In July the 7th I ordered the new Technics SL-1210 AEG anniversary edition from an authorized dealer . ( and paid for it )They said I could have it at the end of July, later they moved the date for mid August , and again the delivery was moved to the end of August. Today, I got a message saying: “We just received notification that Technics pushed the delivery of the SL-1210GAE turntable to the end of September.”Does anyone know if that is accurate? any useful information?
Thank you Chakster. That is fascinating & I stand corrected.
Those pitch anomalies you describe explain why I hear some classical recordings as sounding ‘off’ - but others so ‘right’ (when by chance the pitch matches that of the original orchestra). I don’t own a piano and even if I did am not at at all confident I’d be able ‘tune’ the pitch of a record with it as I don’t have a musician’s trained ear. However, I may just try playing around with the pitch on a few records to see if I can, by ear, hit that ‘sweet’ spot. (If anyone is interested; one of those ‘right’ records that stirs the emotions & makes the hairs on your neck stand up is Stuttgarter Kammerorchester’s Masterworks of the European Baroque conducted by Karl Münchinger).
I could do without all ’DJ’ type platter speed controls/sliders, LEDs, lights / strobes etc but they don’t really bother me or detract from performance.
How can it bother anyone?
Some people don’t understand why there is a pitch control on High-End turntables, for most of them pitch associated with DJ turntables only.
In reality pitch control is an amazing feature for reference class turntables and critical listening sessions too! Musicians will get the idea quicker ...
JVC/Victor engineers explained very well why there is a special pitch control on TT-101:
The pitch, "A" is standardized at 440Hz according to international standards, and is the standard for all western musical instruments. In other words, the tuning of all instruments of the orchestra is based on this pitch. But in reality, the basic tuning pitch of each orchestra differs due to the instrumentation and individual characteristics of each orchestra, as well as the personality of the conductor. The diagram shows such differences by orchestra. Most of the pitches range within +/- 6Hz of 400Hz. To reproduce these subtly different pitches, a quality turntable with highly accurate rotation is required. Another important requirement is the possibility of minute speed adjustment. If the speed of a turntable could be adjusted to the individual pitch used by an orchestra while at the same time remaining controlled by a quartz-locked servo system, the benefits of flexibility and precision would be significant from a musicological viewpoint. For this reason the TT-101 is equipped with built-in speed-control facilities which can adjust the pitch in 1Hz steps within a range of +/- 6Hz or 440Hz. The difference of pitches between master tape recorders and disc record cutting machines has been intentionally ignored before but now the speed of a record can be adjusted to match the original pitch of the orchestra, even if the master was recorded differently from the original performance. For example, a performance of the NHK Symphony Orchestra on the record can be adjusted to match the pitch of the same performance on a record by the London Symphony Orchestra, for the enjoyment of critical comparison.
The "A" key of a piano in your home is usually tuned to 440Hz. When you practice the piano while playing back a record, you can adjust the pitch of the record, to be in perfect tune with your piano.
I've not seen any reviews, but I've owned one for the past 8 months so I can give my thoughts -- obviously anecdotal / subjective (even more so because it's the first deck I've owned in 30 years so I don't really have anything to go on when it comes to comparisons. What I can say is that it's very well built and feels every one of its 40 pound mass. The first thing I noticed when I lowered the arm for the first play was just how very well isolated this deck is compared to my last one. I have mine sited about 1 inch from my left floor standing speaker (due to space limitations) and there is zero transmission of vibration to the cartridge cantilever from either the speaker or the floor. You can dance right in front of it -- and nothing, nada, gets picked up (it probably helps that my carpeted ground-floor listening room has a concrete floor). The only vibrations I can hear are music ones caused by the stylus being dragged along the record grooves. Apart from installing the cart, setting the tracking weight, anti-skate bias and arm height; it's pretty much plug and play but I am sure you could do upgrades / mods if you were so inclined. I could do without all 'DJ' type platter speed controls/sliders, LEDs, lights / strobes etc but they don't really bother me or detract from performance (get a VPI or an LP12 if you feel otherwise). I really enjoy the sound it puts out. Highly, highly musical. I much prefer it to my digital sources. Appreciate, that's of little use to those who need to know how good it is as a turntable per se as it maybe just that my ears really like the sound of vinyl. I've found rock titles like Fleetwood Mac's Tusk, Blondie, Tom Petty, Led Zeppelin etc, etc (all purchased new 2020-2021) etc, etc sound phenomenal. Vocals, treble, midrange, bass, dynamics, detail - all spot on for me. It's warm yet not warm as the midrange and bass are fast and tight. With classical I'm not as convinced although I have only one new classical LP -- Berlioz (and a lot of very old ones from the 1970s that look ok, but sound beaten up. They all sound a bit harsh -- bright / sibilant / metallic -- more like what I associate with a CD-type of sound. It could be that the recordings I have are not good or are from digital masters (I do believe classical recordings need to be of the highest quality, and preferably pressed from the analogue original).
