Swapping the MMF 5 for an SL-1210M5G

I have had my SL1210 M5G for almost 1-1/2 years now. I've added the fluid damper, a more inert mat, and brass cone footers. I'm looking into some more upscale cartridges and headshells, but I have no urge or intention to swap out the turntable or its fluid-damped arm--or its tonearm wire, for that matter.

I really like this rig. It makes music. It's propulsive and has slam right out of the box. The tweaks have improved refinement, inner detail, and microdynamics, but this 'table gets a lot fundamentally right.

Johnny: I didn't have any intentions of modding it if I ever pick one up, But what differences have you noticed after the mods? (I mean, they essentially double the price of the whole turn table.)

Nope, I didn't double the cost of my turntable. I have a few low-cost aftermarket tweaks and one genuine modification.

By starting with an SL1210 M5G, I avoided paying for a tonearm rewire. That I haggled the purchase price down to $500 (at the local Guitar Center), which made it an even sweeter starting point.

My add-ons and tweaks are:
o Used Oracle Groove Isolator sorbothane (not gel) mat: $10
o Threaded brass cone feet from PartsExpress: $20
o 1-1/2" thick butcher block cutting board to platform the 'table on: $25 from Ikea
o Sumiko headshell (a synergistic match with the Denon DL-160 cart and brings the arm's effective mass up to a better match with med-compliance carts rated at 10-16

My one mod is the KAB damping trough at $150, and it took 30 minutes to install, taking my time and being fastidiously careful.

So my total investment is $500+10+20+25+150=$705, which is just $6 more than the list price for an M5G.

As for doubling the price of the turntable (if you modded it to that extent), don't consider percentages; consider what you get at that price.

For example, start with KAB's SL1200 mk2 ($475) and add the outboard PSU ($250), threaded clamp ($150), tonearm rewire ($169), fluid damper ($150), and Isonoe footers ($175).

You're up to $1369. At that point, the question shouldn't be if the mods cost more than the original turntable. The question is whether the resulting unit is competitive with what you can buy for $1369. I'm in the camp that believes it's highly competitive, especially in the areas of s/n and speed accuracy. Others here would advocate for a Rega, Funk, or VPI at that price.

I guess I caught 'em during a sale. I think the salesman offered $550 and I counter-offered $500. He had to interrupt a mgrs' sales mtg for approval (or so he said), but I got it. At that price it was a no-brainer to get essentially a free tonearm rewire. Plus, with its subtle metallic glitter on anthracite plinth, the M5G is the best looking of the 12x0 variants.

06-16-08: Tvad
...I'd recommend putting the money toward isolation for the table.

True dat. I've gotten some of my most significant improvements in clarity, jump, inner detail, and dynamics from isolation. In my case, I have $20 in PartsExpress/Dayton threaded brass cones to replace the feet, a $25 butcher block cutting board from Ikea, and Vibrapods I had lying around the house.

If I had a little more to spend on isolation, I'd get Mapleshade brass cones and maple board or KAB's Isonoe threaded feet. Then there's the Gingko Cloud as another viable option. I definitely got a big improvement moving to a less resonant, more rigid rack (that was actually less expensive than the welded steel rack it replaced).

That $45 probably wrought the biggest improvement overall. It also creates a better baseline for hearing other improvements, such as better cartridge, headshell, fluid damper, etc.

06-16-08: Tvad
KAB Technics product page mentions the only difference in the MG5 is better wiring in the tonearm and interconnects. I don't believe the tonearms themselves are any different.

They are a little different, but not in a meaningful audiophile way. The M5G arm has a little knurled screw in the gimbal to help keep the stylus in the groove when scratching. In fact, you have to remove it when adding the fluid damper.

I've read more than one review of a stock SL1200 that criticized its dark, closed-in presentation. I never experienced that with my M5G, which has always sounded extended and open, so my initial impression is that the better tonearm wire makes a significant difference, whether you get an aftermarket rewire of a lower-priced model or start with an M5G.

If you can't get the money back on the Shure, you can keep it around for testing dodgy used records before playing them with the Denon. Also, when the Shure damping brush is deployed, it enables the Technics arm to track records so warped as to be otherwise unplayable.

But if you add the KAB fluid damper, that will accomplish the same thing (and more).

