How much am I missing with SL1200 mk2?

For two or three hundred dollars, you could upgrade your SL1200 to compete with $1500-2000 turntables, and exceed many of them in certain parameters.

The SL1200's strengths are high torque combined with low noise, rugged construction, speed accurcy, and smooth, slick, user-friendly controls.

The high torque combined with low noise provides good dynamics, bass extension, and rhythmic drive.

The cheap'n'easy tweaks include:

1) A better platter mat; Google around and check some recommendations here. The Herbie's Way Excellent mat is a good place to start, and so are some of those leather or hair-oncowhide models.

2) Get a low-cost record grip; you'll get more consistent tonal balance and s/n ratio regardless of record weight.

3) The stock feet look effective but they aren't. An easy and inexpensive solution is a set of Vibrapod Cones set on top of Vibrapod #2 Isolators. You unscrew the stock feet, set the threaded sockets (that used to hold the feet) onto the steel balls of the Vibracones, and then set those on the Vibrapod Isolators.

4) Wrap the tonearm in Teflon (PFTE) plumbers pipe thread tape. It's one or two bucks a roll; you need about 18" of it, tops.

5) Upgrade your headshell to a ZuPreme from LPGear.

6) Place the turntable on a hardwood butcher block style cutting board. Mine is 3-1/2" thick and made of end grain rock maple. You can also put gel pads or more Vibrapods under the cutting board to improve isolation and vibration reduction.

For a bit more money, add the following upgrades:

7) Have KAB rewire your tonearm with at least OFC copper, or get his very reasonable hyperlitz cable, or the Cardas.

8) Get and install the KAB tonearm fluid damper trough. Fill the trough no more than 1/3 full.

I have done all the above except the tonearm rewire because I have an SL1210M5G, which has OFC tonearm wire.

For a sanity check, I visit my high end store's annual open house where I hear state of the art systems including some pretty sophisticated turntables. Across the street from them is a store that carries Pro-Ject, the full Rega line, and Roxsan. So I'm regularly exposed to $2000-10,000 belt-drive turntables. I never come away from these sessions wishing I had a better turntable. In fact, I marvel at how well my 'table does certain things and how well it holds up against the Rega and Roxsan's strengths.

Oh, yeah: the Audio Technica AT150MLX is wicked fast, articulate, musical, extended, quiet, and linear. Great match for your turntable. I've been using mine for seven years.

Mmakshak: The strongest trait in quartz-locked direct drive turntables (including the OP's), it's a strong sense of pace as well as dynamics and bass extension. These are the very traits typical of direct drive turntables. Plus, the SP 10 didn't come with a tonearm, so whatever it has is what someone installed on it, post-sale and there's no way we could know what it was.

The weakness in the SL12x0 series was vibration control and damping, which can be inexpensively treated.

Another solution is the new Pioneer PLX-1000, an SL1200-style direct drive turntable with three times the torque (talk about propulsion and timing!), built-in tonearm damping sleeve, damping sheets under the plinth and in the subchassis, and improved feet. It's $697.

Chakster: the OP is pretty clear that he's looking at a $1000-1500 budget tops. Can you realistically put together an SP10 mkII rig like you describe for that kind of money? In under 6 months watching auctions and possibly doing extended parts searches to pull the whole thing together?

It depends on whether he's looking for some easy upgrades or an adventure.

He already has an SL1200. New mat, better headshell, better feet, fluid damper and tonearm rewire will noticeably raise the 1200's performance for little money and little hassle.

The SL1200 can be taken even further with aftermarket armboards available to accommodate SME, Jelco and Rega (and compatible) tonearms.

Uncledemp, you're right; the Anthem phono stage has a good reputation and adding an external phono stage complicates things--in added cost, compatibility, appropriate interconnects, and even shelf space.

It may be something to keep on a back burner until later. In the meantime, you have a really powerful integrated amp, a good (at least) phono stage, and a list of upgrades and tweaks for your turntable. I think it's best to do the upgrades and let them settle in to see what you have before going on to something else.

It may be that the tweaks and upgrades mentioned in this thread will totally ring your bell, and if you throw in another phono stage you're complicating things until you're not sure which part is doing what.

09-09-15: Zd542
"09-08-15: Uncledemp
I wasn't suggesting that you bypass the phono stage in your Anthem. That should work just fine for your needs. The TT itself has a built in phono stage, and if you can't bypass it for some reason, you can't use the one in the Anthem, or any other one in between. You'll have to plug the TT directly into a line level input on your integrated.

You either have no experience with an SL12x0 Technics turntable or you are confusing it with a latter day copy by another manufacturer. The Technics SL12x0 series turntables--all of them--do not have--and never have had--a built-in phono stage. They were designed in the '70s and early '80s, when *every* receiver and integrated amp had a phono stage.

The output of any SL12x0 direct drive turntable is RIAA signal coming off the LP. Period.

There are latter day and cheaper turntables that have built-in phono stages. Two such are the Audio Technica PL120 and PL240 direct drive turntables. They are styled like the Technics and they're decent for the money, but they aren't in the same league as the SL12x0 series when it comes to close tolerances and slick and silky feel. And they were designed after most mid-fi receivers and integrated amps only had line-level inputs.

09-09-15: Uncledemp
I didn't know the SL1200 had a phono section built in.

That's because it doesn't. How can you know about something that doesn't exist?

I've been using the phono input on the Anthem. Am I doing something wrong?

Not only are you doing nothing wrong, you're smart enough to recognize the quality of the phono stage in the Anthem.

Keep doing what you're doing. You have good instincts. The SL1200 is fundamentally a good table and the tweaks and mild mods discussed here will make it "pop."

09-09-15: Zd542
I have 2 of them. Whatever version of the 1200's I have, I know they have a built in phono stage.

Unless they are custom built-ins, you are mistaken. You can even Google the entire WWW universe and you will not find any instance or mention of a built-in phono stage for a Technics SL12x0 series DD turntable. The Audio Technica copies, however, do have them.

The AT copies have a defeat switch for the internal phono preamp. I can't imagine a turntable with internal phono stage that wouldn't have a defeat switch. The advice you were giving the OP indicates that the turntables you're thinking of don't have the defeat switch.

#1: Any Technics SL12x0 series with an internal phono stage would be an after-market modification.

#2. Check again. Your assertion flies in the face of all available info about the Technics SL12x0 series DD turntables. If yours truly have a built-in phono stage, pictures please.

There are many articles out there about orienting new owners to the SL1200. They usually go into detail about making sure your receiver or integrated amp has a phono stage. Example

Check the Web for any example of an SL12x0 series turntable with a built-in phono stage. YOU WON'T FIND IT!

Maybe they make a DJ version with a phono pre. They don't have a regular head shell that you would mount a regular cart on. Its some type of quick connect setup.

The quick-connect cartridge you're talking about is an Ortofon Concorde or one of the copycats. They're pretty standard fare especially for clubs, as they automatically have the correct overhang and overall geometry for any Technics SL12x0 series. Those are everywhere, available from Amazon, Guitar Center, Musicians Friend, etc.

Built-in phono preamps in SL1200s? Not so much.

Do turntable mats made of leather count as audiophile skin?