Technics sa-103 vintage reciever?

[Jellygoose]

yeah so, I got this old amp from my mom who bought it in some 20+ years ago I guess.

the specs are here: http://www.vintagetechnics.com/receivers.htm

Iam an absolute newbie on amps and the likes, I just wanna know how this reciever compare to new ones that you can find in stores. I have like no idea what the numbers etc in the comparison table means.

Iam not about to buy a new one any time soon, dont have the money to do so.

Iam listening to my koss ksc 75 from it and i have no reference except i can say that it sound better than my ipod atleast

but that can also be becouse Iam using the computer as source.. I dunno really

 

[mkmelt]

I have one of those Technics receivers, I picked it up at a Goodwill Store for around $20. It tends to run warm, so be sure not to block the ventilation slots in the cover. Also, while I am not sure, it may only be rated for use with 8 ohm speakers. For headphone use, it can drive most any dynamic headphones.

Your iPod can deliver, at most, 30 milliwatts of power for headphone listening. The headphone output of the SA-103 is powered by the same 20 watt per channel amplifier that is used to drive speakers, but with a resistor network to drop the power and the volume to a manageable level. The amplifier probably delivers a maxmimum of no more than 2~3 watts to the headphone jack. Even so, this is 100 times the power available from the iPod. While you may never need even 1/10th of that power, it is nice to know that you are not limiting your listening with too little power.

Certainly there are higher quality, better sounding, amplifiers than the Technics SA-103 for both speaker and headphone listening. The overall sound is more likely to be limited by the quality of the audio from the iPod or your PC sound card than by this Technics receiver. Then there is the cost consideration. Free trumps many other considerations, especially when you have very little money to spend on audio equipment. I would use the SA-103 for a while, and then if you still feel the need to upgrade, at least you have a baseline to use to compare with any other amplifier.

There is no way you will ever know how the SA-103 compares to the new model receivers except by doing a direct comparison using your iPod and your KSC 75 phones. After you have had a while to get used to the sound of the SA-103, bring your SA-103, your iPod, and your headphones to a store and ask to listen to some of their receivers so you can compare.

 

[lini]

mkmelt: Is that thingy still discrete ss, or were they using tose thick-film power amp modules already? I had an SA-310, btw - quite ok, but nothing to write home about, either. It was easily bested by a similarly priced Yamaha I bought a few years later. The Yamaha ran a lot cooler and sounded more dynamic and refined, too.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[Jellygoose]

thanks for the info.

Iam about to buy alessandro ms-1 and its good to know that the amp wont be the bottleneck.