FOLLOW-UP

Following Kalman Rubinson’s review and John Atkinson's testing, which were published in the April 2025 issue, the Charcoal Black Technics SC-CX700 streaming amplified speaker system was shipped to me.1 I checked out some of the features Kal described, dug into the underlying tech with Technics's Bill Voss, and spent a few dozen hours listening, especially to the system's phono circuit.

- BY TOM FINE, JOHN ATKINSON & KAL RUBINSON

In the room where I did most of my listening, I set the speakers up on generic 24"-high metal stands. The centers of their coaxial drivers were a bit below my ears; they might have benefited from higher stands but I didn't feel cheated in the resulting tonal balance or the size of the stereo image. Room logistics required a wide-triangle setup: the speakers ended up about 70” apart, my head about 55" from the center point between them. I toed them in so that they aimed just past my head. This position seemed to yield the most even frequency response and wide-screen stereo image.

My first hour with the CX700 was spent streaming familiar music from Qobuz, getting an idea of their baseline sound. I used the Technics Audio Center app on my iPhone 15 to set the Space Tune to “Free”; Voss confirmed that Free is the flat-response option of the built-in digital signal processing (DSP) “crossover,” which assigns frequency bands to each of the two separate all-digital amplification systems (more on that later). I checked the other preset EQ curves (“Space Tune” options), designed for against-wall, in-bookshelf, and in-corner setups. None of those sounded as good as Free in the midroom location I placed the speakers. Still, with this setup, the sound wasn't exciting and images weren't sharp-focus defined. It was okay but not compelling.

So I set up and tried the two room-correction modes. Using a track from my Bass Test playlist on Qobuz,2 Hans Zimmer's title music for