Verdict
Almost as good to look at as it is to listen to , the Technics SL - G700M2 is very nearly the gross digital audio solution ( for those who have the wherewithal … )
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
You want to be able-bodied to stream music – but you do n’t want to give up on your aggregation of compact discs just yet .
And you require to be able to bask both of these method of get at music without adding too much equipment to your existing audio frequency system of rules . Technics has the solution – but it ’s going to be you …
Availability
The Technics SL - G700M2 web / super audio cadmium histrion go for £ 2899 – unless you ’re familiar with one or another of the popular online lookup engines , that is . In the United States you ’ll have to part with $ 3499 or so , while in Australia it ’ll cost you around AU$4999 .
deal of money , in other countersign , for a web music streamer – even one with the tally incentive of an optical disc - crusade . The Technics SL - G700M2 needs to be something particular …
Design
At 98 x 430 x 407 mm ( HWD ) , the SL - G700M2 is basically standard kit - wrack size – although peradventure a little deeper than the norm . And as a member of Technics ’ Grand Class of stereo products , it is built to an extremely high touchstone from premium materials and finished , well , cleanly . If you ’re after a music instrumentalist that seems ready to survive a significant blowup , here ’s the machine you ’re looking for .
The chassis is a four - division intention , featuring 3 mm thick Al side panel and a 7 mm blockheaded atomic number 13 front plate . The disc - tray , too , which is smooth - slither and attractively damp , is of dice - mold aluminium too .
All the fascia controls operate with chunky certainty – the ‘ turn of events / pushing ’ multi - control telephone dial on the top right hand is a straightforward pleasure to use . The SL - G700M2 is put together with minimum panel - gaps , and in every respect look and feels like a high-pitched - end twist . Which is , I guess , exactly what you should ask from a Cartesian product be this much money .
It ’s a pity this full-bodied and uncompromising excogitation does n’t extend to the player ’s control options , though . The remote control handset , while perfectly usable , does n’t experience anything like as upmarket as the machine it controls .
The Audio Center dominance app is , to be charitable , operational rather than in any way attractive – and it does n’t even come into play until you ’ve used Google Home to gear up the SL - G700M2 up in the first place . And while it ’s fair to say that the app of your favourite medicine streaming service will expose record album artwork and what - have - you , the video display on the Technics ’ dashboard is rudimentary – monochrome , not especially high-pitched - declaration and not especially prominent .
Features
Stuffing two product’s - Charles Frederick Worth of functionality into a single enclosure is bound to intend quite broad specification – and that ’s the case with the Technics SL - G700M2 . Both on the interior and the exterior , there ’s great deal fail on .
Under the cowling , the Technics features an ESS ES9026PRO digital - to - analogue converter that ’s compatible with every worthwhile digital audio file type and is good up to 32 - bit/384kHz and DSD256 resolution . It ’s engraft in what Technics squall a Coherent Processing aim that seeks to abbreviate gain and phase discrepancies ( along with other digital filter - derived artefacts ) . It ’s switchable in the control app , so its efficaciousness can be easy established .
Technics has also deployed the Multi - Stage Silent Power Supply first encountered in the SU - R1000 Reference Class stereoscopic photograph amplifier that sells for £ 8 K or so . It employ high - speed shift circuitry , and split the power supply between the player ’s analog and digital sections – the intention is to reduce noise on the supply provender .
let the digital audio information on board in the first shoes can be done in a number of different ways , of form . First of all , there ’s that optical phonograph record - private road – as well as being capable to handle bog - stock compact saucer , it ’s also good with the rather more esoteric HDCD , MQA - CDand Super Audio CD – so your legacy accumulation is catered for across the panel .
Other physical source can be plugged in using either of the USB - A slot ( there ’s one on the dashboard , next to a 6.3 millimetre earphone socket , and the other is on the rear instrument panel ) or the USB - B-complex vitamin input . There is also an Ethernet socket , along with digital coaxal and digital optical inputs .
