Technics SA-DX940

Reviewed Mar 11th, 2021 by Five5x

This receiver is better for frying eggs than playing music. It's a well known issue of 90's Technics receivers they run way too hot. Hot enough it verges on scary.

For some reason Technics thought it was a good idea to have the fan to only come on when it reached a certain volume. Something that absolutely makes zero sense. The point of the fan is to dissipate heat away from the receiver. Yet, it doesn't do that at lower volumes. This wouldn't be a problem for most receivers, but Technics chose to use transistors that run very hot even if there is no music being played. This isn't the only Technics amp with this problem. I believe by the beginning of the 90's this became a problem in all of their receivers because my 1991 amp from this lineup suffers from this problem.
There's 2 solutions to this problem, fix the internal fan or plop another fan on top to run at all times.

When it comes to sound, this thing leaves a lot to be desired. This is the beginning of when a lot of receivers stopped being about playing music or more about the home theatre setup. Money which would have went into putting the best parts inside the receiver for the price point to play music, was now being spent on the extra parts needed to be a home theatre machine. To keep the receiver at their chosen price, some things can't be as good as they use to be and this is one of those receivers suffering from the downgrade in quality.

It's noise to sound volume isn't great. It suffers from a audible hum which only gets worse in any dsp mode. It lacks all signs of bass response. Bass is thin and is barely there. I think that's due to the idea a sub woofer would be providing the bass frequencies. Mids lack warmth and highs are brittle sounding. When my dad bought this I thought it was a few steps down from the Sa-Gx505 he had been using previously and that amp was reviewed as having little bass. So imagine what little bass this sucker had. I have never enjoyed how music sounded with this receiver. Maybe I should see if it's better at cooking food.