None of us mentioned maybe the most obvious explanation for the delay at Sony Japan. A went a vaccine, It was and still is dangerous to force workers into a factory where close contact is unavoidable. For that reason, GM had to shut down several of their assembly lines, including manufacture of the new Corvette. Perhaps that affected Sony production as well.
In recent years, I’ve mostly received car parts, in large or small pkgs, shipped to my front door. Since they mostly come to me from the UK, the shipper is DHL. I neither love nor hate them. If I want something for my audio systems I tend to wait until we fly to Tokyo to visit our son. Then I can carry small items and LPs in my luggage.
Speedy express is open for business but they’re not going to send it via bullet mail like Russian.
Like Brent said, Russian post before covid is a like a bullet mail, sometimes it's only one week from here to the USA with the cheapest registered mail. Now in covid a 30 days delivery time became normal for the cheapest registered and probably 2 week for EMS.
Hi Lew, my experience would be somewhat limited as it is not that diverse but the issues I had in the past.1. USPS, shipped back some speaker cables to the manufacturer for refund, $540 speaker cables, USPS priority. Package from Miami to Denver was lost in Denver, reason they provided is they were trying to redeliver, opened a case with USPS (online of course as you cannot do anything at their offices), they sent me a weekly notification they were trying to redeliver, I kept contacting them trying to collect something, I think $50 is the most they pay, they said until the redeliver was complete they could not pay the funds ($50), after 6 months they stopped sending notifications and I stopped trying to collect.2. USPS, got a Billy Joel 1st pressing, The piano man. The carrier thought bending the media mail hard carboard could fit the package into my community mailbox, even though all records I purchased usually are left by my door because they WONT FIT THE MAILBOX, new sealed NOS 1972 piano man vinyl when I was able to pull it out from the mailbox and I opened the record and noticed the damage, 2 tears came out of my eyes, I admit it. went to USPS office, with the pandemic every claim has to be filed online, go online, filing the claim says it is not insured hence they are not responsible, no vinyl no money. Went back to the office, asked for a supervisor, she said she could not help me (with an attitude and I am a nice guy) and my only chance was online, oh she asked for my address to speak with the carrier for future deliveries.
3. USPS, Purchased some tubes from Russia, 6S33S-V, April 15th or so 2020,
September 15th or so tubes were delivered 5 months later, they left
Pulkovo in April early May and were lost in transit for 4 months no
notifications or anything. Now I know the Russia packages could be an
exception. Our friend Chak sent me a cart around that date and took 4
month to arrive (or 3.5 and a half I lost count)
4. FEDEX, seller shipped some speakers to me, Fedex packed the speakers, speakers were received with some subs, subs were damaged in the corners, so one speaker, not by much, provided photos, one week later Fedex paid full amount for the speakers $4500 and allowed the seller (and myself) to keep the speakers.5. FEDEX, Purchased an HS-4 headshell in Japan, 3 days later I received it. Again my experience could be limited and biased I know, I'm not saying USPS is the worst, YMMV, IME, in my book, no way Jose.Perhaps since I was born and raised in a communist country were the "state" is everywhere and there was no private enterprise I am biased towards despising such systems which are subsidized by the government, yes it could perfectly be.
I ship with Fedex and I pay with Amex, Amex gives me a discount, I ship always insured because of my bad previous experiences, if something happens I'm positive Fedex will respond, if they get cheeky and they don't want to pay a claim then I bring the 800 pound gorilla which is Amex to the fight and let them solve it. Sorry Lew for the long explanation I respect everyone's opinion here, if you have good results with USPS by all means support them.
I think Russia is a special case, and perhaps one should not generalize based on shipping to and from Russia. For what it's worth, I have experienced no serious delays receiving small packages of capacitors and the like from Russia or Ukraine, purchased from eBay vendors, arriving in the US via USPS. Moreover, when I have to ship from my location to anywhere else within the USA, my first choice by far is US Priority Mail. I only use UPS or Fedex if the box is too big or too heavy for USPS. And I have had only one problem, which was probably my fault, a capacitor came loose in a preamplifier that I had modified by installing physically large capacitors that weren't properly secured. I am not sure what you meant to say, Luis, about accepting liability, but have you ever tried to collect for loss or damage, from UPS or Fedex? I have, with zero responsiveness and no compensation for damage that was clearly due to mishandling. Both companies are adept at pointing out packing errors, real or imagined, and they alone make the final decisions about compensation. (Not referring to the incident described above which occurred at the hands of USPS, was my fault, and was easily fixed by me at no cost except a little time.)
Japan post (EMS) is probably the best in the world. They are superfine, I bought hundreds of records from Japan and never had any issue.
