- VERDICT
The Technics Ottava F SC-C70 is the type of product that will remind us why we love audio and create an emotional connection with our favourite music. It is beautifully designed to deliver premium audio quality with a wide range of listening options.
Beloved audio brand Technics is back and with it are some remarkable products including the Technics Ottava F SC-C70 all-in-one music system that takes listeners back to the glory days of music quality.
Today we’re surrounded by smart speakers and streaming music through our smartphones which offer more convenience than they do high quality.
Smart speakers and Bluetooth have now become the most popular and affordable ways we can play our music out loud.
This is fine for some but audiophiles would be definitely turning their noses up at these popular products.
That’s why the Technics Ottava F SC-C70 has come along just at the right time.
It’s a call back to all-in-one shelf systems but there are nice some tech touches in there as well.
The device has five built-in 2.1 channel speakers and a subwoofer, CD player, digital radio, Bluetooth, AirPlay and DLNA.
It is beautifully designed with brushed aluminium surface and high quality buttons controls on the top panel.
You can see the build quality and premium look of the product which makes the customer’s expectation of the audio quality to also be quite high. We were not disappointed.
The front of the system has a grille and horizontal slats which sit on top of the front 30W speakers and tweeters. There is also a downfiring 40W 8cm subwoofer.
And on top is the CD player. We’ll be honest – it took us a little while to work out how to open the player to insert a CD.
We assumed the lid would rise majestically to allow us to insert a disc.
No, it was simply a matter of rotating the cover open. A low tech solution for a high tech product.
The cabinet is quite heavy (7.8kg) and is built to avoid any vibration or distortion.
The Technics Ottava F SC-C70 has the JENO (jitter elimination and noise-shaping optimisation) system to deliver the audio without loss.
It has a bi-amp structure to separately drive the woofers and tweeters/mid-range speakers.
It also has Space Tune so the unit can optimise itself to your surroundings right down to the position in the room whether its free-standing, in a corner or against a wall.
On the connectivity side, the SC-C70 can link to your network wirelessly and also directly with an Ethernet cable from your modem.
It also comes with a DAB+ antenna cable that plugs into the back of the unit.
There’s also an optical digital audio connection, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a USB port so users can connect an external drive or thumb drive and play the onboard audio content.
The Technics Ottava F SC-C70 also comes with a full size IR remote control.
Users can also control the system and link their streaming accounts like Spotify and Tidal from the Technics Music App.
But the app needs a lot of work. It’s not the most attractive or intuitive app you’ll ever find although it does include a handy shortcut to connect the SC-C70 to your wireless network.
There are several ways you can enjoy your music including via AirPlay from another device or through DLNA on your home network from another device or connected drive.
There are a wide range of supported codecs including WAV, FLAC, DSD, AIFF, ALAC, AAC, WMA and MP3.
For our review – we had to dig out some CDs – it’s been a while since we listened to music off a disc.
And we also streamed music from our smartphone via Bluetooth and also listened to some digital radio.
The CDs sounded superb with such crisp audio and great definition.
It was plain to hear the step up in quality from even the most expensive smart speaker.
And having a remote control for the system encouraged us to actually sit down and listen to the music in the room where we had the system set up.
Usually music is something we have in the background while we’re doing something else.
The person who will pay $1,649 to buy the Technics Ottava F SC-C70 is a more discerning audio fan who would take the time to sit down and listen to music in the same way others would sit down to watch a movie.
To our ears the system sounded superb. Our only complaint was that it was a little lacking in the bass department.
Technics is going for nuance and subtlety with this sound stage rather than hitting you over the head with a bigger sound.
For most audiophiles bigger isn’t always better.
At this price, it is actually quite cheap for a true audiophile who would not bat an eyelid spending twice this amount on a cable or a pair of headphones.
Technics has priced this to appeal a wider range of listeners who can see the value of superior audio while appealing to the more refined and fussier listener.
Technics – it’s great to see you back.
The Technics Ottava F SC-C70 is available now and is priced at $1,649.
VERDICT
The Technics Ottava F SC-C70 is the type of product that will remind us why we love audio and create an emotional connection with our favourite music. It is beautifully designed to deliver premium audio quality with a wide range of listening options.
