0:47 [Music]
0:50 that was the title track from the famous
0:52 Duke Ellington album operat Bosa
0:55 not only is an excellent workout for
0:58 your system but also a wonderfully
1:00 recorded album that thoroughly urge you
1:02 to check out welcome to a British audio
1:04 file in this first episode of this year
1:07 so happy new year and it's true what
1:09 they say if you hang on to something
1:11 long enough eventually it will come back
1:13 in fashion and what do I mean by that
1:17 well this is the technics SCM 100
1:21 amplifier from 1989 so fully featured
1:25 amplifier with a built-in zap this is a
1:28 modern equivalent the Haegele h 160 that
1:31 I reviewed in a previous episode also a
1:33 fully featured amplifier with a built-in
1:35 DAC now what I'll be doing is making a
1:39 comparison between the two now is it a
1:41 fair comparison well let's look at price
1:45 a hagel h 160 retails for two-and-a-half
1:49 thousand pounds this technics amplifier
1:53 back in 1989 retailed for a thousand
1:54 pounds now if you account for inflation
1:57 and look at techniques and yamaha and
1:59 similar other Japanese producers and
2:02 their current lineup I think you could
2:04 argue this amplifier today themselves
2:07 somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds
2:10 perhaps close to the 1500 pound mark if
2:14 I'm being honest they also have a number
2:17 of other similarities they both weigh 17
2:19 kgs they both produce over a hundred
2:21 watts of power hundred fifty watts in
2:24 the case of the Hegel and 120 watts in
2:27 case of this technics and they all are
2:30 fully featured amplifiers with built-in
2:32 doubts even adjusting for inflation this
2:34 is not a fair comparison
2:36 the Haegele h 160 of two and a half
2:38 thousand pounds should comfortably
2:41 outperform this technics even if it was
2:44 being produced today for 1500 pounds but
2:46 I've also had the H 90 here to audition
2:49 now I had to return that before I could
2:51 make a formal review but I do recall
2:54 what that sounds like H 90 retails for
2:55 1500 pounds
2:57 and today this would be a direct
3:00 competitor competitor to that amplifier
3:04 so the question really remains how much
3:07 has the game moved on in 30 years well
3:09 I'll be answering that I'll be looking
3:11 at comparing this picnics amplifier to
3:15 the H 90 to the page 160 and other
3:19 amplifiers are hi own but I also like to
3:21 give you a little bit of context in
3:23 terms of the review of this technics
3:27 amplifier a heyday of technics was the
3:31 1970s and 1980s where they produced
3:33 amplifiers and receivers that were very
3:35 sought-after and are still very
3:37 sought-after today especially the ones
3:40 with the vu meters at the front now they
3:42 can retail for many thousands of pounds
3:45 so are people being foolish buying those
3:47 amplifiers on their just being nostalgic
3:50 or are they genuinely very good
3:54 amplifiers that stand up very well today
3:59 well let's find out okay so before we do
4:01 the sound comparison let's take a closer
4:06 look at this amplifier technics digital
4:09 power amplifier SEM 100 there was a
4:12 matching pre amplifier if you wanted a
4:16 phono stage in extra line level audio
4:19 connections but this can be used as a
4:21 fully featured integrated amplifier as I
4:24 mentioned earlier bottom left you have a
4:28 power button and a headphone jack and a
4:32 selector switch for a and B speaker
4:36 connections in the center you have a
4:42 nice large potentiometer as a volume
4:46 control and these are your digital input
4:48 connections for optical and coaxial
4:50 predates the USB type of connection or
4:54 I'll show you on the back and it has inputs
4:56 inputs
4:58 - therefore your digital inputs switch
5:00 over to variable that's your traditional
5:04 line level analog output and if you want
5:05 to use it as a power amplifier you can
5:12 switch it over to fixed digital direct
5:16 drive for dat chips working in unison to
5:18 provide you 20 bits worth of resolution
5:22 which is safer the art at the time and
5:26 that digital direct drive means that the
5:29 DAC feeds directly into the power
5:32 amplifier and signal is attenuated
5:36 digitally so you bypass the preamp
5:41 effectively Class A a that is their