For future reference, if you want a low-output moving coil cartridge that's very arm-compatible with the Technics, get an aftermarket Sumiko or LpGear Zupreme headshell and mount either an Audio Technica OC9 II or Denon 301 MkII. Both are available at $299, have very modern, low mass cantilevers, and mounted on a 12g headshell, have a near-perfect cartridge/arm compatibility (resonance at 10Hz).

You will also realize big gains in dynamics every time you improve the footing and platforming of this turntable.

If you want to keep it cheap and under your wife's radar, get a set of Dayton threaded brass cones from PartsExpress to replace the Technics feet. Place the spiked turntable on a butcher block cutting board. You can get a 1-1/2" deep one from Ikea for $25, or a thicker nicer one by Cuisinart from Lowe's Home Improvement for $50. Then put shock absorbing footers under the cutting board. You can use Vibrapods at $6 ea. or Mapleshade Isoblocks made of cork & rubber for the same amount of money.

These do wonders for bringing out the dynamics and inner detail the Technics is capable of.

Also, let everything break in, and you may want to get some Technics bearing oil and lube up the motor bearing real well. You never know how much may have spilled or dried up during shipping and warehousing. When I put some in I noticed an immediate improvement in speed smoothness and lowered noise floor. Anything you do to lower noise floor will improve your dynamics.

06-19-08: Tvad
I'm withdrawing my endorsement of the DL103R with the Technics SL12xx, because according to the resonance calculator on cartridgedb.com, the Denon 103R is not a good match for the 12 gram Technics tonearm. It's well out of the green zone for acceptable matches.

But if you swap out the very light Technics headshell for a 12g Sumiko or LPGear, or a 15g Audio Technica Technihard, you can get the resonant frequency down to the 11's. Add the fluid damper and it flattens the resonance out, wherever it is.

All is not lost.

Personally, I'm grooving right now to my brand new AT 150MLX. Mounted on an LPGear Zupreme HS, the resonance comes right in at 10 Hz, plus I have the fluid damper. It's a beautiful match. The cantilever on that thing is amazing. It's so thin you can only make it out by the gleam of its gold plating.

With a 12-15g headshell (e.g., Sumiko, Audio Technica Technihard) in lieu of the stock 7.5g one, yes.

06-20-08: Tvad
The Cartridge Database resonance chart for the 103R indicates that no tonearm mass from 4gm all the way to 30gm will get the resonance to 11Hz.

Right you are. I should have used the chart instead of relying on my math. Even a heavy headshell only gets the 103R into the 13's.

I do wonder, however, if the DL-103 series should be calculated at the stated compliance of 5 or figured more as 7 or 8. The Catridge Database does mention that Denon cites their compliance at 100 Hz instead of 10KHz (as, presumably, other cartridge mfrs do), which could result in a higher figure.

For example, if you use a 15g Technihard headshell and pretend the DL-103 has a compliance of 7.5, resonance calculation goes down to about 10.9 Hz.

At Denon's stated compliance, the best I can come up with (using a 15g headshell) is about 12.5 Hz. Time to tape some pennies to the headshell? :-)

For all this talk about the DL-103 series, you can get an AT150MLX, AT OC9 II, or Denon DL-301 MkII to easily match to an SL12x0 arm at 9-10 Hz, usually with the 12g Sumiko (or equivalent) headshell.

06-20-08: Tvad
... The largest benefit with the Sumiko or ZuPreme headshells is their azimuth adjustment...IMO. The Technics headshell does not allow for azimuth adjustment.

The azimuth adjustment is certainly nice. The SL12x0 tonearm itself can be corrected for azimuth as well, though I don't know how. Kevin at KAB does, however, and it's one of his QA routines he performs on each Technics DD before he sends it out.

The Sumiko/Zupreme headshells offer a couple of other advantages as well. First is if you need the extra weight for cartridge matching, such as the Denon DL-110/160 and Audio Technica AT150MLX.

Also, I don't have the sophisticated gear to measure it, but I *suspect* that the Sumiko HS is less "ringy" and more rigid. I certainly get a more linear, less "woofy" sound with excellent upper bass clarity with my Sumiko and ZuPreme (I have one of each) headshells than I got with the Technics. To be fair, however, I had a Shure M97xE on the Technics and that could have been part or all of the problem.

It also has better headshell leads. The same leads included on the Sumiko cost $16-20 just to upgrade the Technics wiring to what's standard on the Sumiko.

Finally, the Sumiko/Zupreme HS's have two alignment pins on the bayonet mount instead of one, so you probably get more rigidity at the headshell/tonearm joint.