Technics Haters? Not here!
I guess I've lead a sheltered life, I didn't know there were any Technics bashers out there, at least, not any numbers worth considering. I have been a Technics fan since 1978 when I was stationed with the USAF in W. Germany in 1978.
I was at Ramstein AB and they had an awesome audio-photo club on base. I intitially was considering the more mainstream companies such as Pioneer and looked very hard at Marantz, Carver and some of the other higher end brands. At one point, I figured I would have to go with several brands in order to get the best I could afford. It was at this point I also started looking at Technics. The harder I looked, the more I realized Technics had the most bang for the buck. for an open reel, while looking at mainly Pioneer RT-909, Revox and Teac, I quickly found Technics had exactly what I wanted in the RS-1700. The same was true for turntables and I found I didn't need to buy different brands since Technics had the best specs by a wide margin in their price range. In fact, I'd have to double my money to find another competitive brand.
With my components now selected (Technics Pro Series System), it was on to the speakers. Again, initially it was Pioneer but quickly changed to JBL and Klipsch. I decided on buying a pair of Technics SB-6000A's since I couldn't afford the Klipsch Cornwall's or LaScala's at the time, to go with a Technics SA-5770 receiver and a Technics SL-1310MKII turntable. I really liked the look of the dark green, military type of look Technics had to offer and the 5770 was a great way to start off while I built my main system. On a meager income of a air Force Airman, it took a little over a year to put the main system together.
After all the dust settled, I not so surprisingly ended up with all Technics:
SL-1310MKII Turntable
SH-905ST Audio Rack
SH-4060 Audio Timer
RS-1700 Open Reel with several accessories
RS-M85 Cassette Deck
ST-9030 Tuner
SH-9010 EQ
SU-9070 Pre-Amp
SH-9020 Meter Unit
SE-9060 Amp
SB-E100 Loudspeakers. I sold the SB-6000's to a friend finance an upgrade to these.
I never lost my lust for Klipsch and bought a pair of Klipschorns, a pair of La Scala's, a pair of Cornwalls and a pair of KG-2's over the years. I later traded the Klipschorns for another pair of LaScala's plus cash. After all these years, I finally did an A/B comparison between the La Scala's and the SB-E100's, out of neccessity, earlier this year. I could not get the La Scala's to perform in our home theater as they had in our family room. I brought the SB-E100's in just to see how they would do in the same setting and was AMAZED that they blew away the La Scala's with realistic tight bass and simply wonderful highs. I have always been a fan of Technics components but, when it came to speakers, Klipsch is where my heart was. That is, until I made a side by side comparison. I'm about to sell one pair of the La Scala's and the Cornwalls. The Technics 6060's will replace the La Scala's and the 5000's will replace the Cornwalls. This isn't because these particular speakers will outperform the Klipsch but because I now have too many speakers. The Technics will peform nicely and the Klipsch will bring considerably more money while I thin the herd. The Techncis hater can have the Klipsch, and they'll never know what they're missing. That is better for me since it will keep prices down on Technics. It would be sad if I was a seller but I'm a buyer when it comes to Technics, the haters can have the other brands.
What say you?
