Technics SC-HD350 (Technics SC-EH760)

Member Name: Farting Weasel

Product:	Technics SC-EH760
Date:	23/02/05 (3130 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice sound., Good price, Easy to set up and use

Disadvantages: None standard leads, No aux.-out sockets , Mix and match possibilities are not great

What?
Technics SC-HD350

What Is It?
Hi Fi System, comprising of amplifier (SE-HD350), tuner (ST-HD350), tape deck (RS-HD350), CD player (SL-HD350) and speakers (SC-HD350). Plus mains lead, connecting leads, AM and FM Aerials.

What Does It Do?
Play music

Price.
£240 - £250 depending on where you buy it.

What Is It Like?
I’m not a stereo geek so please forgive the lack of jargon
A neat, cool looking and compact set, my example is silver coloured with the speakers in wood grain finish. It comes with all the necessary leads to basically plug in and play. If you want to play your old vinyl you will have to buy a pre amp and deck separately. Setting up doesn’t take long and the instructions supplied are easy to follow. Deciding the location of the speakers took longer than setting up.
Overall sound is good. If you put the speakers against a wall or on a shelf the bass gets a bit boomy, but this can be remedied by turning the bass down on the amp. The top end is nice a crisp, even when playing some of my older tapes.
Which brings me to my own little test. You see, I’ve got a collection of tapes going back years that are lifted from live broadcasts on FM radio. The quality is not too bad but they are aging a little bit now. You know, the bass is a bit rumbly, the top end hisses rather than sparkles. But this thing gives them such a boost it’s hard to believe they are the same tapes. They certainly sound live.
Volume has a good reach, more than ample for your average sitting room or bedroom. At a deceptive 22W/channel it can still bend an eardrum or two.
The tape player has a sliding drawer into which you load the tape. The action is smooth and quiet and has a certain chunky dependable feel to it. The machine can play in either direction and also has an automatic search facility (TPS) if you want a track in the middle of the tape. Dolby is included and this is quite impressive, as it does not kill any high frequencies as it does on so many other tape machines.
There is not a lot to say about the CD player other than to say it plays ordinary cd’s and those that you’ve made yourself on your computer, so long as they are finalised. It will not play CD-RW though. The machine has Random repeat and programmable play facilities if you want them. Loading the cd is via the standard sliding drawer.
The radio is a fine piece of kit. Where we are our radios have trouble picking up a signal but this had no problems at all. Very little stereo hiss too. Nice. It will pick up FM and AM, but sadly no long wave for cricket buffs. Tuning can be done manually or automatically and both processes are a doddle.
The amp. Basic in design, one volume control, one selector control, bass and treble controls and that’s it. Except for the VGCA. What’s that? Well, remember the old loudness control, this is exactly the same. It boosts your bass and treble at low volumes and at higher volumes levels the sound out. It is quite a good way to get a balanced sound and stop the bass booming about the place.
The speaker cabs house a 120mm woofer and a 60mm tweeter, with a rearwards facing vent for the bass.
My example plugged into the pc via the headphone socket allowing me to record tapes onto the computer ready for putting onto disc. A word of advice here, keep the volume down or you might damage the sound card.
There are no aux.-out sockets and only one set of sound-in sockets to connect other equipment to it. The connecting leads between the separates are not your standard leads. No, they are flat leads which I’ve never seen before, but it does mean that mix and match possibilities are not great. Speaker connections are standard stuff.
The tuner is the only unit with any kind of display and this caters for all the other bits. It even says hello and goodbye.
The instructions are easy to follow and don’t need a PhD in electronics to understand but if you do want the technical bits they are included on the back. Or you can go hunting on the net.


Conclusion
I like this kit. It is small neat, and does exactly what it says on the tin. The sound is flexible and it does as good a job on classical music as it does with heavy metal. I have tapes recorded from the radio from years ago and even these are given a new lease of life.
For the price it makes a good sounding unit for the home without costing the earth or, if you are a bit more monetarily endowed, a good unit for the kids bedroom.
I have no doubt that the audiophiles amongst us will probably find something to whinge about, but to Farty, as your average music appreciator, it does the job.
Overall, a good buy.

Summary: