Technics is back

Panasonic has resuscitated the famous Technics brand in time for IFA Berlin,  2014

First products due in December

Andrew Everard reports

Technics is back, and it’s aiming high: its new ‘Reference Class’ R1 system is expected to have a price of around £32,000, and comprises the SU-R1 network music player/preamplifier, the 150Wpc SE-R1 stereo power amplifier, and the floorstanding SB-R1 speakers. These have a coaxial mid treble driver.

Selling for rather less, but still expected to be in the premium audio sector, is the C700 Series range of components: this will comprise the ST-C700 network audio player, the SL-C700 CD player, the SU-C700 integrated amplifier and bookshelf/standmount SB-C700 speakers. A CD player is available as an £800 option.

The link between the R1 preamplifier and power amplifier is digital, using a 32-bit/192kHz Technics Link interface, also found between the network player and the integrated amplifier in the C700 system, while the amplification in both systems uses a Load Adaptive Phase Calibration system able to measure the output of speakers to which the amplifiers are connected, and adjust the amps’ output characteristics accordingly.

The Technics SU-R1 network music layer/preamplifier, the 150Wpc SE-R1 stereo power amplifier, and the floorstanding SB-R1 speakers.

The new systems are the result of well over a year of development by the engineering team in Osaka, which was brought back together following discussions during the summer of 2013. That decision followed a period of what was described to Andrew  as ‘skunkworks’ operations during the brand’s hiatus, with former Technics engineers continuing to develop concepts and product designs on an unofficial basis.

The project is led by Michiko Ogawa, a former Technics engineer and a well-known jazz pianist in Japan. Launching the new models at IFA in Germany last week, she explained that the new models are based on a concept of the ‘Technics Definitive Sound’, which is rooted in principles drawn from past decades of Technics audio development.

Introducing the new slogan for the Technics brand – Rediscover Music – Ogawa explained that ‘We grow up repeatedly discovering and being moved by new types of music. However as we get older we get distracted by all the things going on in our lives and perhaps misplace the pure love of music.'

Through the new Technics products we are striving to offer listeners the feeling of rediscovering music, by helping them to have such uniquely emotionally-engaging experiences – ones that we seem to have lost.