Sony PUA 7 to re-wire or not

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.

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?

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:

https://www.vinylengine.com/library/sony/ps-x70.shtml   


Btw, here the up date of the PUA-7 :

http://www.thevintageknob.org/sony-PUA-9.html

and the link is a third source about.

R.