Any advice on buying old Technics amps

harleytech51

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Hi, im looking to put together an old style hi-fi set up and have a short list of 3 very good condition and fully working amps..The question is ive trawled the sites for spec and info and its very limited...
Heres my choices,
SU810 Amp in as new condition all fully working....
SU-A600 Amp also in very good working condition present owner from new..
SU-V470 Amp..Again very good condition and fully working..

Theres no glitches on any of these amps and each one looks superb.. I will be using the amp with a Graphic Equaliser, CD deck and a Turntable for my old vinyl...Speakers will be liable to change between some Missions, Castle Acoustics etc..

Can anyone give advice on which if any of these amps would be the best to go for...Ive gone for the Technics as ive had them in the past and always liked them...Thanks for anyone who has time to reply...
 
Broaden your search. There's much, much better equipment out there than old Technics rubbish, at any price.

Also do yourself a favour and ditch the graphic EQ, they're just another component in the signal chain doing negative things to the sound. A lot of people argue that EQs help compensate for the room acoustics, but if your room is that bad that you think you need a Graphic to compensate, then there's way more going on than it can actually help with - the main thing is that a graphic EQ doesn't control timing, and timing and phase cancellation and room reflections are what cause bad sound, not having too much bass or treble!
 
Unfortunately I cannot advise on any of the amps you mention as I have no experience with any of them. However, I do have a Technics SU-8044 Integrated Stereo Amp which I have owned for 34 years and which looks as good as new and has never given any problems other than the volume control requiring a quick spray of Servisol switch cleaner twice in all that time.

Therefore, what I am saying, from my experience anyway, is you are quite right to be looking at Technics amps.

Whichever one you go for, best of luck.

Cheers,

Martin.

p.s. After reading the above post, I see you now have two opposing views.
 
Well thanks guys ...Guitar Bizarre, I accept your opinion fully but that's not really much help to me as I specifically asked if anyone could advise me out of the three amps was there one any better than the other..It would have been more help if along with your opinion you maybe suggested some alternatives for me to look into...??

Martin, thanks for your input, you like many people ive spoken to speak highly of Technics, I had good service from it years ago and that's why im considering some now....Thanks
 
Martin, thanks for your input, you like many people ive spoken to speak highly of Technics, I had good service from it years ago and that's why im considering some now....Thanks

No problem and, as said already, best of luck whatever you choose.

Cheers,

Martin.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2
 
I think 470 is better: more weigth (8 kg vs 6 kg) , more power supply (450 w vs 350 w ) and an awesome old style look...! I have a Technics amp from 1990 and is ok....How many € to pay ?
 
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Broaden your search. There's much, much better equipment out there than old Technics rubbish, at any price.

I'm glad you've got so much better ears than me, I'm very happy with my SU-C1000M2 & SE-A1000M2 (control and power amp) and have been for over 20 years.

When I bought it I demoed loads of amps and I prefered the sound of Technics over the likes of Yamaha, Denon, Rotel etc, have recently changed my speakers for a set of Kef Q300's, that makes a great combo to my ears.

Newer isn't always better, my dad had an old pioneer amp feeding wharfdale speakers that sounded great.
 
A lot of the Technics gear from what was seen as the "golden age" of Japanese hi-fi was actually superb.

Leaving budget aside,you would find the following:

SP10 and SP15 turntables....still amongst the best and most sought after at any price.

ST-9030,ST9300 and ST9700 tuners...again rated amongst the best.

Some of the open reel recorders again highly rated.

To dismiss them out of hand or in sweeping fashion is missing the quality of many of their products.
Of course,they produced turkeys,as did almost every other manufacturer,and continues to be the case,but build quality was never an issue.
 
A lot of the Technics gear from what was seen as the "golden age" of Japanese hi-fi was actually superb.

Leaving budget aside,you would find the following:

SP10 and SP15 turntables....still amongst the best and most sought after at any price.

ST-9030,ST9300 and ST9700 tuners...again rated amongst the best.

Some of the open reel recorders again highly rated.

To dismiss them out of hand or in sweeping fashion is missing the quality of many of their products.
Of course,they produced turkeys,as did almost every other manufacturer,and continues to be the case,but build quality was never an issue.
On that note could someone point me in the right direction as to what amos to consider or dismiss...im currently awash with different model numbers and little info as to what exactly is what...LOL...Or should I go get a Rotel?????:facepalm::facepalm::lease:
 
The early SU-Vx amps were nice, and I'm hoping to get one at a good price one day. I'd say the V8, V9 and V10 are the best (and in that order) but if in good condition, they'll go for over £100 easily. I don't think I've seen a V10 for sale yet, actually.

There are quite a few others too, of course. Have a look on ƒI[ƒfƒBƒI‚Ì‘«Õ@|ƒI[ƒfƒBƒI‹@Ší‚ðV‹ŒE«”\‚ð–â‚킸‰½‚Å‚àÐ‰î| or on The Vintage Knob - Online vintage audio museum, forum and image bank for ideas. THere is also a dedicated Technics site somewhere, but I can never remember its URL or even find it on google half the time...

[Edit] - no idea why that URL looks funky... www . audio-heritage . jp without the spaces
 
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I have an old SU-V670 amp and it still holds its own after all these years. However, the volume pot is now faulty and needs repair, so I guess this might be a weak link to check.
It does have a power amp setting which bypasses all of the tone and balance controls, and sound fantastic in this mode, which is what I intend to use it as in the future once repaired, powering the main L & R in my home cinema.
 
Nice solid amps - I owned a bit of Technics stuff back in the early 90's and still have one of their amps somewhere (knackered volume control though:().
Of the ones you list I'd go for the newer SU-A600.
From what I remember this series of amps was pretty well reviewed at the time. Maybe not as highly regarded as some of the Kenwood and Pioneer stuff of the era, but definitely not 'old Technics rubbish'.
I'd ditch the graphic equaliser though, unless you have a particular 80's fetish:eek:
The early 90's was a bit of a golden era for budget to midrange Japanese electronics. You can get some nice kit from Marantz, Pioneer, etc for peanuts these days.:thumbsup:
 
Soundmangt4 and MarkLG, I notice you both refer to problems with the volume control on your old Technics amps. I don't know if you noticed my first post in this thread where I mentioned that the only problem I have ever had with my SU-8044 was with the volume control, but it was easily sorted with a good spray of Servisol switch cleaner. Obviously, I don't know if your problems are the same, but worth pointing out anyway. Servisol used to be available from Amazon and may still be.

Apologies to the OP for a slight hijacking of his thread. :)

Cheers,

Martin.

Sent from my Galaxy S3 using Tapatalk 2
 
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