Oscar Wilde was on to something when he suggested that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. If he’s right, then the sight of the new Technics SC-CX700 wireless music streaming system will be making KEF, and its LS50 Wireless II music streaming system in particular, feel about as flattered as possible.
The world is full of wireless music streaming systems within stereo speakers in a kind of “all in two” arrangement, but KEF has arguably been the most successful of the established “hi-fi” brands where this concept is concerned. Since it first launched its LS50 Wireless in 2016, it’s routinely represented the most effective balance between performance, convenience, and value for money. We have loved them for generations, with the current LS50 Wireless II (8/10, WIRED Recommends) continuing to impress three years after launch.
Technics seems to have decided that if KEF can’t be beaten in the passive space—as it once tried with a passive pair of speakers called the SB-C700 that reviews editor Parker Hall personally still loves—it can most definitely be joined in the active one. And so with one particularly notable difference, the Technics SC-CX700 seems to have taken a fair bit of visual and functional inspiration from the KEF LS50 Wireless II. To be honest? For folks looking for a KEF alternative, Technics did pretty well once more.
A Hi-Fi Showdown
The main difference is “Dinamica.” This is a soft and velvety, textured material made mostly from recycled polyester. It wraps around the front and sides of the SC-CX700 cabinet, where it makes quite a distinct visual impression no matter if you select the terracotta brown, charcoal black, or silky gray finish. Whether or not it appeals to the interior decorator that lives inside us all is, I think it’s reasonable to say, a different matter.
Its Phase Precision Driver 4 coaxial driver arrangement, which positions a 0.75-inch ring tweeter in the throat of a 5.9-inch mid/bass driver makes a strong, yet weirdly familiar, visual impression. The coaxial unit sits above a forward-facing bass reflex port, which promises a degree of flexibility where positioning the speakers is concerned.
In every other respect, the SC-CX700 is a wireless music system like every other. The system’s total of 200 watts of Class D power is divided into 40 watts per tweeter and 60 watts per mid/bass driver. Each cabinet is 12.3 x 7.9 x 10.9 inches (H x W x D) and weighs around 20 pounds, making them hefty but easy enough to place on most speaker stands or cabinets without fear.
On the inside, Technics has deployed a number of, ahem, techniques to extract maximum performance. Amplification and speaker drivers are positioned in separate enclosures inside the cabinet to minimize vibration interference, in an arrangement Technics calls “acoustic solitude construction.” The reduction of audio signal transmission disturbance between speakers is the responsibility of something it calls the JENO engine, and a MBDC (model-based diaphragm control) chipset intends to minimize harmonic distortion in the coaxial driver arrangement based on simulations of its predicted movement. The company calls this overall arrangement the Technics Orchestration Concept. Yes, it's all very wordy, but it sims to provide you with the best sound possible.
Flexible Setup
As is usually the way with systems like this, one speaker is doing the majority of the heavy lifting in terms of processing. In this instance, the primary speaker features all the physical inputs (HDMI ARC, digital optical, USB-C, Ethernet socket, moving magnet phono stage and 3.5-mm line-level analog input), and takes care of wireless connectivity (dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with SBC and AAC codec compatibility). I say primary speaker because you can choose which side the speaker goes on; it features a switch to designate it as either the left or the right channel, a button to initiate wireless pairing with the secondary speaker, an RJ45 socket to make a hard connection to the secondary, and an input for mains power. The secondary speaker, by way of contrast, just has the RJ45 and a socket for mains power.