Was told the amp wasn't powerful enough to run CM10 S2's. It's obvious this person hasn't had the pleasure, but OMG, hairs on my arms stood on end when I played Revel's Bolero, by the best conductor and orchestra eva..Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic. I just want to wap it up all the time, but my room is too small and I live in a block of owd biddy flats. Every now and again I turn up the Revel's Bolero..which caused an Angina attack, the last time, lol.

When I initially bought this amp in 1995, I found the phono stage was too quiet. To get decent volume the dial was turned up half way...bloody crap. I bought another amp earlier this year, upgraded all connector's and the B & W CM10 S2's. I bought the Technics SL1200G and the Ortofon 2M Blue Cartridge. I don't have the issue of a quiet phono stage like back in the day.

Technics SU-A900MK2 Integrated Amplifier - not the VU meter power amp, as some previous reviewer's. Plenty of umph... used B & W DM620i speakers, along with SH-GE90 Digital Sound Processor. Never let me down in the 16 years I owned it. I have just won the bid for another amp, this evening on Ebay. Looking forward to having it in my life again.

The only one weakness I recall, was the phono stage, OMG, it used to irritate me having to turn it up half way to listen to vinyl. Back then I had a 1210 turntable. You'd think having a Technics turntable, the music would belt out, but oh, no. I hope I don't have the same issue with this amp. I have a Project Essentials II turntable, which I adore. Please, God let it be loud!!!

Well how should i say it, Dont belive every thing you read, My previous amplifier was a kenwood ka-5050 i had for years, untill it got damaged, So i bought a 700mk2 as a temp, then finally after reading tons of reviews i bought the su-a900mk2, to be honest it doesent really sound any better than its little brother, Infact i would go as far to say that the 700mk2 has a nicer sound better bass grunt, defineatley a nicer treble. the only real difference is that it clearly has a bit more wattage power, It might have been a good amp 20 years ago but i think i shall be breaking the piggy bank to buy an upto date Nad c356bbe or Marantz pm7004, perhaps even a yamaha S500. I guess it just didnt match what i was hopeing for. Sure you will read this and think its only one bad comment, but i will say if you have a tight budget pick up a well cared for example from ebay for no more than £150. or pick up its little brother 700mk2 for around £35-£40 on ebay. if you want something real decent i think these have had their day.

Nice looks, retro style beige power meters look good when lit at night

Soft, almost (ahem) valve-like sound

Clean phono stage

Reassuringly heavy, all the weight is in the power amp though - the pre amp is light enough to blow away in the wind..

Pre and power amp aren't actually separate, will only work with the umbilical cord attached between them

A.V.B.O system is a bit of a gimmick, certainly no noticeable noise but no better than any other well designed pre-amp

Slightly limited power wise, especially on 4 ohm speakers. Will reach its liimits long before the power meter goes off the scale, not a problem if you aren't after really loud sound levels

Cooling fan can be invasive at times, switches hard on at 1w output no matter what, annoying on quiet passages with low bass

Power amp has module outputs. Fair enough, they're decent quality but they should be discrete transistor for that price, I hate to think what they cost if one blows

Bought one of these about 8 years ago from an audio dealer where it had been used for demonstrating Pioneer speakers. It cost me £400 but aside from a couple of small scratches it came with the box, manuals, remote, cables. The balanced sound sold it to me, along with the look of the power meters on the amp. At the time it was better than the amp I had been running, the difference in clarity was like night and day so I was happy.

There seems to be polarised opinion on these, whether they sound soft and gentle or harsh and ear-bleedingly glassy. Mine was at the soft and gentle end, I used it on many speakers and it never had the harsh, flat sound that many Technics amps suffer from - it did like soft dome tweeters better than metal ones though. It was almost valve-like although it lacked the overall warmth. Soundfield and imaging was quite good when you sat down to listen at low/mid volumes, better than most budget amps.

Mine developed a channel volume inbalance which was cured by changing the volume control for an Alps, at the same time I changed the op-amps in the pre-amp for better audio grade ones and this did improve the sound noticeably, especially the speed of the bass. Later on one of the input sockets broke, changed all of them for gold ones, spare parts from Technics are very expensive, when you can actually get them..

One thing which always bothered me was that when driven over mid volume, there was a noise - almost like an elecrtical switching interference superimposed on top of the music peaks, barely audible but certainly there throughout the time I owned it. Nobody else ever noticed this, I was the only person who could hear it. In retrospect the amp outputs were mosfet modules, I guess this was just the mosfet circuits switching, not as quiet as dedicated transistors and coupled with my music and speakers it noticed more.

Power output was fair but I found it hard to believe the 85w/ch printed in the manual. Mine would begin to sound pushed at around mid scale on the power meters, roughly mid sound levels on most speakers. It never ever clipped or distorted, even when I drove it very loud but wouldn't really like going there, the dynamics and low end bass would suffer long before the lofty heights of the 100w line on the power meters. It fared much better power-wise on 8 ohm speakers than on 4 ohm, if the speakers are quite sensitive then you might not have an issue. Not a massive amount of low end so I always ran it on floorstanders for extra bass extension - it suited my Wharfedale Valdus 500's quite well, the only amp which really forgave their weaknesses.