Wireless stuff , meanwhile , is handle by threefold - band Wi - Fi , Bluetooth 4.2 ( with SBC and AAC codec compatibility),Apple AirPlay 2and Chromecast . Spotify Connectand internet wireless are usable , and other high - visibility music streaming service can be accessed via their aboriginal apps .
You ’ve a duo of alternative when it comes to capture sound out again , too . For connection to an amplifier there are unbalanced RCA sockets and balanced XLRs , and there are also digital optical and digital coaxial outputs too . These digital outturn are for use if you ’ve somehow receive access to a digital - to - analogue converter that ’s more effective than the one in this musician .
Sound Quality
It almost go without saying that the Technics SL - G700M2 does its best oeuvre when render the good material to work with . As far as this mental test is worry , that mean a 24 - bit/96kHz FLAC filing cabinet of Chick Corea ’s counter to Forever and a DSD64 single file of Wham ! ’s Everything She Wants from some mesh - attached storage and a 24 - bit/48kHz Qobuz stream of What Was I Made For ? by Billie Eilish . This form of poppycock permit the player to show on the nose what it ’s got .
Which turns out to be plenty . The Technics is a balance , beautifully balanced listen that gives every domain of the frequency mountain range adequate weighting – nothing is amplify , nothing is underplayed . consolidation from the bottom to the top is smoothly accomplish , and at every level in the frequency range the SL - G700M2 is alive to the most small , most transient details .
This is n’t at the disbursal of the expectant word picture , though – this player is adept at unify even the most complex and/or disparate transcription into a convincing whole .
Low - end control condition is sufficient to keep rhythm method on the front font and tempos naturalistic – there ’s momentum to the way of life the Technics presents music , but it ’s not about injecting an artificial sense of excitement just for the saki of it .
There ’s copious bite and shine at the opposite end of the frequency grasp , to the point that the SL - G700M2 wo n’t thank you for put in it into a system that ’s similarly assertive at the top conclusion . In the midriff , voices have their character , attitude and energy articulated in full . This gadget communicate in coon through the midrange , and it sounds direct and positive as a result .
Dynamic headroom is considerable when it comes to deal with big changes in volume or intensity . The sympathetic variations evident in the Chick Corea recording are hand full expression , too . And the Technics always remains in ascendance , unflustered by feverish recordings and able to peer deep into unaccompanied cat’s-paw in ordering to account on even the most minor dynamical change .
Switch to some content via compact disc ( an SACD written matter of Nick Drake ’s Northern Sky and an HDCD of The Flaming Lips ’ Waitin ’ for a Superman ) and the news is very exchangeable – and so equally good . The SL - G700M2 is an insightful , entertaining and nicely consider heed , able-bodied to yield a big , well - organised and perfectly credible soundstage with more than enough space on it for even the nuptials - cake Flaming Lips mix to get a morsel of elbow elbow room .
In fact , no matter how your author your music , this Technics serve well it up in even - handed fashion . About the only way to really provoke it is to make aBluetooth connectionand then pour some squashed , poverty - spec stuff from Apple Music or something . But you did n’t spend almost £ 3 K on a streamer to behave like that , did you ?
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Should you buy it?
Streaming services , meshing - tie storage , heavyset discs , heartbeat drive … if it ’s got digital music on it , the Technics can handle it
It ’s not as if it becomes feral , but the Technics is more than self-assertive enough at the top end without having this trait compounded by its partners
Final Thoughts
Between its evocative firebrand name , its rich figure calibre , its extensive functionality and its sweetly expressive , informative sound it make , the Technics SL - G700M2 is almost everything I need from a digital audio actor . screen out the scandalously humdrum control app and I ’ll be all in …
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We examine every all - in - one system we review exhaustively over an extended menses of sentence . We practice diligence standard tests to equate characteristic properly . We ’ll always tell you what we obtain . We never , ever , accept money to review a merchandise .
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FAQs
The SL - G700M2 can playback CD , HDCD , super audio compact disc and MQA - CDs .
