quatsino
Active Member
In most forums on the Internet some single company or set of equipment gets a bruising and over time the unsuitablity of this same equipment takes on urban legend proportions. People need something to agree on in the negative I guess. On AK and elsewhere (although AK is king) Technics seems to have fallen victim to this phenomenon...
I picked up a gorgeous Yamaha CR1020 receiver the other day - mint of course, and hooked it up to my regular system for a try out. I'll post pics later. Then hooked up Akai AA1200 to do a side by side test. The Akai has never done well on my Angstrom speakers - too much bass and forget about the loudness switch -the speakers just want to pop out and the whole thing sounds like ass. So...out come the Kabuki Sansui XP's.
I know these aren't the best speakers around but the 120wpc Akai makes 'em work - the setup rocks, clear and tight - loudness switch in and the sliding glass doors start to rattle. But most importantly the sound is GOOD - phono or CD. This Akai just needs the right speakers.
So next I unpacked the 125wpc Technics SA-800...center the control knobs - nice resistance and tactile feel, each knob is even after all these years and 1000's of hours of play time. (I'm first owner from '78) Hook up the XP's, the Angstroms too, next the phono and the Nakamichi CD deck and an FM dipole. Volume down and....contact. All lights and LEDS looking good - give Madonna a whack on her big behind - and turn up the big knob. Magic - kickass magic - hit the acoustic control (tone defeat for bass/mid/treb and 2 boost switches) and roll on some tone controls. Yeah the little engineers at Matsushita knew what they were doing. Acoustic control off and hit the loudness switch - roll the power to 4 - sliding doors start to open by themselves. What about the sound at this volume? SOLID, punchy, clear, no hint of distortion, fun to listen to. Turn down the volume a bit and click over to the Angstroms - beautiful sound. Puts the Akai in it's place.
All of this out of mint 30 year old equipment that would look classy on ANY high-end audio showroom shelf. Sorry Technics bashers - All I have to say is that I guess you've never heard the good stuff.
I picked up a gorgeous Yamaha CR1020 receiver the other day - mint of course, and hooked it up to my regular system for a try out. I'll post pics later. Then hooked up Akai AA1200 to do a side by side test. The Akai has never done well on my Angstrom speakers - too much bass and forget about the loudness switch -the speakers just want to pop out and the whole thing sounds like ass. So...out come the Kabuki Sansui XP's.
I know these aren't the best speakers around but the 120wpc Akai makes 'em work - the setup rocks, clear and tight - loudness switch in and the sliding glass doors start to rattle. But most importantly the sound is GOOD - phono or CD. This Akai just needs the right speakers.
So next I unpacked the 125wpc Technics SA-800...center the control knobs - nice resistance and tactile feel, each knob is even after all these years and 1000's of hours of play time. (I'm first owner from '78) Hook up the XP's, the Angstroms too, next the phono and the Nakamichi CD deck and an FM dipole. Volume down and....contact. All lights and LEDS looking good - give Madonna a whack on her big behind - and turn up the big knob. Magic - kickass magic - hit the acoustic control (tone defeat for bass/mid/treb and 2 boost switches) and roll on some tone controls. Yeah the little engineers at Matsushita knew what they were doing. Acoustic control off and hit the loudness switch - roll the power to 4 - sliding doors start to open by themselves. What about the sound at this volume? SOLID, punchy, clear, no hint of distortion, fun to listen to. Turn down the volume a bit and click over to the Angstroms - beautiful sound. Puts the Akai in it's place.
All of this out of mint 30 year old equipment that would look classy on ANY high-end audio showroom shelf. Sorry Technics bashers - All I have to say is that I guess you've never heard the good stuff.