Probably one of the better series from Technics. I have the next model up which weighs almost 40 lbs. The SA-5570; At 85 watts a side it can drive most speakers with no problems. Definitely a keeper!
Why use mono? Or more specifically why in the context of these receivers-and when they were produced-why would there be a switch on them labeled “mono”? Here’s why. FM stereo is all well and good as long as you have good signal strength coming into the receiver. However, under marginal (low-signal level) conditions, decoding an incoming signal as stereo will raise the audible noise significantly. In such conditions the user may elect to instead listen to that particular station in … “mono”. By doing that, the noise on marginal signals would clear up quite a bit, and that would be much more listenable. The mono switch is sort of the way of telling the receiver “I know you think you can get a stereo signal out of this, but you really can’t. Thanks for trying but I’m gonna override you and tell you to just give me a decent sounding mono signal and be done with it”. A more modern technology analogy might be as follows. Why would you ever tell your cell phone to use cellular data instead of Wi-Fi data? After all, WiFi is better and faster, right? Yes, usually it is. That’s why when your cell phone has cellular data and Wi-Fi data available, it will elect to use the Wi-Fi signals of course. However, there can be a problem sometimes when you have a marginal Wi-Fi connection and the phone is favoring the use of that, but because you have a marginal Wi-Fi signal the phone becomes ridiculously sluggish. In conditions like that it makes sense to temporally turn off your phone’s Wi-Fi (so it stops trying to use that type of network). The data rate may drop but at least the phone becomes usable again because it has a pathway that’s relatively reliable. So if the receiver isn’t getting a strong enough signal to decode as stereo in a low-noise manner, the mono switch allows the user to instead opt for a cleaner sounding-albeit mono-signal to listen to, by throwing the mono switch on.
good, solid 65 vintage watts per channel
Probably one of the better series from Technics. I have the next model up which weighs almost 40 lbs. The SA-5570;
At 85 watts a side it can drive most speakers with no problems. Definitely a keeper!
They are easy to work on too!!!
I thought I had mono for a whole year once. Turns out I was just really depressed - Garth Algar
Why use mono? Or more specifically why in the context of these receivers-and when they were produced-why would there be a switch on them labeled “mono”?
Here’s why.
FM stereo is all well and good as long as you have good signal strength coming into the receiver. However, under marginal (low-signal level) conditions, decoding an incoming signal as stereo will raise the audible noise significantly. In such conditions the user may elect to instead listen to that particular station in … “mono”. By doing that, the noise on marginal signals would clear up quite a bit, and that would be much more listenable.
The mono switch is sort of the way of telling the receiver “I know you think you can get a stereo signal out of this, but you really can’t. Thanks for trying but I’m gonna override you and tell you to just give me a decent sounding mono signal and be done with it”.
A more modern technology analogy might be as follows.
Why would you ever tell your cell phone to use cellular data instead of Wi-Fi data? After all, WiFi is better and faster, right?
Yes, usually it is. That’s why when your cell phone has cellular data and Wi-Fi data available, it will elect to use the Wi-Fi signals of course. However, there can be a problem sometimes when you have a marginal Wi-Fi connection and the phone is favoring the use of that, but because you have a marginal Wi-Fi signal the phone becomes ridiculously sluggish. In conditions like that it makes sense to temporally turn off your phone’s Wi-Fi (so it stops trying to use that type of network). The data rate may drop but at least the phone becomes usable again because it has a pathway that’s relatively reliable.
So if the receiver isn’t getting a strong enough signal to decode as stereo in a low-noise manner, the mono switch allows the user to instead opt for a cleaner sounding-albeit mono-signal to listen to, by throwing the mono switch on.