5:47 proprietary take on Class A B I think it
5:49 has from what I can read up on from what
5:50 I understand
5:54 Class A voltage gain stage in a Class B
5:58 current driving stage and Class A a is a
6:01 bridge that sits in between - quite sure
6:02 how that works maybe someone can
6:05 enlighten me we'll get to the insides in
6:09 a second I just spin this round and what
6:10 you have is your a and B speaker
6:13 connections no banana plugs just bare
6:16 wire connections going in there banana
6:17 plugs would have been nice but I don't
6:21 think that was the forte in that time in
6:23 that day and age there are your digital
6:26 input connections you've got coaxial
6:32 to optical and your fixed and variable
6:38 line level connections that's the other
6:41 side of to speak connections for a and B
6:43 if i zoom back out you might be able to
6:47 see the whole thing there you go
6:51 it is quite a beast if you look inside
6:54 what's really impressive is it's a dual
6:57 mono design that goes all the way back
7:01 to the power connection with separate
7:03 transformers normally when you have a
7:05 dual mono design you'll have them
7:07 sharing one power transformer but you
7:08 can see
7:10 and there's one on the left-hand side
7:16 here and one on the right-hand side and
7:21 in the middle is the preamplifier and
7:26 the DAC which is very well encased top
7:28 and bottom and you've got these copper
7:30 shield I think they're for shielding
7:31 because it's a copper plate on the back
7:37 and surrounds the digital preamps so
7:40 there's no noise coming through from the
7:43 power amplifier sections very well
7:45 shielded and if you lifted that cover
7:49 off underneath there you would find the
7:59 DAC quite large heat sinks to reasonably
8:03 sized filter caps for the power supply
8:06 and underneath if I can just get there somehow
8:06 somehow
8:10 again angle where you can see perhaps is
8:15 the fully discreet amplifier module and
8:17 it's exactly the same on the other side
8:22 so quite a beast really even by today's
8:26 standards you'd have to spend I mean if
8:30 you're looking at the Hegel h3 90 you go
8:32 that's where it starts to go to dual
8:35 mono that's 5000 pounds and that doesn't
8:40 have independent power supplies and
8:43 transformers for the left and right
8:48 amplifier modules this does so it's
8:50 effectively two monoblocks
8:53 pre amplifier and DAC squeezed into one
9:03 certainly a lot of value for the money
9:05 back in that day and even by today's
9:11 standards just get back one on the front
9:14 here see if there's any other angles I
9:17 can exploit not really to get much in
9:20 I'm not gonna pull this thing apart
9:24 any further so yeah highly impressive
9:26 said I wasn't gonna pull it apart any
9:30 further but I couldn't resist so I took
9:42 digital preamp effectively and DAC now
9:46 what you'll notice is that fully
9:48 discreet there are a number of ICS as
9:51 well a feeling there in the middle are
9:58 the four DAP chips but that's your
10:00 digital inputs coming in there so Yamaha
10:02 I see I haven't had a look at the
10:05 schematic so I'm not quite sure what
10:11 these are all for but very well laid out
10:14 circuit board all those resistors and
10:17 capacitors are fully discrete I think
10:20 those of you afford that chips working
10:22 to give you that 20 bit resolution which
10:30 couple of I think technics own branded
10:34 electrolytic caps and I've also taken
10:39 the cover off the top of the amplifier
10:41 module and that's technics own branded
10:44 and if I can see it there there you go
10:47 and it's ten thousand microfarads apiece
10:49 that's twenty thousand microfarads on
10:51 this side exactly the same on the other
10:54 side forty thousand microfarads some
10:56 nice caps down there and the white that
11:01 you can see in the corner and a fully
11:06 discreet amplifier module the output
11:21 there and to agree into a black so I
11:22 don't know why they're not exactly the
11:25 same they look like they're original I
11:26 don't think anything's been replaced in
11:32 this so yeah well done technics terms of
11:40 build quality superb amplifier good
11:41 build quality is no guarantee of good
11:44 sound quality so what does this 30 year
