The Technics SA-DA10 is getting on, I grant that, but it is an impressive bit of kit, and peeking inside the case does nothing to dispel your respect for it. It was the first time I'd seen an amplifier with a tuner which had bi-wiring connectivity, which I wanted to go with my Tannoy Profile 632 speakers. Prior to getting it, I had used a Sherwood RV-7050R Receiver, but I felt backing vocals in particular were missing. I swapped the Sherwood for a Harmon Kardon 6300, which improved aspects of missing information, but still, I wasn't happy. It all changed after getting the Technics and switching over to the bi-wiring channel. There it was. Now, the sound was tighter and no longer loose and flabby. Stereo image suddenly popped into a believable soundstage. It was controlled with all vocals now coming at you from real people. My audiophilic appreciation was now fulfilled. Apart from one thing: Why didn't the fan at the back move? Even a little. This was the first time I had ever seen a fan on a hifi amp and I was baffled by it, until after a pleasurable indulgence in revisiting my CD collection, lasting about 4 hours, I felt the outer casing and considered cooking my next meal on it. It was at least as hot as some valve amps I'd seen. Then, I thought I knew why this amp needed a cooling mechanism. So, why didn't it go round? Even if it had a heat sensor circuit which was controlled to maintain a uniform temperature, that still didn't answer the question of the fan serving no purpose, because if the fan was part of a cooling system, it failed to function. So I worried. I changed the fan, just in case. No different. Now, surely if it ran hot and a fan was a feature of the design, it must be for a good reason. If the fan failed to function, I was going to be in trouble sooner or later. Sometimes I could play music all day. My imagination ran wild and I could see my new (second user) amp, bursting into flames as molten metal ran down my sound system housing. If you saw the movie '2012', then you'll know what I mean when I say I fancied I saw a little Woody Harrelson gazing in awe at the spectacle. I went on line and saw almost instantly that getting hot wasn't unique to my Technics, it was a common experience with other users. Here is what I did. I went to my local electronics supplies shop (Maplins) and bought some kit and took it home. Took out the fan and pulled the cable attaching it to the board inside the box. I then put 6 1.2v AA sized batteries into the plastic holder, giving me a 12volt pack. I attached a connector to the terminals on the pack, having a black and a red cable on, which I then rigged up to the fan. It sprang into life. I pulled out one battery, braking the circuit and screwed the fan back onto the back of the amp. I then put the battery I taken out back in, completing the circuit again and the fan went round at a rate of knots. I then put the lid of the amp back onto the chassis and put the mains cable back on it and switched the amp on. I ran a CD for about 40 minutes and tested the temperature of the case. Stone cold. The battery pack I rigged isn't noticeable at the back of the amp, so it is a neat solution. I don't know how many hours the fan will need to run before the batteries give out. Well, I'm still experimenting. But I have an amazing sound reproduction which I can make go very loud and it is impervious to a heat build up. Sorry Woody, you live to act another day.

build quality, terrific sound, bargain price.

Heat. Get a fan, real easy.

First, I describe myself as an audiophile because I love this stuff, and I spend whatever free time i can, listening closely to movie and music alike. So my opinions come from years of experience. Always on a budget, I am regularly searching for the diamond in the rough. For me, harman kardan have always been that, the audiophile grade receiver at the more budget price. Unfortunately, hk's newest receivers have one unnacceptable feature-they shut off, continuosly, randomly, whatever. Too bad, because it is a gorgeous piece. On to the technics review. have had the sada10 for two weeks, and i'm very impressed. The build quality is very solid, anti vibration chassis very cool. Champagne face plate looks more like brushed stainless, very handsome, looks cool with the blue lighting, which is dimmable. My first listen was through definitive technology bp8's, and right away, I heard subtleties that were absent using my hk avr25(still a great receiver.) At low volume, with my ear close to the speaker, there is virtually no audable noise, and that's without turning on the variable gain control. The receiver does run hot, i reccommend as i've done, to use a fan to keep things cool. I use a small vornado fan on very low, and that's all it takes-you can't even hear it. (for small spaces, brookstone makes a small black fan for 35.00 that's tiltable to fit on tight spaced shelves, aimed up still directs aie through top of receiver). To get this much receiver for 200 bucks is like a wish come true, very happy. P.S.-I reccommend 10 guage speaker wire to get the most signal, and to keep it cooler. Go to fluance.com, a loww cost, but i think, a great sounding budget priced speaker (i have their 70 dollar center, very solid and great sound). Anyway, they sell spools of 250 feet high grade 10 guage wire for 40.00, a steal. you'd spend 5-600.00 for name brand, and believe me, it's the same stuff-oxygen free.

