Technics SU-GX70 amplifier

Technics is one of those category-busting companies. It makes products that don’t conform to the siloed thinking common to the audio world. And that’s a good thing. The Technics SU-GX70 integrated amplifier is a perfect example of this. This is as much a ‘network-integrated streaming device with amplifier’ as an ‘integrated amplifier’. Its clean, minimalist lines make it look like something you might expect from one of the hair-shirt audio companies. However, it’s more comprehensively specified than those lines suggest.

This ‘just add loudspeakers’ approach to audio replay isn’t new. However, it is distinct from the rack, stack, and console systems of the past. In those systems, each aspect of performance was hampered by the inherent constraints of the design brief. This is more like the receiver, reborn! 

The New Pragmatism

There’s also a new pragmatism in the Technics SU-GX70 amplifier that adds credence to that ‘receiver, reborn’ statement. This amplifier includes an HDMI ARC input. Short for ‘Audio Return Channel’, HDMI ARC allows video products to send audio to a receiver. It strips out the video feed while retaining two-channel or multichannel digital audio. Most video devices made in the last decade and a half have ARC compatibility. With YouTube and TV streaming services becoming an increasingly popular way of accessing music, it’s good to have this option.

Purists might get a bit upset about video encroaching on their audio systems. Still, as the video component of the signal is not transferred to the SU-GX70, this seems more of a grumble directed at modern life than a legitimate concern about performance.  The GX in the unit’s name denotes ‘crossover’. It’s the first Technics audio product to include a video element as an HDMI ARC input. Regardless of how you listen to music – Tidal, turntable, CD player, digital files, TV or even radio – the SU-GX70 has the (physical and wireless) tools to play it all.

Well-Specified

Regarding other inputs, the Technics SU-GX70 integrated amplifier is extremely well-specified. It has an MM phono input, two RCA line inputs and a pair of RCA preamp outputs. There’s also a radio aerial socket, and a slew of digital audio, wired and wireless connections. It talks Apple Airplay, Bluetooth, and Google Chromecast with equal fluency. The Technics is happy working with Qobuz, Spotify, Tidal and the rest. It can cope with the output of these streaming services and your local collection of music in formats up to up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD512 files and decode MQA streams from Tidal. There’s also a 1/4” headphone jack.

To set-up the SU-GX70 requires the use of the Google Home app for its initial ‘where in the world am I?’ installation. The Technics Audio Centre app for daily use follows this. This two-stage app use has become a fixture in modern audio. It gives you the reliability and simplicity of Google Home to install the device. But it adds a less generic and product-specific manufacturer’s app to navigate and drive the device. It works well. If you are worried about Google snooping on your home network (it’s not), you can delete the Google Home app once the device is up and running.

Appiness

I like the Technics app, too. It’s best for dealing with audio streaming services but isn’t too glitchy when working with local networks. On a scale of one to Sonos, it’s a solid seven; I preferred using Innuos’ app, but some of that is down to familiarity. 

The app comes into its own when it’s used to optimise the way the Technics SU-GX70 integrated amplifier behaves and works with loudspeakers. This includes both tone controls and room treatment under ‘Space Tune.’ This is similar but different to Linn’s Space Optimisation because it has just a few speaker placement options, but it allows the user to compensate for pragmatic, less-than-ideal installations in the room.

LAPC (Load-Adaptive Phase Calibration) is even more interesting, driven from the remote handset. As the name suggests, this adjusts the phase characteristics of the amplifier relative to the impedance of the connected loudspeakers. It works by firing a few test tones into both loudspeakers and analysing the response at the speaker terminals (rather than using a measuring microphone). This, theoretically, at least, means a flatter frequency response in the room.

JENO

Under the hood, there’s a surprising amount of clever tech, most notably the JENO (Jitter Emiminating and Noise-shaping Optimisation) Engine that drives the digital amplifier. This combines a precise clock regenerator controlling the input sample rate controller before the digital output is fed to a Pulse Width Modulation amplifier. This can be useful in creating an accurate feed from the HDMI above ARC input but also allows a pure ‘small amplifier’ setting that shuts down spare inputs to hopefully reduce noise. High-speed twin power supplies (one for the power amp stage) are also the order of the day.

