Technics SA-AX540 A/V Receivers Reviews

wii819

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I love this thing. It sounds great with good speakers or crappy ones. Has plenty of inputs and is up to the for almost anything modern. I have my Xbox 360, Mac Mini, tape deck and turn table hooked into it and they all sound great.

Price Paid:  $320.00 from Siba

Summary:
This amp sounds good with my home built big ass floor speakers. They are not acurate nor detailed or balanced but they have a very heavy sound so the amps' power comes to its place. It is very powerful. The tech specs say 85W@6Ohm. I don't know it it's RMS but I believe it competes well with 150W amps as well. I have also tried it with a couple of Wharfedale Diamond 7.2 with very good results. Though I am very bored of my bassy sounding speakers so I'm going to upgrade (or downgrade depending what counts) to Wharfedale Diamond 8.4(very balanced, detailed and good looking peakers for the price). I think they will suit my old buddy amp nicely. Although, this amp has some flaws. Lots of un-thought-thru stuff with the panels and the remote, like, who needs a huge PTY-selection nob on the front panel on a Home Theatre Amp? Wouldn't it be better to have a SFC-selection nob instead since this now only is available from remote. So when the remote breaks, you will have to buy a new one for $100. Nice move, Technics! Another stupid thing is that you need to select source on the remote to tell it what unit it should control. IE, if you have an Technics CDP as well, you'll have to push "CD" on the remote, before you can change track. The same if you want to power up/down your amp/cdp. First press Tuner or CD, then press Power. People complains about it getting real hot. It for sure gets hot enough to keep your coffe warm but I don't think it's a big deal, unless you need to place it in a tight cupboard, like under your tv. I'm not shure if the fan is temperature controlled or wattage controlled, if the firs, it will keep the same temp wherever you place it. Another small prob is that you can't place the cdp or dvd on top of the amp, since it would go down in flames. And the amp is lot heavy to put on top of the cdp... I did so anyway.. Another thing i've been thinking of is that the bass and treble controls goes very high resp. low in frequency. This means that You can't increase the very low bass without getting a bit too much higer bass notes resulting in a slightly muddy sound (unless you leave it alone). It's not bad sounding, I just wish the were more sub-defined. The same wiht the treble, but the other way. But don't worry, it will sound great without touching the bass/trebles. (unless your speakers sucks) Very much amplification for your money.

Strengths:
-Powerful, good sounding even at higer volumes -Lots of inputs. 5.1-separate input -Good looking -Stable, well built -Detailed display, althoug it sometimes display stupid text messages in poor english.

Weaknesses:
-Weird layout - placement of buttons (though good looking) -Not so well tuned bass and treble controls -The remote kind of sucks and the amp has bad ir-recieving angle. -Tight speaker wire terminals. Bad if your bi-wiring with thicker wires.

Similar Products Used:
Old JVC-crap, Sony mid-size amps...Sansui

Price Paid:  $175.00 from radioshack

Summary:
This is my second post concerning the sa ax540.........i was just reading some past reviews and noticed that people notice there is little bass (morons) just because you say you have top of the line speakers (paradigm) doesn't mean anything,your little woofers can't handle the bass is why its distorted, you thought you had good speakers. I've been running this amp for 4 years and is still completely satisfied with its performance, and for info purposes my speakers are RTC Electronics, bb2120, rated at 1200w each, consisting of 2 X 450w woofers and 3x 100w horns in each box.Some people just think they have good speakers.And for those people that don't think the sa ax540 can't drive something that big, they are wrong, the sa ax540 peaks at 150 per channel in stereo mode and my kick ass speakers don't even need half of its power to pump all 4 woofers, and my bass level is always up and doesn't distort whatsoever until at least three quarter volume, i don't even need to use my 200w powered sub, why listen to the music when you can feel it.......

Strengths:
price looks performance power, power, power great bass reliable

Weaknesses:
can blow a set of 250's with ease if you consider that a weakness

Similar Products Used:
realistic, pioneer, jvc

Price Paid:  $250.00 from ONOFF

Summary:
Sound is clear. I liked the bas, but the deep isnt so good. I've tested with same elements with a marantz and it had a bigger deep in the bas than my Technics. But if your looking for a cheep and verry good sound for that price i recommand this reciver. It's mutch better than many sony recivers out there. Im using my SA-AX540 with Technics cd-player SL-PG580A. Sound is clear.

Strengths:
*clear sound *good bas *easy to use *many inputs *nice remote-control

Weaknesses:
No 5.1 digital decoder HOT! I can pop popcorn on it. Verry smal went hole.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz old one

Price Paid:  $0.00 from used part

Summary:
This reciver is cheap and reliable and powerfull enough for most (non-audiophile) users. I have used it for a year and is more then happy, the sound is crystal clear!

Strengths:
Price Sound Quality

Weaknesses:
No Dolby dgital HOT! I can make coffee with it!