it simplifies the record-playing process, making it more user-friendly. Just select the size of your record – 7″, 10″ or 12″ settings are available on the PS-22 – and slide the start switch to play. That’s it. The machine takes care of the rest for you.

Sony PS-22
This is the lovely old Sony PS-22 as I take my first look at her. Layout and operation are straightforward. Note that despite her fully automatic design, manual operation is also possible, a great thing, hence the arm lift/lower lever above the disc size selector on the front right. Speed selection and verniers are to the left.

Sony PS-22 Specifications

Courtesy of our friends at Vinyl Engine, adapted by Liquid Mike

Type: fully automatic

Drive method: direct drive

Motor: DC servo controlled

Platter: 326mm aluminium alloy diecast

Speeds: 33 and 45rpm

Wow and flutter: 0.03% wrms

Signal to noise ratio: 70dB

Tonearm: statically balanced

Effective length: 216.5mm

Overhang: 16.5mm

Cartridge weight range: 4 to 12g

Headshell weight: 7.5g

Dimensions: 446 x 140 x 374mm

Weight: 7.1kg

Installed cartridge: VL-32G moving magnet type

Year: 1977

Cost: 499DM / $250 USD / $220 AUD in 1978, equivalent to $800 – $1250 USD or $1250 – $2000 AUD in 2025.

Repair

This Sony PS-22 had likely never been serviced and came with its original headshell and worn cartridge. The deck wouldn’t run either, making only the crunching noise of gears not properly engaging. This was obviously the pressing issue to solve before tackling anything else.

I explained to the owner, a new customer, that I would first resolve the operational issues and make sure everything worked correctly. If we passed that point, I suggested we then fit a new and better cartridge, offering improved sonic performance and the assurance that quality, genuine styli would be available for at least the next 10 years, one of the biggest issues with older MM carts.

He was very happy with that approach, and so with all that in mind, let’s go!

Sony PS-22
As always, we start with disassembly, cleaning, some initial lubrication and inspection of what she is and isn’t doing. Note that, like the Denon DP-30L from last week, this Sony PS-22 uses a tape head to ‘sense’ platter speed and keep things running at the correct speed. Like all decks using this sense methodology, that gap must be set correctly.
https://liquidaudio.com.au/lovely-denon-dp-30l-turntable-service/
This is a close-up of the controls to show how dirty they are, and that manual operation option I mentioned earlier. Nice layout, this one, and it all works well, as long as things are periodically serviced, which this was not! More advanced decks, like many Technics models from this time, use optical sensing to determine what record, if any, is on the platter.
https://liquidaudio.com.au/lovely-denon-dp-30l-turntable-service/
And this is where your money went in a proper old-school turntable like this one: design and engineering. Note the abundance of metal in this design. Motor is in the middle, transformer, top right, drive and control circuitry bottom right, and all mechanical switching and arm control is on the left hand side as you look at this image.

Everything is designed to be serviceable and repairable when things fail. This one is also multi-voltage. I will say though that there are lots of points of motion here, many pivots, levers, sliders, etc, and all require cleaning to remove old congealed greases, and then re-lubrication, at this age.
Sony PS-22
Here’s one example, a sliding bearing and pivot, now re-greased.
Sony PS-22
Here are some more, multiple pivots and levers in this case. All must be cleaned and/or lubricated, and the problem one/s must be found and fixed, which I was thankfully able to do. In this instance, one lever was seized up due to old, congealed grease. I was able to find it by carefully observing the operation of the deck and finding the part of the mechanism that was hanging and not returning to its resting position. That part is not visible here.
Sony PS-22
After resolving those operational issues and making various adjustments, I had this lovely Sony PS-22 running nicely once more. That left the last job – fitting a new Audio Technica AT VM95ML moving magnet cartridge, which works very well on an arm like this one. That done, I completed a precision alignment, including overhang, azimuth, tracking force, anti-skate, VTA, set running speeds, and all was perfect.
Sony PS-22
Job done, another one saved!
Toshi
Toshi and his mouse toy friend seemed to approve, so we’ve done something right!

Results

Well, apart from now looking almost like new again, something that significantly surprised her owner, this beautiful Sony PS-22 now sounds 100% better than she ever has before and works perfectly once again, a great result, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Sony PS-22
Nothing fancy here, just affordable turntabling at its best, courtesy of Japanese engineering and a little TLC, 50 years later.

Not only is her owner thrilled with this result, but the good news is that you can pick these great decks up cheaply if you look around. Don’t be put off by operational issues either. Many decks like this are thrown away, heaven forbid, because they never made it to someone who could fix them. A cheap, non-or partially running Sony PS-22 could be a great project.

Sony PS-22
Who doesn’t love a turntable with a strobe?!
Sony PS-22
Rather a handsome machine I reckon
Sony PS-22
A great-looking, excellent-sounding, and affordable direct drive turntable.

And so those are my thoughts on the Sony PS-22. I recommend this model to anyone looking for an affordable alternative to the various ordinary $1000 new options available. I’d have this over them any day, no need to even think about it. Remember that the equivalent retail price of this deck now would be between $1250 and $2000 AUD.

My apologies for the shorter article today, but this is about as much as I can muster. See you again soon, after Blood Incantation, if I make it. Wish me luck…!!

Thanks!

As always, thank you for visiting, and I hope you found this article informative. If you’d like me to look at your Sony PS-22 or any other Sony hi-fi turntable for you, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Sidenote: As you know, very little original, quality content like this exists, which is partly why I go to the effort of creating it. I was recently asked: “Who pays you to write these articles?” My surprised reply was “Nobody!”, though that would be nice!

This site is 100% independent, ad-free, and everything is created by me, in my time, and at my expense. People can support us in various ways, including commenting, liking, sharing, subscribing, and donating using the button in the footer. Recent donors are listed in the sidebar/footer. Tell your audio friends because it helps me, which helps you!

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