Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
Vintage Technics SE M100 amplifier review - Vs Hegel H90, H160 and other amplifiers - AI Summary, Mind Map & Transcript | A British Audiophile | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Vintage Technics SE M100 amplifier review - Vs Hegel H90, H160 and other amplifiers
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
This review compares a vintage 1989 Technics SCM 100 amplifier with modern high-end amplifiers, assessing how audio technology has evolved over 30 years in terms of build quality, features, and sound performance.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
[Music]
that was the title track from the famous
Duke Ellington album operat Bosa
not only is an excellent workout for
your system but also a wonderfully
recorded album that thoroughly urge you
to check out welcome to a British audio
file in this first episode of this year
so happy new year and it's true what
they say if you hang on to something
long enough eventually it will come back
in fashion and what do I mean by that
well this is the technics SCM 100
amplifier from 1989 so fully featured
amplifier with a built-in zap this is a
modern equivalent the Haegele h 160 that
I reviewed in a previous episode also a
fully featured amplifier with a built-in
DAC now what I'll be doing is making a
comparison between the two now is it a
fair comparison well let's look at price
a hagel h 160 retails for two-and-a-half
thousand pounds this technics amplifier
back in 1989 retailed for a thousand
pounds now if you account for inflation
and look at techniques and yamaha and
similar other Japanese producers and
their current lineup I think you could
argue this amplifier today themselves
somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds
perhaps close to the 1500 pound mark if
I'm being honest they also have a number
of other similarities they both weigh 17
kgs they both produce over a hundred
watts of power hundred fifty watts in
the case of the Hegel and 120 watts in
case of this technics and they all are
fully featured amplifiers with built-in
doubts even adjusting for inflation this
is not a fair comparison
the Haegele h 160 of two and a half
thousand pounds should comfortably
outperform this technics even if it was
being produced today for 1500 pounds but
I've also had the H 90 here to audition
now I had to return that before I could
make a formal review but I do recall
what that sounds like H 90 retails for
1500 pounds
and today this would be a direct
competitor competitor to that amplifier
so the question really remains how much
has the game moved on in 30 years well
I'll be answering that I'll be looking
at comparing this picnics amplifier to
the H 90 to the page 160 and other
amplifiers are hi own but I also like to
give you a little bit of context in
terms of the review of this technics
amplifier a heyday of technics was the
1970s and 1980s where they produced
amplifiers and receivers that were very
sought-after and are still very
sought-after today especially the ones
with the vu meters at the front now they
can retail for many thousands of pounds
so are people being foolish buying those
amplifiers on their just being nostalgic
or are they genuinely very good
amplifiers that stand up very well today
well let's find out okay so before we do
the sound comparison let's take a closer
look at this amplifier technics digital
power amplifier SEM 100 there was a
matching pre amplifier if you wanted a
phono stage in extra line level audio
connections but this can be used as a
fully featured integrated amplifier as I
mentioned earlier bottom left you have a
power button and a headphone jack and a
selector switch for a and B speaker
connections in the center you have a
nice large potentiometer as a volume
control and these are your digital input
connections for optical and coaxial
predates the USB type of connection or
I'll show you on the back and it has inputs
inputs
- therefore your digital inputs switch
over to variable that's your traditional
line level analog output and if you want
to use it as a power amplifier you can
switch it over to fixed digital direct
drive for dat chips working in unison to
provide you 20 bits worth of resolution
which is safer the art at the time and
that digital direct drive means that the
DAC feeds directly into the power
amplifier and signal is attenuated
digitally so you bypass the preamp
effectively Class A a that is their
proprietary take on Class A B I think it
has from what I can read up on from what
I understand
Class A voltage gain stage in a Class B
current driving stage and Class A a is a
bridge that sits in between - quite sure
how that works maybe someone can
enlighten me we'll get to the insides in
a second I just spin this round and what
you have is your a and B speaker
connections no banana plugs just bare
wire connections going in there banana
plugs would have been nice but I don't
think that was the forte in that time in
that day and age there are your digital
input connections you've got coaxial
to optical and your fixed and variable
line level connections that's the other
side of to speak connections for a and B
if i zoom back out you might be able to
see the whole thing there you go
it is quite a beast if you look inside