11:47 old technics sem 100 amplifier sound
11:49 like well it has that typical Japanese
11:53 mid fire v-shaped tonal characteristic
11:55 where the very low frequencies and the
11:58 very high frequencies are just ever so
12:01 slightly over emphasized the bass is the
12:04 star of the show here bass frequencies
12:06 are well extended they're tight they're
12:10 articulate they're very fast and in this
12:12 regard not only do I prefer it to the
12:14 h9t amplifier that I had here for
12:18 audition but also to my h1 60 Hangul
12:22 amplifier it will give my exposure 21
12:24 preamp at 18 monoblocks with good run
12:25 for its money and thus a considerably
12:28 more expensive amplifier than this
12:33 technics mid bass is also excellent the
12:35 rhythm section it's like this amplifier
12:37 gets hold a rhythm it just doesn't let
12:39 go it makes it really fun very engaging
12:41 to listen to it's delivered with great
12:43 impact greatness Authority and great
12:46 speed so all excellent news thus far
12:48 well this is where the picture gets a
12:50 little less rosy in the mid-range it
12:52 really doesn't compete with any of those
12:56 amplifiers the resolution is not quite
12:58 as good separation between instruments
13:00 is not as good it's like everything's a
13:03 little bit more muddled together it's
13:05 not bad by any characteristics it's just
13:07 if you put them on the end of very
13:09 revealing speakers now bear in mind the
13:11 product responds one it sees that I have
13:14 behind me are extremely revealing in the
13:16 mid-range they're probably quite
13:18 possibly actually one of the most
13:21 revealing speakers they're around into
13:25 mid-range clarity so partner perhaps
13:27 with something more appropriate to its
13:29 price point in terms of mid-range
13:31 clarity I don't think those
13:33 characteristics will be so evident but
13:36 it certainly isn't as good as any of
13:37 those amplifiers that I mentioned
13:41 behaves 90 the h1 60 exposures that I
13:43 have and even my audio that cue ducking
13:46 and power have better resolution better
13:48 definition that's a separation in the
13:52 mid-range than this amplifier it has a
13:55 slight steely quality to the mid range
13:57 as well in the upper mids which gives
14:01 guitars and sometimes some vocals a
14:03 little bit of glare and that becomes
14:07 evident with extremely revealing
14:09 speakers high frequencies are very well
14:13 extended their siblings is very well
14:15 control so no complaints in the top end
14:18 there so overall partnered with the
14:20 right kind of speakers I think this is
14:23 an excellent amplifier with a huge
14:26 amount of power clearly in reserve which
14:30 makes a lot of fun to listen to so the
14:32 questions I asked myself at the
14:35 beginning of this review how does this
14:37 amplifier compete with its modern-day
14:40 equivalents and how much is the game
14:42 moved on in 30 years well still with how
14:45 it competes first let's assume that this
14:47 was an amplifier being built today for
14:49 1500 pounds well in some regards it
14:52 compete very well in terms of build
14:54 quality I think it'd be hard pressed to
14:57 find any amplifier at 1500 pounds with a
15:01 dual mono construction two separate
15:03 power transformers effectively two
15:06 monoblocks built into a chassis with a
15:10 DAC and a preamp at this kind of price
15:12 point and I think that also shows itself
15:15 in this amplifiers rather exceptional
15:20 bass response but in terms of resolution
15:22 and detail this particular amplifier
15:24 doesn't compete with its modern-day
15:26 counterparts now that's true this
15:28 amplifier it's not true all vintage amplifiers
15:30 amplifiers
15:35 my exposure 21 3 and 18 monos referred
15:38 in previous reviews as 2025 years old
15:40 we'll actually looked it up and open the
15:42 lid there 22 years old and they could be
15:45 considered a vintage amplifier they
15:48 retail it for about 3,000 pounds and
15:50 even if you account for them going up in
15:52 inflation being four or five thousand
15:55 pounds today they comfortably sawed off
15:58 the Hegel H 160 in terms of resolution
16:01 and detail so as I say you can't make
16:03 generalizations based on one particular