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hk receivers

Bi-amplification plus VGCA creates true audiophile sound field. No problems. Spectacular DTS playback. Discrete, high powered amplification drives 5 channels effortlessly. Very easy setup. DVD-Audio capable. Worth 4 times what I paid.

100hz subwoofer crossover is lowest setting; could use 80hz THX setting to better exploit high end speakers (this is a tiny NIT!)

This is an update to my previous review. I have completely upgraded my speaker system to take advantage of the unique audiophile features of this A/V receiver; in particular, I now drive Polk RT800i towers using the bi-amplification capability of the SA-DA10. Combined with VGCA, the result is simply astonishing. Puts my neighbor's B&W's out to pasture. Stunning soundfield, articulation, nuance - never before have I heard a system which allows audible access to the recording engineer's decisions. Pinpoint positioning of instruments, simply lifelike in ways I've never before been exposed to. I look forward to the day I can afford a DVD-Audio player - it's now the next step! With my newly upgraded speaker setup (see below) this system achieves remarkable musical reproduction and home theater. I'm almost embarrassed to say I picked up this incredible, high quality, hi-fi A/V receiver for $199. I can't think of any competitor which offers true bi-amp capability for under $700. And even if one did, it still couldn't achieve the 120db headroom of VGCA. I simply thank my lucky stars for having found this incredible gem. After over a year of use, I honestly believe there is nothing close to this guy; not even the Outlaw. System: Technics SA-DA10 RCA F38310 HDTV Pioneer DV434 progressive scan DVD Polk CS400i center channel Polk RT800i towers Polk Fx300i surrounds Pinnacle CT-80 sub

Good stable power. Good build quality. Price Price Price Good sound

At this price I DONT THINK SO !!!!

OK My wife and myself finaly went for prologic.Made our livingroom into a theater room.Then we went shopping for electronics.First let me say that our "music system"is a Quad 606 amp,Quad 306 pre,Roksan Caspian CD and B&W 801 series II speakers. Whith that said one should see we have at least some ear. She set my budget at 2500.00 and I already had four Kef C-75 floor standing speakers (the first UniQ series)I thought would do nicely.We looked and and listened all day and on the way home just for kicks we stopped at Rex Audio Video (not the kind of place we go for audio)I saw the Technics SA-DA10 took it home (again just for kicks) and have never looked back. From its good binding posts to the sturdy build I was impressed. We added a B&W center speaker and THIS thing ROCKS !!!!! As for the overload problem well I have never seen it and we run this at One oclock for hours on end.As for music listening well if you have realy fine taste then this is not for you.But this reciever is not for music realy is it ???? In closing if you are looking for a good sounding reciever give it a try. PS Using Kef speakers might have somthing to do with sound quality.

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none

Awesome power reserves, high-quality finish and electronic components throughout, and of course SOUND QUALITY!

No Dolby Pro-Logic II or 6.1 and 7.1, no preamp outputs, runs hot when idling.

*This is the second post* At First glance: Okay, one reason why I bought this receiver was because the look. The champagne-gold finish was a real eye catcher, and the aluminium front panel contributes to its vintage styling. In the good old days almost all receivers were built like a tank, nowadays black plastic dominated the chart, I wonder what happened? Anyway, the face of the Technics receiver was very clean, with a large volume control in the middle companied by a smaller knob for input selection(both were aluminium, not plastic), three small knobs for bass, treble and balance, a couple of small buttons for power, tuner, digital input, 5.1 input, VGCA, and speaker selection, and that was about it; the clean face plate looked so good I could sit and stare at it all day. There was also a front panel input for say, a camcorder, so you won't have to fiddle around with inputs in the back. All five speakers used 3-way binding posts, and all inputs were gold plated, a nice touch! A quiet fan was also in the back for cooling, and it only turns on when needed, no fan noise here! The anti-vibration base was pretty effective on eliminating rattles, but air-borne resonances might still vibrate the case. Open the "hood" of the receiver reveals about 30,000 mfd of capacitance, enough to support harsh dynamics of today's blockbuster movies. Every components were of high-quality, especially the TA-KE II capacitors, which looked like stacked donuts. Listening: Trying to describe every little detail is almost a waste of time; to put it in a simple way, this receiver rocks! It has power reserves to overload all five of my JBL N24s and N-Center, running full range, at the same time! To this day I still haven't been able to stress this receiver to the point of distortion, nor will I want to; I can only listen to very loud music for a short period of time now, because it hurts my ear. Note that the JBLs have a sensitivity rating of 86dB(a well known magazine confirmed that), which is very low. If you run a pair of uh, those gigantic pro audio speakers, you will most likely go deaf. Sound quality is also top notch for its price range, I can very well hear the lowest noise in a movie, while big explosions rocked with authority. The unusually strong subwoofer preamp output can drive any powered subwoofer to its limit without a problem, and the fan keeps every heated components under control. One thing about the fan, however, is that if you have the crossover on for all five speaker which means the receiver is taking a easy load, it will only come on at a pretty loud level; otherwise the heat vent is burning hot, do not ever stack anything on this receiver, or a meltdown of both equipment can result. Because heat is one main reason something fails, I put a small brushless DC fan on top of the vent to keep it cool at all time. Meanwhile... I just helped a friend to set up his receiver for home theater, after one hour of messing around I realized that how ease-of-use my own receiver was; my friend's Pioneer D498 was hard to setup, and the controls were not easy to learn. Finally I had the rig running and I realized that bass was distorted and missing, after fiddling around I found two bass controls: one for bass limit and one for 5.1 bass level. I found these controls totally useless, it distorted the bass and the manual didn't explain what it was actually for(note there were still the usual sub on/off and volume on top of these controls). The Technics SA-DA10 had no such nonsense, it was an easy and simple 10 minutes before sonic nirvana. The universal remote that came with the Technics was easy to use also, by the way. Conclusion: Since I can't go one day without listening to music, the Technics SA-DA10 receiver has become a part of my life. All my friends are very impressed by what this receiver can do, and so am I. Highly recommended.