what's really impressive is it's a dual
mono design that goes all the way back
to the power connection with separate
transformers normally when you have a
dual mono design you'll have them
sharing one power transformer but you
can see
and there's one on the left-hand side
here and one on the right-hand side and
in the middle is the preamplifier and
the DAC which is very well encased top
and bottom and you've got these copper
shield I think they're for shielding
because it's a copper plate on the back
and surrounds the digital preamps so
there's no noise coming through from the
power amplifier sections very well
shielded and if you lifted that cover
off underneath there you would find the
DAC quite large heat sinks to reasonably
sized filter caps for the power supply
and underneath if I can just get there somehow
somehow
again angle where you can see perhaps is
the fully discreet amplifier module and
it's exactly the same on the other side
so quite a beast really even by today's
standards you'd have to spend I mean if
you're looking at the Hegel h3 90 you go
that's where it starts to go to dual
mono that's 5000 pounds and that doesn't
have independent power supplies and
transformers for the left and right
amplifier modules this does so it's
effectively two monoblocks
pre amplifier and DAC squeezed into one
certainly a lot of value for the money
back in that day and even by today's
standards just get back one on the front
here see if there's any other angles I
can exploit not really to get much in
I'm not gonna pull this thing apart
any further so yeah highly impressive
said I wasn't gonna pull it apart any
further but I couldn't resist so I took
digital preamp effectively and DAC now
what you'll notice is that fully
discreet there are a number of ICS as
well a feeling there in the middle are
the four DAP chips but that's your
digital inputs coming in there so Yamaha
I see I haven't had a look at the
schematic so I'm not quite sure what
these are all for but very well laid out
circuit board all those resistors and
capacitors are fully discrete I think
those of you afford that chips working
to give you that 20 bit resolution which
couple of I think technics own branded
electrolytic caps and I've also taken
the cover off the top of the amplifier
module and that's technics own branded
and if I can see it there there you go
and it's ten thousand microfarads apiece
that's twenty thousand microfarads on
this side exactly the same on the other
side forty thousand microfarads some
nice caps down there and the white that
you can see in the corner and a fully
discreet amplifier module the output
there and to agree into a black so I
don't know why they're not exactly the
same they look like they're original I
don't think anything's been replaced in
this so yeah well done technics terms of
build quality superb amplifier good
build quality is no guarantee of good
sound quality so what does this 30 year
old technics sem 100 amplifier sound
like well it has that typical Japanese
mid fire v-shaped tonal characteristic
where the very low frequencies and the
very high frequencies are just ever so
slightly over emphasized the bass is the
star of the show here bass frequencies
are well extended they're tight they're
articulate they're very fast and in this
regard not only do I prefer it to the
h9t amplifier that I had here for
audition but also to my h1 60 Hangul
amplifier it will give my exposure 21
preamp at 18 monoblocks with good run
for its money and thus a considerably
more expensive amplifier than this
technics mid bass is also excellent the
rhythm section it's like this amplifier
gets hold a rhythm it just doesn't let
go it makes it really fun very engaging
to listen to it's delivered with great
impact greatness Authority and great
speed so all excellent news thus far
well this is where the picture gets a
little less rosy in the mid-range it
really doesn't compete with any of those
amplifiers the resolution is not quite
as good separation between instruments
is not as good it's like everything's a
little bit more muddled together it's
not bad by any characteristics it's just
if you put them on the end of very
revealing speakers now bear in mind the
product responds one it sees that I have
behind me are extremely revealing in the
mid-range they're probably quite
possibly actually one of the most
revealing speakers they're around into
mid-range clarity so partner perhaps
with something more appropriate to its
price point in terms of mid-range
clarity I don't think those
characteristics will be so evident but
it certainly isn't as good as any of
those amplifiers that I mentioned
behaves 90 the h1 60 exposures that I
have and even my audio that cue ducking
and power have better resolution better
definition that's a separation in the
mid-range than this amplifier it has a
slight steely quality to the mid range
as well in the upper mids which gives
guitars and sometimes some vocals a
little bit of glare and that becomes
evident with extremely revealing
speakers high frequencies are very well
extended their siblings is very well
control so no complaints in the top end
there so overall partnered with the
right kind of speakers I think this is
an excellent amplifier with a huge
amount of power clearly in reserve which
makes a lot of fun to listen to so the
