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Technics SU-R1000 - Good but not the king of switching amps

Was looking at the measurements for the Technics SU-R1000 Integrated published by Stereophile. I never bother with the reviews of the sound quality as there’s 1 reviewer there whose ears I trust and it’s not this reviewer.

To be clear, this IS a digital amplifier, and is not a Class D amplifier. Atmasphere will always disagree with me, but given Technics nomenclature and the use of an A/D converter, and PWM output I think if any amplifier qualifies as digital this one does.

What I find kind of interesting here is that the measurements are OK but not absolute Class D killing results. I am particularly unimpressed by the performance of the impedance compensation circuit, LAPC, which at the end of the day does not seem to have performed significantly better than actual, non GaNFET amplifiers, particularly in removing the effects of the output filters Class D amps require. I really hoped to see a huge win here... but it’s not. It’s just making the PWM perform almost as good as a true Class D amplifier.

I have not heard this integrated, but the claims and expectations laid out for the technology seem to not be proven in the measurements. This is a very expensive integrated that does everything differently, and measures about the same as previous generation, also excellent sounding, Class D engines I’ve seen measured.

My stance that Class D was already very good and that new, faster switching amps would have to be truly spectacularly better to unseat them remains, in my mind, uncontested.

Can’t wait to see everyone trashing Class D on the measurements suddenly decide that this amp should be heard and not measured.

erik_squires

Showing 2 responses by badgerdms

badgerdms
151 posts
 

Just wanted to dust this off.  I've heard it and had it in my system.  It's a superb, full stop, whatever name is on the badge.  Ironically, I also know someone who ditched his Luxman amp and Backert Labs Preamp for this and he doesn't seem the least bit sad about the change.

badgerdms
151 posts
 

I had the G700M2 for 30 days last year and agree about how good it is.  In audio, you are always chasing the last 10-15% and that's the case here.  Quoting the maker of some extremely expensive high-end speakers about the R-1000 vs the G700MK2, "Is it better?  Yes.  Is it 3x better?  No".  He recommends the G700MK2 with his speakers all the time when you chat with him in person.

I sprung for the SU-R1000 because I wanted the improved phono stage and the improved bass weight of having a power supply for each channel.  From a geek perspective, I also like having the GaNFET in the output stage transistor, rather than the MOSFET in the 700.  That said, all the improvements are incremental and if I ever scaled down, I would be happy with the 700MK2. 

When I had the G700MK2 in-house, a friend of mine was really interested in the possibilities of the Technics models but had talked himself out of racing over to buy one of the few he could find at that point (BTW, distribution is still wonky).  I owned the same speakers and after trying it in my setup, I told him he absolutely needed to check the 700 out.  He did, loved it and now owns the R1000.  And it's not a speaker pairing that makes sense on paper (which just upholds my working model of buying equipment these days, if I can't hear it in my system first, I don't buy it).

These are both great integrated amps that do things I've never heard in my system before.  Both are bold products that dare to do things differently.  And most importantly, the implementation of everything they have going on in these units seems to work so well in unison.  Can you run out and buy either the Atmasphere or Audion GaN monoblocks?  Sure.  I imagine they are both great.  But you don't get all the other features that come in one box from Technics. 

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