Technics SL-G700M2 review: old meets new to delightful effect

What if you want to bring your existing audio system bang up to date where network streaming is concerned, but don’t want to give up on your physical media just yet? What if your existing audio system is the sort of standard that demands any new element must both look good and be of similarly high performance?

Technics reckons it has the answer, in the shape of this: the SL-G700M2 network/Super Audio CD player. As the description (and the asking price) strongly imply, this is a device that’s ready to do the audio streaming business from pretty much any source you care to mention, and is fitted with a disc drive that’s ready to handle your legacy CD (as well as Super Audio CD) collection too. 

As multi-taskers go, the Technics would seem to have covered plenty of bases. But does this meeting of the (relatively) ancient and (undeniably) modern actually make any sense? 

Technics G700 M2: Price & Availability

The Technics SL-G700M2 is on sale now, and in the United Kingdom it costs a nominal £2899 (although that price can be bettered just a little - check out the shopping widget embedded above, for example). In the United States it goes for $3499, while in Australia it will set you back around AU$4999.

Technics’ Grand Class range of components has never come cheap, but this is nevertheless plenty of money to be paying for one of the best music streamers - even if it does incorporate an optical disc drive as part of the deal...

Technics G700 M2 review: What's new?

There was a time when physical media ruled the roost, and lots of people spent lots of money on lots of compact discs (as well as on the Super Audio version, HDCD and lesser-spotted MQA-CD variants). Lots of people still have them - which means lots of people will be delighted to find the Technics SL-G700M2 is capable of playing all of them.

Of course, there’s a bit more to this device than that. It’s equipped with dual-band Wi-Fi and an Ethernet socket in order to get onto your local network, and in addition is able to deal with wireless inputs via Bluetooth (4.2 with SBC and AAC codec support), Apple AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. Spotify Connect and internet radio are on board, and the rest of the most obvious and high-profile music streaming services can be accessed via their native apps.

Physical connectivity is similarly extensive. There are a couple of USB-A slots (one on the fascia, where it sits alongside a 6.3mm headphone output, the other around the back with the rest of the sockets), a USB-B input, and digital coaxial and digital optical inputs. Outputs run to unbalanced stereo RCA analogue connections, balanced XLR equivalents, and both digital coaxial and digital optical outputs in case you want to bypass the SL-G700M2’s digital-to-analogue conversion circuitry.

It’s worth giving the Technics a long, hard listen before you decide to do so, though - its ESS ES9026PRO DAC is capable of dealing with all major file types, up to 32bit/384kHz and DSD256 resolution. Technics has given a lot of thought to the digital-to-analogue processing that goes on inside the SL-G700M2 - its ‘Coherent Processing’ design attempts to minimise the gain and phase discrepancies and other artefacts that are inevitable when using digital filters. It can be switched on or off in the control app, which means it’s easy to assess its effectiveness.

There’s another innovation on the inside of the machine in the shape of Technics’ ‘Multi-Stage Silent Power Supply’. It uses high-speed switching circuitry, and splits the power supply between the player’s analogue and digital sections - it’s technology that’s trickled down from the company’s £8000 SU-R1000 ‘Reference Class’ stereo amplifier.

Technics G700 M2 review: Performance

Because I’m far-sighted (or because I can never bring myself to throw anything away), I have quite a few CDs and Super Audio CDs about the place - I even have a couple of HDCDs. So it seems only sensible to start by checking out the SL-G700M2 with some old-school physical media. And I may as well get straight to the point: the Technics is a balanced, insightful and thoroughly engaging listen.

Its tonal balance is carefully neutral, as is its overall attitude - there’s no ramping up of low-frequency presence or top-end bite in the name of ‘excitement’ here. Instead, you get a smooth, uncoloured journey from the top of the frequency range to the bottom, plenty of detail (both broad and fine) revealed at every stage, and the sort of dynamic potency that can track changes in volumes and intensity without apparent effort.

Soundstaging is good, too - there’s more than enough space for every element of a recording to perform without being impacted on by any other. Midrange information, voices in particular, exist in a little pocket towards the front of the stage in order to communicate as freely as possible - but, at the same time, they’re properly integrated into the overall presentation. 

Control of the frequency range is good, and this is particularly apparent at the bottom of the frequency range. The Technics tracks the attack of bass sounds with straight-edged precision, and punches rather than shoves - which means it’s able to express rhythms with real positivity. It’s just as attentive to the decay of low-end information, too, so momentum is always maintained and the music is never in danger of being bogged down by its own bass performance. 

Switch to music streamed wireless (from Qobuz, from Tidal and from some network-attached storage) and the story is, broadly speaking, very similar. That the SL-G700M2 prefers to deal with nice big 24bit/192kHz FLAC of DSD64 files shouldn’t come as any sort of surprise - but what’s mildly startling is just how forgiving of less information-rich content it is. You have to step down well below the 16bit/44.1kHz CD-standard threshold before the Technics starts to lose patience - and even then, it strives to unify the elements of a recording and keep everything under control.

It’s worth noting that a degree of system-matching is on order here (as it is for every device at this sort of level, to be fair). Despite its impressive tonal balance, the SL-G700M2 won’t thank you for being partnered with amplification and loudspeakers with especially lively treble presence - the sound can skew away from ‘bright’ and towards ‘hard’ somewhat. And in systems where its partners are similarly judicious in their presentation, it can sound just slightly undemonstrative. Other than that, the Technics player is pretty forgiving - which means it should be a very worthwhile addition to any number of price-comparable set-ups.

Technics G700 M2 review: Design & Usability

As is the case with all of the ‘Grand Class’ series of products that have come out of Technics over the years, the SL-G700M2 is built and finished to an extremely high standard from tactile and overtly upmarket materials. The front and side panels are of ‘hairline’-finished aluminium - the 7mm-thick front panel, in particular, makes it look and feel like a premium item. The engraved company logo at its top left doesn’t do any harm in this regard, either. The quality of the construction here is basically impeccable.

The news where ‘usability’ is concerned, though, is more of a mixed bag. The physical controls on the fascia all work with precision - the weighting of the turn/push ‘multi control’ dial is lovely, and the disc tray slides in and out with well-judged damping. The remote control handset is nothing like as tactile as the product it’s controlling, admittedly - but it is logical, reliable and big enough that none of its buttons are overly small.

The display on the fascia is a small, monochrome affair, though, that’s quite strongly at odds with the rest of the machine’s high-end vibe. And the ‘Audio Center’ control app is equally unexciting - in fact, it’s on the clunky side and quite underwhelming. 

And it’s not even the only app you need to get the SL-G700M2 up and running - initial set-up must be done using Google Home. The SL-G700M2 may represent the best of older and newer technologies where its functionality is concerned, but the control app is not the place to be embracing the ‘older’.

Technics G700 M2 review: Verdict

The Technics SL-G700M2's ability as a music streamer alone makes it worthy of strong consideration, and its DAC is capable enough to make it a fine preamplifier for a couple of other digital sources. Add in the ability to make the best of your legacy collection of shiny discs and, save for its lack of album artwork display capability, it’s well worth a place on the shortest of shortlists. 

Also consider

You’re probably looking at two boxes to do what the Technics does - so it’s worth looking into Arcam’s new CD5 and ST5 CD player and streamer, and the CXC CD transport and CXN100 streamer by Cambridge Audio, for starters.