A nice sounding amp as long as you don't expect too much, has more visual character than most budget gear and looks more expensive than it really is. In retrospect there's better equipment to be had for the price, like most Technics gear these tend to be overpriced on the second hand market. That said, I did enjoy mine overall, if you hear one and like it then that's all that matters.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SU-V8

Pioneer A400

remote control
great build good parts
works well with yamaha ns1000
bargain price

none

wanted one of these in 93,94 got one 10 years later quite hard to get hold of one in 94 dont think there are that many about but this amp sounds fantastic with the yamaha ns1000 , the price it was being sold for in 94 £400 how did technics sell it for £400 they should be bust by now

Wide open sound stage
Plenty of Grunt
Great for the hard of hearing :-s

Overly forward
overpowering bass
harsh treble
tiring to listen to

Big bass, harsh trebles, excellent soundstage. Ultimately overly forward, harsh and tiring to listen to.

When I first heard this amplifier paired with my Technics SBM-800 speakers, I was initially impressed with its exciting sound, and wide open soundstage. After a short while though, the overly heavy bass and harsh trebles started to fatigue me, and I found I kept wanting to turn the volume down. I also tried it with my Mission MS30i's and Qubic QLN111 speakers, with much the same experience.

I purchased this intending to replace my Technics SUA-700 amplifier, but I found the much smoother sound of the SUA-700 far more pleasant to listen to, despite its poorer sound staging and lack of bass control. However my partner, who is slightly hard of hearing (no, really!), really enjoyed the sound of the SUA-900, so she now uses the amplifier with the Mission MS30i's.

Reading the other reviews here, it is hard to believe that we are talking about the same amplifier.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SUA-700, Technics SUA-600, Pioneer A300R Precision, Denon PMA250

Imaging-very precise but open and airy.
Bass
Clarity
Very pure and neutral sounding midrange

Requires sympathetic speakers
Not a high current amp -much better with 8 ohm speakers than 4 ohm.
Midrange may be too delicate and gentle for many[not forceful]
Not for headbangers

I heard this amp about ten years ago and thought it was special at the time so when one came up on ebay I could't resist buying it.
These are quite unusual sounding amps in that they fall neither into the warm and grubby sounding transistor amps like NAD and Yamaha or the clear but cold sounding ones[typical Japanese amps like Denon,Sony etc.]
They have very much their own sound,which is probably closer to some of the very high end Japanese amps like Luxman and Accuphase in terms of having very sweet,refined treble.The midrange is really different.It would be quite easy to think that it lacked body and expression and on some speakers it could sound thin and when driven hard even slightly shrill.But with speakers with warm and rich sounding mids[Spendor or stats for example] it is really suberb,with a wonderful detailed and airy quality and lacking the compressed,dirty sound that plagues most transistor amps.
The bass is simply superb-big and bouncy but also very detailed and tight.The best I have heard in any integrated amp. The big R core transformer must be the reason for this.
The real star quality of this amp is its imaging and it is this that in my opinion makes it deserving of the very best audiophile quality speakers and CD player.SACD and DVD audio sound amazing on this amp.

Customer Service

Nil

Similar Products Used:

NIl

Non-fatiguing, detailed sonic presentation. You can listen to the music for hours without ever getting tired. Gorgeous, retro-style look with huge power meters.

Pre-amp is light on bass.

This review is for the SE A 1000 / SU C 1000 combo. Except for light bass on pre-amp side I really can't complain about this Technics. This amp plays with grace with excellent midrange and crystal clear highs, bass is kind of shallow. You need to have equally good source and cables to really appreciate this amp (and any amp). If you use stock cables and some cheap sony speakers you WILL BE disappointed. Also, I don't know what is the point of this "virtual battery" as it does TOTALLY NOTHING to improve the sound. Anyway, combo plays my music (with my associated equipment) very well with a lot of detail and focus. I am not a BASS-HEAD so light bass does not bother me. My associated equipment: CD Player: NAD C541i Interconnects: DH Labs Silver Sonic BL-1 Speaker Cables: Straight Wire Encore Speakers: Dynaudio Audience 52

Superb balanced sound, lucid treble en articulate midrange, big bouncing bass powerfull

Can lack control when the music gets busy, but at this price its not fair to complain about it.

I'm using my su-a900mk2 for over 7 years now. It sounds warm, lucid and powerfull. I recently bought B&W Nautilus 804 and the technics keeps amazing me! It copes remarkable well with the demanding load of the Nautilus and is sounding totally in control. Only when the music really gets busy (while you cranking the volume) you can hear the amp struggeling and the soundstage gets blurred.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz PM 8200, Arcam A65 plus(very weak performer next to the technics!)

GREAT look with big backlighted analogue output meters. Great good sound (in this price at least) clear, spatial & powerful, sturdy build (maybe the preamp section could be a little better), pre-outs, tolerant for speakers.

Preamp section could be better, not gold-plated connectors, no digital in (but here mind the age of unit - this would be something more than usual).

HA! I can't believe there is only one review of this baby! A agree to all that that it is said in the other review according to sound. I would just add thet it would be nice if it had a little better sound/noise ratio, but the unit is old and they have fixed it with VGCA in it's newer version (the 909 model). I also don't think it is so demanding on speakers - I used thru self-mades, cheap Philips bookshelf, medium-range Sony floorstanders and now my new B&Ws 604 S3 (makes them run like hell, the bass is so powerful that I have to lock the doors of my room because otherwise they open - sub makes no sense with this set...), they all were cooperating fine. Yet, there is one thing about this amp I fell in love with - this huge analogue output level meters backlighted in warm beige - this is the most beautiful amp ever for me! Okey, maybe the SU/CU 3000 combination is even more charming, but I can't afford the price of about 5000$... This is the best visualisation of the music, you feel it even more with those!

Similar Products Used:

Radmor, Technics 500M2, Onkyo 595 (I know it is an a/v receiver, but I use it also as my stereo amp)