We here are all rightly ganging up on Matt, who is entitled to his opinion of course. But as to the OP, you’re absolutely right about the cheezy feel of the cueing mechanism on the current Technics line. I have an SL100C and it’s my only complaint with it. I just scored an SL1700 Mk2 in good shape to have a good secondary table with pitch control, and its electronic cueing mechanism is miles better than the new one. It also has a decoupled floating suspension, auto-return, on-the-fly VTA adjustment, and a die cast aluminum plinth. It might become my main table!
Technics SL-1300G Turntable issues
I recently purchased the Technics SL-1300G. I like the sound of the turntable. Unfortunately, I found the common complaint that the lift mechanism feels cheap. Additionally I found a perceived quality issue shown below. The silver bands on the top and bottom of the beveled platter edge vary in width by a mm+. In my opinion it makes the table look cheap, not the quality you would expect at the $3300 price tag. Note the gap between the platter and the plinth is uniform as the platter rotates. Would you return the TT hoping to get a platter with more uniform machining?
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@mattmiller, to add to the above re your pejorative "updated" comment. The current Technics TT's are not merely updates of the DJ-favourite SLs. While they share a common form factor and visuals, their engineering is massively different and better. Technics have also made some very fine CD players - not really making headlines there now, but during the 000s their MASH players were beautifully built and very nice sounding. |
Fellow 1300G owner here and I have the same complaint. It’s actually my only complaint. @dmorse6736 I understand what you are referring to regarding the bands, I don’t seem to have that issue. As an illustration if i were to have the platter rotating and have no other indicator it is turning, I cannot tell from my seated position. Agree it must me a quality control issue at the factory. Aside from the fiddley q-arm, I am over the moon with this TT. It’s built like a tank, sounds amazing, has a super powerful yet dead quiet motor, seems to be a great match with my Hana ML cart, and I think its pretty handsome, (sans some of the other buttons, slide etc on the other Technics tables, which are just fine IMO, this look just speaks to me). This TT is going to out last me. I love the damn thing. I was playing hooky from work yesterday, had the house to myself, and played music from 8:00am to around 5:00. I live for days like that. |
That 1300G looks like a great turntable. Enjoy! As to the durability of Technics turntables I still have an SL-3200 that I purchased new in the late 1970's for less than $200 from what I remember and it is still in perfect working order. It was used heavily for probably 15 years until I moved on to other turntables and it sat idle until a few years ago when I set up a second system. I had purchased a replacement Stanton 681EEE cartridge like the original probably 20 years ago that I had not installed and recently picked up a Jico Shibata stylus and it sounds great. I check the speed every now and then and it is always dead on. Not high end by any means but a great product from Technics and fun to use and sounds great to my ears. |
@mattmiller an opinion is one thing, but silly statements with no basis in fact… Have you heard an SL-1000RE-S? Definitely not mid-fi or a DJ turntable (nevertheless the original 1200’s were formidable) |
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