Technics revealed a flurry of new products at Axpona 2019, building upon the linage of the well-received SP10 Series of Direct Drive Turntables. On display in the Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center listening room in Chicago attendees could find new SP10R and SL1000R harnessing direct drive technology as well as a new “Grand Class Networking Super Audio CD Player with MQA” to help pick up the slack on the digital side of things.
Bill Voss, Business Development Manager of Technics along with Glenn Poor’s Audio Video of Champaign, IL hosted a great sounding space with all Technics electronics and the very revealing Harbeth speakers. Very simply the system did not sound like a system at all, to my ears the extremely transparent nature of the components that day just sounded like… music. Nothing called attention it itself, tweeters were not screaming “Here I am”. There was nothing but music presented. With sub-par equipment the Harbeths can reveal some bumps along the chain, not here, with Technics. Everything was as it should be, all in the right place.
Details of the debut products:
SL-1500C Premium Class Direct Drive Turntable
MSRP $1,199.99
1. Single-rotor coreless direct drive motor.
2. High torque equaling that of an SL-1200MK5.
3. Simple elegant styling for audiophile appeal.
4. No pitch, strobe, platter etchings or target light.
5. User adjustable VTA
6. Static balanced “S” tonearm.
7. Interchangeable headshell. 8. Factory mounted Ortofon 2M Red (a $100 value)
9. Built-in phono EQ/preamp
10. Dual analog output (1 direct/1 via phono EQ)
11. Auto lift at end of record (defeatable).
12. Hinged dust cover.
SL-G700 Grand Class Networking Super Audio CD Player with MQA
MSRP $2,999.99
1. Companion to SU-G700 AMP.
2. CD/SACD (hybrid high-res DSD disc)
3. MQA processor/decoder.
4. Asahi Kasei Microdevices’ top-of-the-line DAC AK4497 with high S/N ratio and low distortion.
5. Dedicated headphone amp with variable volume.
6. Balanced & unbalanced analog output.
7. Optical & Coaxial in & out.
8. Chromecast built-in to reach YouTube, Deezer, etc.
9. Works with optional Google Assistant.
10. TIDAL, Spotify, Internet radio built-in.
11. Uses new “Audio Center” T-app + (handheld remote)
12. Compatible upgrade to Technics Premium, Grand & Reference series AMP/NWP.
by Paul Elliott
