Technics has unveiled its first Reference Class integrated amplifier, the SU-R1000. The Reference Class products are developed in pursue of Technics’  desire to deliver ultimate sound quality to customers.

The SE-R1, Technics’ first Reference Class stereo power amplifier introduced in 2014, featured many new and original digital technologies such as LAPC (Load Adaptive Phase Calibration) for realising ideal impulse response and JENO (Jitter Elimination and Noise-Shaping Optimisation) Engine for achieving high-quality, high-precision PWM signal conversion with minimum jitter.

Technics has been devoted to the development of digital amp technology since 2014. In creating the SU-R1000 Reference Class product, Technics took the following technical approaches.

Technics Reference Class SU-R1000 Integrated Amplifier

Advancement Of Digital Amp Technology

Technics has newly developed ADCT (Active Distortion Cancelling Technology), in addition to the proprietary technologies that maximise digital amps’ advantages, such as LAPC and JENO. The ADCT realises further enrichment of sound quality by eliminating distortion generated in the power stage by speaker’s counter electromotive force and power supply voltage drop.

Advanced Speed Silent Power Supply

The new switching power supply system, Advanced Speed Silent Power Supply, has successfully improved the S/N ratio. Furthermore, four independent power supply units are provided for different circuit blocks, the power devices incorporate low-resistance GaN (gallium nitride).

Technics Reference Class SU-R1000 Integrated Amplifier rear view

Intelligent Phono EQ

There are still many analogue record enthusiasts, and they form an important market segment for Technics. The SU-R1000 is equipped with an Intelligent Phono EQ, which utilises digital technology to achieve an accurate equaliser curve and improves the crosstalk of the cartridge.

JENO (Jitter Elimination And Noise-Shaping Optimisation)

Jitter is a major cause of distortion in digital systems and is caused by mis-timing in the master clocks used in digital-to-analogue conversion. To eliminate the degradation of sound caused by jitter, Technics has developed an original jitter reduction circuit, comprising a clock generator in the noise-shaping system to reduce jitter in the low-frequency range and a high-precision sample rate converter for suppressing jitter in the high-frequency range. Thus it reduces jitter in an ideal way over the entire frequency range. This works with original high-precision PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) conversion circuit, optimising the noise-shaping speed, the degree and re-quantisation number, and the PWM gradation, in order to convert high-resolution signals to PWM without causing any damage to the dynamic range.

LAPC (Load Adaptive Phase Calibration)

Speaker impedance changes with each frequency and a power amplifier is required to drive speakers without being affected by the speaker’s characteristics. However, conventional digital amplifiers are connected to speakers through a low-pass filter at the output stage, so they are even more strongly affected by the speaker impedance characteristics. Also, although the amplitude characteristics of conventional amplifiers due to negative feedback were improved, the phase characteristics could not be enhanced. Technics developed a speaker impedance adaptive optimisation algorithm that performs correction to the ideal impulse response through digital signal processing by measuring the frequency amplitude-phase characteristics of the amplifier with the speakers connected. This new technique enables flattening of the frequency characteristics of amplitude and phase.

Technics Reference Class SU-R1000 Integrated Amplifier

ADCT (Active Distortion Cancelling Technology)

The Active Distortion Cancelling Technology newly developed by Technics extracts and removes distortion in the power output stage which is generated by the speaker’s counter electromotive force and voltage drops. In the Hifi market where an unlimited number of audio systems can be configured by combining various products, high-end audio amplifiers need to drive a diversity of speakers to the fullest. The Active Distortion Cancelling Technology extracts distortion by determining the difference between the speaker terminal output and JENO output and then applies correction to the output digital signal, thus correcting the conventional digital amp system.

Battery Driven Clock Generator

For a digital amplifier, improving the precision of the clock, which provides important operation timing information, is the key to high sound quality. However, power supply noise from the clock circuit is a major impeding factor. The SU-R1000 is equipped with a Battery Driven Clock Generator. The use of a battery as a power supply for the clock circuit eliminates the adverse effect of power supply noise on the clock signal.

Technics Reference Class SU-R1000 Integrated Amplifier in black finish

GaN-FET Driver (High Speed and Low Impedance Power devices)

In the power output section of the amplifier, Technics has employed a high-speed GaN (gallium nitride) FET driver device with super-low resistance. This enables the construction of a high-power amp using a single push-pull configuration, allowing the length of the large current carrying signal path to be shortened.

Input And Output Terminals

The new amp comes with plenty of input and output terminals, including Phono XLR Input and two USB-B Input terminals, to handle a broad range of analogue and digital audio sources and peripheral equipment.

Price

In the region of 8000€

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