questions I asked myself at the
beginning of this review how does this
amplifier compete with its modern-day
equivalents and how much is the game
moved on in 30 years well still with how
it competes first let's assume that this
was an amplifier being built today for
1500 pounds well in some regards it
compete very well in terms of build
quality I think it'd be hard pressed to
find any amplifier at 1500 pounds with a
dual mono construction two separate
power transformers effectively two
monoblocks built into a chassis with a
DAC and a preamp at this kind of price
point and I think that also shows itself
in this amplifiers rather exceptional
bass response but in terms of resolution
and detail this particular amplifier
doesn't compete with its modern-day
counterparts now that's true this
amplifier it's not true all vintage amplifiers
amplifiers
my exposure 21 3 and 18 monos referred
in previous reviews as 2025 years old
we'll actually looked it up and open the
lid there 22 years old and they could be
considered a vintage amplifier they
retail it for about 3,000 pounds and
even if you account for them going up in
inflation being four or five thousand
pounds today they comfortably sawed off
the Hegel H 160 in terms of resolution
and detail so as I say you can't make
generalizations based on one particular
amplifier and also I don't know whether
this amplifier has any force in it's
never been serviced I don't know if
there's any capacitors that I have dried
up and are out of spec and I will be
sending it to my local dealer or
excellent in terms of servicing
amplifiers and they'll give it an
overall if there's any capacitors that
need replacing just suspect there might
be they'll do that and listen when it
comes back if it sounds any different
I'll certainly be doing an update on
this review serviced or not serviced
used amplifiers from twenty thirty years
ago can represent excellent value if you
buy them secondhand but you have to be
careful and you have to be sensible you
have to pick something that fits well
with your system and in particular your
speakers in terms of its tonal
characteristics and its resolution and
you have to buy from a result reliable
source so that you can avoid problems
this amplifier you probably pick up
secondhand for 300 pounds and trust me
there's nothing new that you can buy for
300 pounds that's anywhere close to this
not even four five six hundred pounds so
as long as you're sensible and careful
and pick the right amplifier use that
with eyes for twenty thirty years ago
can be a relative bargain so how has the
game moved on in the last thirty years
well I can't use this one example of a
30-year old technics amplifier to judge
all vintage amplifiers any more than I
can use my Hegel H one sixty two types
of all modern amplifiers but I have
listened to a lot more than two amplifier
amplifier
over the last 20-30 years so this is
purely my subjective take on where I
think things have evolved and how the
game has moved on in terms of topology
class-d amplifiers have become more and
more popular assets apology we're
starting to figure out how to make those
amplify of sound better and better and
deal with some of the problems with
regards to load intolerance and
filtering out the noise of those the
fire switching amplifiers produce but
the vast majority of amplifiers out
there are still Class A B designs which
have been around for an awful long time
back topologies hardly changed at all
as a result Class A B amplifiers which
are really good back twenty thirty years
ago are still very competitive today as
long as you choose wisely now I think
the reality is that there have been a
lot of refinements in terms of how that
was that Class A Beach technology is
implemented so where you're probably
more likely to find a 20 30 year old
amplifier with obvious flaws you're less
likely to find that to be the case
because they've just figured out like
they have are doing the Class D how to
basically get around some of those
problems for example crossover
Distortion a noise floor now one of the
reasons why it's possible to produce an amplifier
amplifier
today much more easily with less sonic
thoughts and a lower noise born in 20-30
years ago is not only about refining the
art but also about the fact that
technology has improved over the last
twenty thirty years so the precision and
tolerance of components going into this
amplifier resistors capacitors inductors
and like a far better than they were
twenty thirty years ago and as a result
it's much easier to get something that
produces a much more consistent result
so like most things in this hobby their
pluses and minuses to buying you a new
the other benefits of new and the fires
are that you have manufacturer warranty
and manufacture support but used is also
a very viable option
so no black and white answers here just
shades of grey hopefully you found this
review useful and you've enjoyed it and
if you enjoy my approach to hi fire
please consider subscribing to this
channel if you haven't already please
think about liking and sharing this
video it certainly helps in terms of
promoting this channel and helping you
to grow so I appreciate your support for
today for now a British short bar
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
