hillsound

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
Less than 1 month

Visitors rate this review
3.00 of 5, 6.00 votes

Price Paid:  $200.00 from bh photo

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
build quality, terrific sound, bargain price.

Weaknesses:
Heat. Get a fan, real easy.

Similar Products Used:
hk receivers

Price Paid:  $199.00 from Fry's Electronics

Summary:
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

Strengths:
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.

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

Price Paid:  $196.00 from Rex Audio Video

Summary:
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.

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

Weaknesses:
At this price I DONT THINK SO !!!!

Similar Products Used:
none

Price Paid:  $299.00 from jandr.com

Summary:
*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.

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

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

Similar Products Used:
Fisher rack system.

Price Paid:  $249.00

Summary:
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.

Strengths:
everything

Weaknesses:
only overload problem?

Similar Products Used:
hk,denon,kenwood