Shock-Late Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Just rediscovering my old Technics SE-A5 power amp that was lying in my bedroom. That huge beast was a very high end design from beginning eighties. Never sounded good on my Scalas with the matching preamp; but connected to the pre out of my little NAD, it seems to sound way better than it used to do. Extremely detailed; a bit "dry" in the bass but as I'm planning to add a sub, this might be just the ticket... Does anyone has exp with that amp or the SE-a1 / SE-A3 serie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shock-Late Posted June 13, 2004 Author Share Posted June 13, 2004 picture didn't show here it is... beautiful, heavy amp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shock-Late Posted June 13, 2004 Author Share Posted June 13, 2004 Further listening impressions: technics SE-A5 (compared to my little NAD): VERY detailed; hearing things on my favourites CDs i never knew were there; very flat balance, a tad dry in the bass (would work better with reflex loaded speakers); stereo image a bit less "3D" than with the NAD but more "air" and clarity; classical music sounds less warm but you suddenly hear every instrument in the orchestra... Loads of "purity", very clean, absolutely NO distorsion. Rock music a bit less "wild", better focused, detailed, less bass "thump", but seems to dig deeper; here again, hearing new things in the mix. "cheap" recordings never sounded that bad... Incredible jazz performance, every note stands out clear, you can hear the pianist breathing. Electronic music never sounded so... well, electronic. The NAD amp seems to round the edges, making for a more confortable listening; the Technics lets you hear everything that's on the recording; good recordings sound awesome, bad ones are almost unlistenable... Very nice amp in the end. Can't believe I almost sold it for cheap, because of the "bad" preamp. Think it's gonna stay in my system. Just going to add a nice big sub... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 Glad to hear your giant Technics is working out for you. When my dad bought the '79 Cornwalls I'm using now, he also bought the top-of-the-line Technics SU-8099 integrated, which sounded damn good with the Klipsch until he felt the need to buy an Azden pro graphic equalizer/spectrum analyzer, then the overall sound went south real quick when he had the 10-bands for each channel shaped like a smiley face! We still have that huge integrated, and it still works flawlessly the last time we used it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jt1stcav Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 In '83 when I was stationed in Ludwigsburg, Germany, I wanted a pair of new Cornwall IIs the Stuttgart PX had in their showroom. Unfortunantly, I had no room for them in my little two-man room in the barracks, so I settled for a pair of JBL L112 Century II monitors instead, driven by the 120 WPC Class-A Technics SU-V9 integrated (similar to your preamp). Since I didn't own Klipsch, I have no idea if this amp would've sounded great with them or not, but it did pump out the tunes from AC/DC and Led Zeppelin at 120dB levels that was clearly heard throughout the entire barracks! Being of Class-A design, it would run extremely hot (even at low levels), plus the slender function knobs were flimsy and never aligned up to their function indicator LEDs properly. Ultimately it never thrilled me like my dad's older Technics integrated did, so I sold it to a fellow GI down the hall and bought a Carver M-400t cube amp and the C-1 pre instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chops Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 There you go! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted June 13, 2004 Share Posted June 13, 2004 there are web sites that sell manuals.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shock-Late Posted June 14, 2004 Author Share Posted June 14, 2004 The preamplifier that came with my SE-A5 was the SU-A4. It's a very well built unit, controls are not flimsy at all, the units weights more than many a "good" integrated amp. search on internet reveals that this preamp was actually more expensive than the power amp. Unfortunately I didn't hear mine in the shop, and when I came back home i found out that the preamp had a failure: sound from the right channel is louder than the left channel, and distorted; the guy from the shop, unable to repair it, told me that the unit was "not broken" and the only problem was that I was using the amp with horn speakers. bull**** as even with the volume knob at "12" the unbalance and awful distortion is still there. Meanwhile I tried to listen to the power amp with the Cd player directly plugged in it (my CD player has output level control); the sound was awful, and i decided "this amp is ****" and bought a new NAD amp the day after (forgot to mention that the technics amp cost me a fortune, more expensive second hand than the brand new NAD) Now I realise that i shouldn't have judged the amp without having a good preamp connected to it; some power amps just can't be used directly. i'm really happy now that i didn't sell the power amp; it sounds like heaven with the PRe section of the NAD. now i don't know what to do with the SU-A4 preamp: it has such a good reputation that a fellow in France is ready to pay a huge price plus shipping costs to buy it, as long as I can find someone who will fix it. Maybe if I heard the repaired preamp i'd regret I just bought the NAD in a hurry... That amp is the smallest of a very high end line of elecronics made by Technics (the "R&B serie"), the biggest one, the SE-A1, is a monster pumping out 300watts rms/channel in Class A (seems to be REAL class A here, but don't ask me what they use to cool the amp down) that costed back then twice as much as a Volkswagen Fox. the intermediate one is the 200w/channel SE-A3, very similar to the SE-A5 I own (120w/channel) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m54 Posted June 14, 2004 Share Posted June 14, 2004 I still own an SU-V5! It is a great vintage Technics integrated. I bought this in '81, took it to college, sold it to a roommate, bought it back later, and still have it. I had to replace a relay and a cable actuator from the front slim selector knobs, but it is still a great amp. Still love those FL power indicators. I think back when I as a teenager got the Hi-Fi bug. This amp was bought with money from mowing lawns! Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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