The amp is not a powerhouse by modern standards. The Technics SU-GX70 integrated amplifier delivers 40W per channel into eight ohms, which doubles into four ohms. Load impedance limits suggest this isn’t the amplifier for punishing low-impedance loads.

If I liked the app, I liked the amp even more. It’s got a straightforward, effortless, yet pleasingly detailed and engaging sound quality. I think the LAPC is a force for good, too, as it delivers an additional dynamic range, a smoother balance and a little more detail. Space Tune a little less convinces me; if you have no other option, it does make less-than-ideal installations work better, but a good installation improves upon anything that Space Tune can do. 

Easy, Effortless

The ‘easy, effortless’ sound is a good balance between sounding sweet and slightly too soft-edged and being very approachable. I’m going more toward the ‘approachable.’ Technics SU-GX70 amplifier is not the antithesis of forward-sounding audio systems. Still, neither is it one of those thin, bright, brash, leading-edge-oriented amplifiers that dominated the scene a few years ago. It’s a tight-knit and lithe sound, with a precise soundstage rather than expansive.

This gets in close with the musicians and the room rather than emphasising the scale of the recording venue, but that’s a happy trade because you get a sense of bounce and rhythm to the sound. And that is easy to carry the listener along with the music, in my opinion, with more immediacy than a large and waffling presentation that has lots of space but not much else. 

This comes across well when playing EDM (electronic dance music), such as ‘Becoming Insane’ from Infected Mushroom’s Vicious Delicious album [YoYo]. The Technics was extremely good at handling both the Spanish guitar part and the pounding beat with equal aplomb.

Not Shy

It didn’t shy away from the propulsive energy of the track, but neither did it just descend into a thud-fest of deep bass with no subtlety. It was just extremely well balanced all over. 

The balance is good here, although in some respects I miss the sheer energy of the bottom end that you can hear in other similarly specified amplifiers. This isn’t an amplifier with a sensitive soul, but it doesn’t Hulk out when sometimes that’s just what you need. On the other hand, the tightness and clean, almost dry precision of the bass is extremely alluring. And the imaging is excellent. 

Perhaps best of all, despite being a relatively low-powered amplifier by today’s standard, the Technics SU-GX70 amplifier never sounds low-powered. Nor does it seem to run out of steam, or change its performance regardless of whether you play loud or soft. And it does that through its amplifier circuit, the headphone amp and the preamp outputs. That’s the sign of a really good design.

Minimalism is in order

There are a few niggles. Internet radio was MIA at the time of review, the app did drop-out a couple of times with local storage (Melco more than Innuos, it seems), and the display might be clean, but it’s too small to be readable and lacks interest, especially when others display album art and more. On the other hand, given the minimalism of the design and the way it matches the SL-G700M2 SACD/CD player/streamer, perhaps the minimalist display is in order.

Since the rebirth, the lion’s share of interest in Technics has remained turntable-shaped. However, products like the Technics SU-GX70 integrated amplifier demonstrate that there’s a lot more to the brand. This smooth and satisfying amplifier-player is a perfect example of just how good Technics is at all things audio. 

Technical specifications

• Type: Network connected integrated amplifier
• Power output: 40 watts per channel (into 8 ohms)
• Inputs: Line level x2, phono, HDMI ARC, optical x2, coaxial, USB Type A, USB Type B
• Sources Network streaming, Bluetooth, AirPlay 2, Chromecast, phono MM, DAB/FM tuners
• Headphone output? Yes, 6.3mm
• Network Wi-Fi, Ethernet
• Hi-res support 32-bit/384Hz (PCM), DSD512, MQA
• Dimensions (hxwxd): 9.8cm x 43cm × 36.8cm
• Weight: 6.6kg
• Price: £1,399.99/$1,995.95

Manufacturer

Technics

www.technics.com 

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