I have my records in Tokyo since April, shipping by Japan post to Russia (or to USA) is impossible now, when I checked DHL, UPS, FEDEX the price for shipping to USA is just insane (very expensive). I think I will just ship by seamail to Russia (very cheap).
Everything I’ve bought from Japan, save a few overweight items, I had shipped EMS which delivers via USPS here. FedEx and the automatic duties is a deterrent.
If you ever visit Tokyo, you’ll observe the huge contrast between their audio marketplace and ours.
I would like that to be my next stop in my travels, our friend Chakster with all his passion for Japanese vintage have gotten me into researching what they made, they truly make remarkable things, I like knives (and this conversation is not weird at all lol) and real japanese knives are masterpieces, just like audio stuff and such.
Everything I have purchased from Russia have been delivered by USPS but with very high delays, apparently the delay happens in the US due to customs, Lew, at some point I used to be a big supporter and believed on the idea of supporting the Federal Mail System above private carriers, they screwed up so many times with my stuff and they avoid any liability hence I don't use USPS except when sending my taxes to the Treasury.Chak, Fedex and DHL from Japan on the specific things I have purchased (headshells and such) have been covered by the sellers as "free shipping", I purchased recently the Live in Japan (Deep Purple) and took less than a week from Japan to arrive via Fedex, $23 I paid for shipping, it is kind of high yes but considering it is international well I guess I have no choice.
Not sure why the Japs do this but the US always takes the back of the bus.
As a matter of fact in the US a few distributors got the first few orders of this specific turntable first than in other countries, as early as end of June, the UK for example they are experiencing more delays than in the US, now I don't know about the rest of Europe and Asia which seems to be prioritized, maybe the US and the UK are in the back of the bus like you are saying
Oh please! If there was a viable market in the US for hi-fi, there’d be distributors eager to import the products from japan. There isn’t a big market, so there aren’t distributors. We don’t even have brick and mortar audio stores any more. If you ever visit Tokyo, you’ll observe the huge contrast between their audio marketplace and ours. I’d wager that there are more audio salons in Akihabara, the electronics mecca of Tokyo, than there are in the entire USA. Chak, it may just be a difference of local tradition, but it is virtually unheard of for international purchases to arrive in the US via the local Postal Service. Now you mention it, the only exception to that rule that I have experienced is when I have ordered capacitors from Russia. So maybe you guys do things differently. Fedex, UPS, and DHL do a fine job. And I’m a big supporter of the USPS.
Not sure why the Japs do this but the US always takes the back of the bus. They do the same thing with wood working tools. They send us the bottom of the barrel stuff keeping the best for for their local market. I always have to order direct from Japan dealing will local merchants to get what I want. I have a feeling this also happens with a lot of Hi Fi equipment. I guess they think we can't appreciate their products to the fullest extent or maybe it is because we don't complain enough? It may be a cultural thing, always take care of the homefront first.
I’m talking about Japan Post, not overpriced DHL or Fedex (their prices are insane). If someone will ship 100 turntables with DHL or Fedex it’s hard to imagine the final price for distributor and customers.
Japan post (or EMS) is not available at the moment from Japan to USA.
Yeah I get it Lew, the delay most likely due to filling demand at Asian markets first. All I was saying is that it amazes me how fast (even with covid) delivery is from Japan to the US
I wouldn’t worry @vinylnostalgic. It’s not a Technics problem but a covid/normal mail shipping issue. You're gonna love that table, if you ever get it. Speedy express is open for business but they’re not going to send it via bullet mail like Russian.
Hey Chak, Lew is correct, I get packages from Japan either DHL or FedEx within 3 to 4 days, faster than from the West coast. Japan post yes it will take forever or won't ship to the US. The delayed from Technics in producing these units is really puzzling.
Chak, My research tells me that there is certainly commercial shipping between Japan and the USA, both by air and sea. That said, I could certainly imagine that there are delays due to COVID-19. But I don’t imagine there is complete interruption. It is more likely, to explain the delayed delivery of Technics turntables, that demand in Japan and locally in Asia is high enough such that those geographic regions are being given priority, maybe until production can catch up. The 1200 G series sells like hotcakes over the counter in major stores in Tokyo.
I Just got this message from the Dealer:” We received a notification from Technics on Friday that all shipments have been delayed again and estimated to ship at the end of October. This is affecting all Technics dealers.” I wonder what is going on at Technics!!!
Got an update yesterday September 16th that Technics is still delayed, I just hope the dealer is accurate and not providing fake news. Don't want to miss the train on this one. If any of you have any updates please post
Whenever I get some news I will post back, believe me I am concerned too the dealer might not received the TT and I will end up with no TT at all and miss the chance.
That sounds correct, it all depends on the dealer you purchased from, ordered and paid June 4th,still waiting and likely will receive it in November. Technics delayed some of the deliveries, they were behind not the dealers
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