16:06 amplifier and also I don't know whether
16:09 this amplifier has any force in it's
16:10 never been serviced I don't know if
16:14 there's any capacitors that I have dried
16:17 up and are out of spec and I will be
16:18 sending it to my local dealer or
16:21 excellent in terms of servicing
16:24 amplifiers and they'll give it an
16:25 overall if there's any capacitors that
16:27 need replacing just suspect there might
16:31 be they'll do that and listen when it
16:32 comes back if it sounds any different
16:34 I'll certainly be doing an update on
16:39 this review serviced or not serviced
16:42 used amplifiers from twenty thirty years
16:44 ago can represent excellent value if you
16:47 buy them secondhand but you have to be
16:50 careful and you have to be sensible you
16:51 have to pick something that fits well
16:53 with your system and in particular your
16:55 speakers in terms of its tonal
16:59 characteristics and its resolution and
17:01 you have to buy from a result reliable
17:04 source so that you can avoid problems
17:06 this amplifier you probably pick up
17:09 secondhand for 300 pounds and trust me
17:11 there's nothing new that you can buy for
17:14 300 pounds that's anywhere close to this
17:16 not even four five six hundred pounds so
17:19 as long as you're sensible and careful
17:22 and pick the right amplifier use that
17:24 with eyes for twenty thirty years ago
17:27 can be a relative bargain so how has the
17:29 game moved on in the last thirty years
17:32 well I can't use this one example of a
17:35 30-year old technics amplifier to judge
17:37 all vintage amplifiers any more than I
17:40 can use my Hegel H one sixty two types
17:43 of all modern amplifiers but I have
17:44 listened to a lot more than two amplifier
17:45 amplifier
17:47 over the last 20-30 years so this is
17:50 purely my subjective take on where I
17:52 think things have evolved and how the
17:55 game has moved on in terms of topology
17:59 class-d amplifiers have become more and
18:01 more popular assets apology we're
18:03 starting to figure out how to make those
18:06 amplify of sound better and better and
18:07 deal with some of the problems with
18:11 regards to load intolerance and
18:14 filtering out the noise of those the
18:18 fire switching amplifiers produce but
18:20 the vast majority of amplifiers out
18:23 there are still Class A B designs which
18:25 have been around for an awful long time
18:28 back topologies hardly changed at all
18:32 as a result Class A B amplifiers which
18:34 are really good back twenty thirty years
18:39 ago are still very competitive today as
18:43 long as you choose wisely now I think
18:46 the reality is that there have been a
18:50 lot of refinements in terms of how that
18:52 was that Class A Beach technology is
18:55 implemented so where you're probably
18:57 more likely to find a 20 30 year old
19:00 amplifier with obvious flaws you're less
19:02 likely to find that to be the case
19:04 because they've just figured out like
19:06 they have are doing the Class D how to
19:08 basically get around some of those
19:10 problems for example crossover
19:15 Distortion a noise floor now one of the
19:17 reasons why it's possible to produce an amplifier
19:18 amplifier
19:21 today much more easily with less sonic
19:24 thoughts and a lower noise born in 20-30
19:27 years ago is not only about refining the
19:30 art but also about the fact that
19:32 technology has improved over the last
19:35 twenty thirty years so the precision and
19:37 tolerance of components going into this
19:39 amplifier resistors capacitors inductors
19:42 and like a far better than they were
19:46 twenty thirty years ago and as a result
19:48 it's much easier to get something that
19:52 produces a much more consistent result
19:55 so like most things in this hobby their
19:58 pluses and minuses to buying you a new
20:00 the other benefits of new and the fires
20:02 are that you have manufacturer warranty
20:05 and manufacture support but used is also
20:07 a very viable option
20:10 so no black and white answers here just
20:14 shades of grey hopefully you found this
20:17 review useful and you've enjoyed it and
20:20 if you enjoy my approach to hi fire
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20:36 today for now a British short bar