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everything

only overload problem?

Well this is my third review of the sa-da10. I said in my most recent review about a overload problem. I hooked the technics back up to some newer speakers, and so far so good. I was using bose am 6 speakers and with all the wire going out of the amp,to the sub, and then to the speakers it is very possible to have a short some where.Well it still is a very good reciever for both stereo and movies. I am going to give it a higher rating and hope it keeps running without the overload as I stated in my last post.

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hk,denon,kenwood

Many

Few

There are bad apples in every bunch; with every brand! Somebody said lack of pre-outs that is what the tape monitor is for. Other folks complain about the heat; I know this unit has a fan on the back. Turn up the volume fan starts spinning it cools off quick,never gets to hot as long as you give it some ventilation wherever you might put it. I read an earlier review where somebody kept getting the overload message, you should have evaluated your connections or the fan could have been malfunctioning. I actually own an Saax7

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Many newer Technics most have volume controlled fans. Pioneer, Sony and others.

Great sound when not shutting off in all formats.

Gets really hot,even with an external fan hooked up.

Well after about 6 monthe my sa-da10 is starting to go, I think. First off I have it on the very top of my entertainment center with all the ventilation it needs,secondly I have a small computer fan on top of the unit to help keep it cool.The problem is it has been overloading a lot as of late. It stops playing and says overloaded,so I turn it off and back on and it will work for about ten minutes and do the same again.Well I went back to my old avr-110 from hk and all is well.Really did like the technics as you all can see from my other post,but,now have to give a bad rating from the problems I have encountered.

Features, many inputes, flexibility from, ease of use, and so far reliability.

Set-up a bit complicated, use of manual needed, well written, easy to follow. Heat, while in use, not for tight spaces or enclosures. Ventilation definite consideration.

Impressive unit, always amazed at the performance and features for the price. It has adapted to my home theater system as I added progressive scan DVD and S-VHS units. The sound from my ESS AMT 2 speakers has been awesome. The product has always been more than expected and beyond satisfaction, which is rarely encounted.

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This is a second review, and so far, it is still running great with some fantastic sound. I had the opportunity to check out the internal construction. All I have to say is "wow!" The layout of the entire assembly is simple and very logical. There is very minimal clutter, if there were any at all. All parts are relatively easy to get to. Wiring is kept to a minimum and whatever wiring is in the unit is arranged in a highly organised fashion. There is minimal use of ribbon wiring, which is also arranged in an orderly fashion. Almost all wiring is a good distance away from the output sections. Build is relatively simplistic and solid. Support beams are mounted within the unit for added rigidity. The heatsink is arranged in a way that allows the heat to vent directly through the top ventilation holes on the outer enclosure. Although all the output sections are IC type as opposed to being discrete transistors, just about every single IC has its own heatsink. Surprisingly, the fan seems more designed to cool the power supply than the output sections. The position of the fan seems to suggest this. There is a massive transformer in this machine with a decorative decal proudly proclaiming it as a Technics product. There are two big bipolar capacitors for the primary amp. They are of the proprietary TA-KE 2 type, made of a bamboo base with a copper-wound enclosure. If memory serves me, the rating for each of these caps are 10,000 microfarads. The chassis is made of metal with a special anti-resonant pad affixed to the bottom. Impressive, indeed. This machine is a marvel to behold in almost every conceivable detail. The pricepoint for such a quality product is also mind boggling. This will leave a lot of people asking "is this really a Technics?" - Reinhart