I have fond memories of the Technics brand name. My dad’s very first turntable was the Technics SL-QX300—the first turntable I ever touched. As a kid seeing a record player for the first time, I was mesmerized by this foreign device and intrigued by how it was able to make sound.
Now here I was in the Absolu par Centre Hi-Fi / Technics room, looking at Technics’s most expensive turntable at an audio show, the on-special-order SL-1000R fitted with an Ortofon Expression MC cartridge ($27,899 total). I thought, ‘I’ve come quite a long way, haven’t I?’ Well, so has Technics.
The company was also showing, on active display, its SU-R1000 Reference Class integrated amplifier ($13,999), which features the company’s Intelligent Phono EQ and 4 separate power supplies, and SL-G700M2 streamer ($4,500), both feeding a pair of standmount Triangle Signature Delta speakers ($9000/pr), with cabling and a PowerQuest 505 power bar by AudioQuest ($various).
I listened to a couple of tracks from the Fugees’ album The Score and Sade’s No Ordinary Love. The sound was rich, organic, and alive. There was a lot of bass-groove in it. I felt like dancing except the room was too small (plus, there were people there).
I still have that first turntable my family bought, and I sometimes play it. It has a lot of nostalgic value. But based on what I heard in that Absolu par Centre Hi-Fi / Technics room, I’m 200% sure it doesn’t sound as good as the SL-1000R turntable did with the rest of the system.
Technics’s Jonathan O’Brien with Absolu par Centre Hi-Fi’s Michael Abergel
As an audiophile and a voracious listener of all kinds of music, Jonson believes that the experience of being immersed in music is often something spiritual. Born and raised in Korea, he cut his teeth on western music mostly through the music of the 80s and the 90s. As of today, names that make his heart beat a little faster include Vladimir Horowitz, John Coltrane, Youn-Sun Nah, Francis Poulenc, Leonard Bernstein, Tannoy, and Magnepan. Jonson also runs a podcast and a YouTube channel about language learning, called SpongeMind.
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