TECHNICS SL1200 MKII.......THE REAL FACTS

May i ask you @vinny55
Do you have this turntable ?
Just add KAB fluid damper and Isonoe footers, replace all wires, buy cardas litz or discovery litz (for tonearm) and Zu Audio Mission Phono RCA cable that you can buy on ebay every week for promotional price directly from Zu Audio (USA) under $150 max. Find yourself a good MM cartridge and listen to this deck first! This is minimum investment and maximum improvement you can do with SL1200mkII if you’re not gonna invest more than the actual price of the better turntable (SP-20 or SP-10mkII).

If you want to change tonearm you have limited space on the armboard, you need a new custom armboard, you have to measure pivot to spindle distance. You can mount any toneam with appropriate pivot to spindle distance if this arm can be fixed on the new custom armboard. That’s all you need to know, really. Internet is full of info about SL1210 mods, Jelco is one of the most popular solution, old or new SME is another one. I can add Luxman TA-1 tonearm (made by Micro Seiki) or Victor UA-7045 or Infinity Black Widow for extremely high compliance MM carts... But as i said any toneam can be mounted if the pivot to spindle distance is ok with the new armboard.

If you don’t have this turntable my strong advice is to buy SP-10mkII instead and invest to infinity to this (better) turntable.

You doubt, but i owned all of them and SP-20 is much better than SL1200mkII if you will make a nice plinth for it, my friend replaced his rewired SL1200mkII with SP-20 + Lustre GST-801 and the difference is huge!

The SP-10mkII is the ultimate for extremely low price, i paid no more than $1200 including shipping for my unit 5 years ago (it was in mint condition), now they are a bit more expensive (maybe $1400), but anyway it’s simply amazing turntable.

However, i prefer my Luxman PD-444 to all of them.

I can not speak about the Lenco, never owned, but i love Direct Drive turntables, personally i don’t want any idler drive or belt drive in my life.

I have tweaked my pair of SL1200mkII long time before i bought at SP-10mkII. In my opinion the cartridge is more important, my first top class MM were Technics EPC-100c mk3, 205c mk4. On stock tonearm they are great if you can find them with strong damper (which is very hard to find). I even tried ZYX Airy III on stock Technics tonearm with KAB fluid damper. But i was more impressed by the EPA-100 tonearm on my SP-10MKII with those cartridges and later Reed 3P "12.

My advice is to start with full re-wiring and MM cartridge for your stock tonearm, the AT-ML170 is a killer cartridge for this arm even without fluid damper. It’s a mid compliance cartridge, so you don’t need super light or very high tonearm for it (which means that you can swap the arm later). My favorite is AT-ML180 which i use myself. I don't think you will buy a super expensive tonearm for your SL1200mkII, because if you do it's a bit crazy and not worth it (for this particular turntable). Luxman TA-1 with removable armwand would be nice if you gonna use some high compliance cartridges like Stanton or Grace or Sonus, i believe this arm is rare with its heavy stabilizer, but still under $750. Actually Grace F-9F or F-14 are quite good even on stock technics arm with fluid KAB damper.  

Technics SP-20 (released in 1976) is a budget version of SP-10mk2. The price for SP-20 in Japan was 60 000 Yen in the 70’s. Don’t mix it up with the cheaper SP-10 released in 1969, the SP-20 is a way different (improved, powerfull turntable) and it’s only one step behind the marvelous hi-end SP-10MK2, they are looks nearly the same! The main different is the internal power supply, the rest of the specs you can read below. Technics SP-20 is wonderful Direct Drive Quartz-Locked turntable with amazing speed stabily, it plays 33 and 45 only.

This is my ex SP-20 in the teak wood plinth with UA-7045 tonearm, Stax headshell and AT20SLa cartidge:
https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t31.0-8/30848737_2185174628167359_9100562755345439545_o.jpg?_...


Technical data for TECHNICS SP20 (1976):

Driving System : Servo Controlled Direct Drive

Speed : 33-1/3 and 45 rpm

Platter : Aluminum diecast 32cm, weight 2.5 kg.

Starting torque Characteristic : 1.5kg × cm // Less than 0.7 （90゜） second to reach normal speed (33-1/3 rpm).

Load fluctuation : 1.5kg x cm within 0％

Rotation speed deviation : ±0.002％

Wow & Flutter : Less than 0.025%（JIS C5521）wrms.

S/N Ratio : 60dB（IEC17B） // 73dB（DIN45539B）

Power Consumption : 4W

Inertial mass : 345k × cm2

Outline Dimensions : 368.5 × 99 × 368.5mm

Weight : 8.0kg

Power : 100v / 60Hz