Technics

Technics is a brand name of Japan-based Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.. Under this name the company produces a variety of hi-fi products, such as turntables, amplifiers, receivers, tape decks, CD players and speakers for sale in various countries. more...

It was originally conceived for a line of high-end audio equipment to go against such companies as Nakamichi, but most of its home products have been rebranded as Panasonic starting in 2002 (except in Japan, where the brand is still popular). DJ equipment and electronic pianos are the only Technics products currently being sold in the USA and Europe.

The name Technics came to widespread fame with the production of turntables: in 1969 they introduced the SP-10, the first direct-drive model for the professional market, and in 1971 the SL-1100 for the consumer market. The SL-1100 was used by the influential DJ Kool Herc for the first sound system he set up after emigrating from Jamaica to New York. This latter model was the predecessor to the SL-1200 which, as the upgraded SL-1200 MK2, became a widely used turntable by DJs. The SL-1200 MK2 was a robust machine and incorporated a pitch control (or vari-speed), and kept the speed constant and the speed variability low, thus making it a popular tool with DJs.

The 1200 continues to evolve with the M3D series, followed by the MK5 series in 2003.

Other equipment of note includes:

mid 1970s:

• RS-858 quadraphonic 8-track recorder

late 1970s:

• RS-1500/1700 series of open-reel tape decks;
• SA-400/600/800/1000 receivers
• new class A Amplifier series launched featuring SE-A1 / SE-A3 High Output Power Amplifiers

early 1980s:

• SV-P100 digital audio recorder (using VHS tapes!). Also available as the SV-100, a stand-alone PCM adaptor requiring a separate VCR;
• cassette decks with dbx noise reduction (one of the few companies to offer this)

1990s:

• various hi-quality power amps

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