Price, Sterio mode is alright, power.

Doubles as a portable heater. Hiss in the center/surround speakers. Low center/surround volume. Speaker wire clips are cheap. No digital input. No S-video imput. The remote is hardly "universal", big, dumb and missing a Phono selector button..

I picked up this reciever a couple of years ago for the "bargain" price of $330 at a local military base. It had everything I was looking for at the time. I listened to it at a few stores and they all sounded pretty good.

In Sterio mode the sound is decent...but if you want a sound field or 'surround' sound, forget it! The center/surround channels love to produce a hiss noise.
Pro-Logic? HA! don't even bother. This unit is NOT for HT.

The 2 channel sterio has plenty of power and will produce nice sound, but there are plenty of better recievers out there.

2 Stars for a value Rating because at the time (i thought), the reciever was a pretty good deal. Now when I think about what else i could have done with the money...ugh

2 Stars for an Overall Rating because it does play music ... just not very well.

Similar Products Used:

yamaha,sony,pioneer,etc

I too bought this one in a hurry. I got a good deal on a Dolby Digital decoder and needed a receiver w/ 6-channel inputs. This is a pretty bad receiver, but it was also pretty cheap at the time I bought it. The remote is terrible, the sound is questionable and, yes, it will serve as good electric heater once I decommision it from Home Theater duty :)
Oh well, If I REALLY wanted a quality product I should have saved for a Yamaha instead. Shame on me...

Two stars based on the built-in furnace.

Why god, why? Why did it sound nicer in the showroom? Why didn't it overheat in the middle of the amplifier pile in the store? Why do the surround channels sound so bad at home? Granted, in stereo mode it sounds nice, but the surrounds shouldn't go in and out of their own accord!
I don't think I should ever have to rig 2 fans in a project box to place on top of the amp to supplement the inadequate cooling. Hell, I remember before I rigged the fan up, I had an indoor/outdoor thermometer on it just to see when i had to turn off the surround to keep it from frying! When the amp is 15 degrees hotter than the room, (and thats with it being exposed on all sides to airflow) there's something wrong.

The only thing keeping it in my living room is the fact that every input is full and my other amp doesn't have enough of 'em.

At this point i'm setting aside the bucks for a good H/K or Yamaha unit, and planning on relegating this one to the basement for my computer, where i don't need the surrounds.

For the money it's an OK unit, but only by virtue of the fact that there wansn't anything decent available in its price range. Goes to show, you get what ya pay for!

The SA-AX710 is an excellent unit, with a reasonable price tag. Not lacking in many features. The sound reproduction, compared to many other units I had listened to in comparison shopping, is as accurate (comparing apples to apples) as that of many of the recievers costing a few hundred dollars more. For the home theater, you couldn't ask for anything more from a unit with a single amplifier. If you cant afford to spend thousands more, you won't be getting any real or significant advantages by purchasing a unit that costs a couple of hundred more! If your looking for a new reciever, check this one out, compare it to the others you see on the shelf. Listen to them, and judge for yourself. For the money, you can't go wrong!

with this new Technics Receiver, the salesman almost convinced me in purchasingthis unit i auditioned it at the showroom sounded more digital in a sense that
the imaging was bad,narrow sounding and lotsa brilliance to it! i guess i would
agree that latter technics models sounded far better than this one i,m currently
using the older SA-GX 690 Dolby Pro logic wich can definitely get the respect of
a High End ear! But i would say that all the technics receivers with class H+
circuitry were all highly efficient in delivering pure musical power!

I purchased the Technics SA-AX710 because it looked like a good value. After just one day I am ready to return it and buy a higher-end receiver; this model seems to have nice features and plenty of power but not the finished product that i would expect. ...and get ready to turn up the A.C., this receiver gets hot. I am returning this reciever and looking closely at a good Pioneer or possibly Yamaha RX-V2092.

I purchaed the Technics SA-AX710 reciver and I would'nt buy any thing else this reciver is AWSOME AND I REPEAT AWSOME!!!! this reciver is powering my all cerwin-vega system it pumps out the power with 120 watts per channel this reciver rock's my house i love the sub-woofer output on the back of it it is really handy, i like the help function on the front of the reciver it is reallt handy if something goes wrong. this reciver does get hot but I put a mini fan in front of it and it works great I would rather spend the money on this resonible priced reciver than rather pay $500.00 for a Harmon/Kardon I would never sell this reciver. I am a heavy bass listener let me tell u this reciver pumps out the bass to the speakers this reciver would be my choose for a reciver I also like the looks of it I have had alot of compliments on this reciver on looks and sound quality u can trun this reciver almost up all the way with no distortion witch is really cool! If you would like to know more info about this reciver please feel free to e-mail me I will answer any questions u have about it my address is patriot@cityscape.net

Just a quick note on this receiver. I think that Matsushita was on a deadline when this thing rolled off production, because it's definately buggy. The biggest issue I have with this receiver is that it likes to overheat easily. The receiver has it's own shelf with about five to seven inches of free airspace above the vents and plenty of air-flow. And it STILL likes to get too warm.
Pro-logic mode should be called Try-logic... the center channel is ALWAYS too quiet, even in Wideband mode. The surround speakers fade in and out (see the heat problems for this). This is not what I expected when buying Technics products.

After being a Technics fan since the SA-R410, I am really disappointed. I think my next investment will be HK. Technics time as a decent manufacturer seems to have regretfully passed.

The rating is one and half, because the stereo mode is good on my Cerwin Vega DX-9's.

Technics SA-AX710 is a good product.I have this product with main speakers Definitive BP-30 and central, surround and sobwoofer JBL. In Dolby Digital with my decoder sorround Yamaha DDP-2, the sound is excellent. (100 Watts in all five channels) I recommned SA-AX720 for use whith surround decoder in Dolby Digital or DTS.

This amp is... not too good. In stereo mode. I actually sounds really nice. I read other reviewers say their 710 gets so hot is shuts down. Mine does not shut down, but you could fry an egg on it.
The main problem I have with the amp is it is TERRIBLY ANNOYINGLY HISSY AND LOUD IN THE CENTER AND SURROUND CHANNELS. (Sorry for the yelling, but you should get the point.)

Like the others, I bought this because it was cheap. It is cheap. If you are going to spend the dough on this thing ($399 - 499 with a DD/DTS decoder) save another couple hundred and get a Yamaha. Otherwise, you will kick yourself in the booty for about $200.